Author Archives: Mary Turck

Sometimes we need inspiration from our leaders, a reminder of common values and a clarion call to defend those values. President Joe Biden delivered just that on September 28 at an event honoring his long-time personal friend and political adversary, the late Senator John McCain. Think about that for a minute: personal friend and political adversary, patriots both, sharing a deep commitment to country and Constitution. 

This speech is a clarion call to defend democracy against the haters, the MAGA extremists, the enemies of democracy. The transcript of President Biden’s whole speech is worth reading, for the humor, for the personal interaction with hecklers in the audience, for every interaction and interruption and response. These clearly show his presence of mind and ready wit, characteristics so often called into question by political opponents and doubters alike. 

For those who won’t read the whole transcript, here’s an excerpt as a reminder of what we share as a nation, and what a real leader sounds like: 

Every other nation in the world has been founded on either a grouping by ethnicity, religion, background. We’re the most unique nation in the world. We’re founded on an idea — the only major nation in the world founded on an idea. An idea that we are all created equal, in the image of God, endowed by our Creator to be able to be treated equally throughout our lives.

We’ve never fully lived up to that idea, but we’ve never walked away from it. But there’s danger we’re walking too far away from it now, the way we talk in this country. …

Democracy means rule of the people, not rule of monarchs, not rule of the monied, not rule of the mighty. Regardless of party, that means respecting free and fair elections; accepting the outcome, win or lose. It means you can’t love your country only when you win. 

Democracy means rejecting and repudiating political violence. Regardless of party, such violence is never, never, never acceptable in America. It’s undemocratic, and it must never be normalized to advance political power.

And democracy means respecting the institutions that govern a free society. That means adhering to the timeless words of the Declaration of Independence: “We hold these truths to be self-evident.” A mission statement embodied in our Constitution, our system of separation of powers and checks and balances. …

For centuries, the American Constitution has been a model for the world, with other countries adopting “We the People” as their North Star as well. But as we know, we know how damaged our institutions of democracy — the judiciary, the legislature, the executive — have become — become in the eyes of the American people, even the world, from attacks from within the past few years. …

Think about this: The first meeting I attended of the G7 — the seven wealthiest nations in the world — in Europe… I sat down, and I said, “America is back.” And Macron looked at me, and he said, “Mr. President, for how long — for how long?”

And then, the Chancellor of Germany said, “Mr. President, what would you think if you picked up the paper tomorrow — tomorrow, the London Times — and it said a thousand people broke down the doors of Parliament, marched, and killed two bobbies in order to overthrow an election of the new prime minister? What would you think then? What would America think?”

What would we think, the leading nation in the world, having gone through what we went through? …

And from that institutional damage, we see distrust and division among our own people.

I’m here to tell you: We lose these institutions of our government at our own peril. And I’ve always been clear: Democracy is not a partisan issue. It’s an American issue. …

And there is something dangerous happening in America now. There is an extremist movement that does not share the basic beliefs in our democracy: the MAGA Movement.

Not every Republican, not even a majority of Republicans, adhere to the MAGA extremist ideology. I know because I’ve been able to work with Republicans my whole career. But there is no question that today’s Republican Party is driven and intimidated by MAGA Republican extremists. Their extreme agenda, if carried out, would fundamentally alter the institutions of American democracy as we know it.

My friends, they’re not hiding their attacks. They’re openly promoting them — attacking the free press as the enemy of the people, attacking the rule of law as an impediment, fomenting voter suppression and election subversion.

Did you ever think we’d be having debates in the year — stage of your careers where banning books — banning books and burying history?

Extremists in Congress — more determined to shut down the government, to burn the place down than to let the people’s business be done. …

Trump says the Constitution gave him, quote, “the right to do whatever he wants as President,” end of quote. I’ve never even heard a president say that in jest. Not guided by the Constitution or by common service and decency toward our fellow Americans but by vengeance and vindictiveness. …

Just consider these as actual quotes from MAGA — the MAGA movement. Quote, “I am your retribution.” “Slitting throats” of civil servants, replacing them with extreme political cronies. MAGA extremists proclaim support for law enforcement only to say, “We…” — quote, “We must destroy the FBI.”

It’s not one person. It’s the controlling element of the House Republican Party.

Whitewash attacks of January 6th by calling the spearing and stomping of police— quote, a “legitimate political discourse.”

Did you ever think you’d hear leaders of political parties in the United States of America speak like that? Seizing power, concentrating power, attempting to abuse power, purging and packing key institutions, spewing conspiracy theories, spreading lies for profit and power to divide America in every way, inciting violence against those who risk their lives to keep America safe, weaponizing against the very soul of who we are as Americans.

This MAGA threat is the threat to the brick and mortar of our democratic institutions. …

Tomorrow, I have the honor of overseeing the change of responsibilities of the Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff of the United States military from one genuine hero and patriot, General Mark Milley, to another, General CQ Brown — both — both defining leaders of our time.

And yet, here is what you hear from MAGA extremists about the retiring patriot general honoring his oath to the Constitution: quote, he’s “a traitor,” end of quote. “In times gone by, the punishment…” — quote, “In times gone by, the punishment would’ve been death,” end of quote.

This is the United States of America. This is the United States of America.

And although I don’t believe even a majority of Republicans think that, the silence is deafening. The silence is deafening.

Hardly any Republican called out such heinous statements, just as they watch one MAGA senator outrageously — instead, blocking the promotions of hundreds of top military leaders and affecting not only those leaders but their families, their children.

MAGA extremists claim support of our troops, but they are harming military readiness, leadership, troop morale, freezing pay, freezing military families in limbo.

Just as they looked the other way when the defeated former President refused to pay respects at an American cemetery near Paris, referring to the American servicemen buried there — and I’ve been to this cemetery — as “suckers” and “losers,” quotes.

I’m not making this up. I know we all tried not to remember it, but that’s what he said. He called servicemen “suckers” and “losers.”

Was John a sucker? Was my son, Beau, who lived next to a burn pit for a year, came home, and died — was he a sucker for volunteering to serve his country? …

The MAGA extremists across the country have made it clear where they stand. So, the challenge for the rest of America — for the majority of Americans is to make clear where we stand.

Do we still believe in the Constitution? Do we believe in the basic decency and respect? The whole country should honestly ask itself — and I mean this sincerely — what it wants and understand the threats to our democracy.

I believe very strongly that the defining feature of our democracy is our Constitution.

I believe in the separation of powers and checks and balances, that debate and disagreement do not lead to disunion.

I believe in free and fair elections and the peaceful transfer of power.

I believe there is no place in America — none, none, none — for political violence. We have to denounce hate, not embolden it.

Across the aisle, across the country, I see fellow Americans, not mortal enemies. We’re a great nation because we’re a good people who believe in honor, decency, and respect.

I was able to get the infrastructure bill passed. It’s over a trillion dollars. The majority of it so far has gone to red states who didn’t vote for me. Because I represent all Americans. …

I’m asking you that regardless of whether you’re a Democrat, Republican, or independent, put the preservation of our democracy before everything else. Put our country first.…

You know, toward the end of my Senate campaign, I convinced Strom Thurmond to vote for the Civil Rights legislation — not a joke — and I thought, “Well, you can — you cn defeat hate.”

You can’t defeat it. You just bury it. But when someone comes along and lifts up the rock and breathes a little oxygen in there, it comes roaring back. It comes roaring back.

We should all remember: Democracies don’t have to die at the end of a rifle. They can die when people are silent, when they fail to stand up or condemn the threats to democracy, when people are willing to give away that which is most precious to them because they feel frustrated, disillusioned, tired, alienated. I get it. I really do. I get it.

For all its faults, though, American democracy remains the best path forward to prosperity, possibilities, progress, fair play, equality. …

We’re at an inflection point in our history. One of those moments that not only happens once every several generations, it happens once every eight or nine generations, where the decisions made in the short period of time we’re in now are going to determine the course of this country and the world for the next six or seven decades.

So, you, me, every American who is committed to preserving our democracy and our constitutional protections, we carry a special responsibility. We have to stand up for American values embedded in the Constitution, the Declaration of Independence, because we know the MAGA extremists have already proven they won’t. …

We are the United States of America. There is nothing — nothing beyond our capacity when we act together.

General Mark Milley retired last week after a four-year term as chair of the Joint Chiefs of Staff. His tenure was tough. Two moments stand out: his response to being manipulated by Trump during protests over George Floyd’s murder and his parting speech last week, with its insistence on allegiance to the Constitution and not to “a wannabe dictator.” 

Headlines trumpeted Target closing stores because of horrendous increases in retail crime. Except: that’s probably not true. Back in January, Popular Information reported on a similar story from Walgreens, which had to backtrack after being fact checked.  

“Walgreens has been joined by other major retailers who have been echoing similar cries and drumming up fear …

“Publicly available data, however, contradicts the theft-wave narrative. The number of shoplifting offenses dropped 46 percent between 2019 and 2021, according to the FBI’s crime data explorer. The National Retail Federation (NRF), a trade group that represents retailers like Walgreens and has amplified the theft-wave narrative, has also found that shrink declined to 1.4% of total retail sales in 2021, from 1.6% in 2020.”

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Yesterday, Judge Arthur Engoron ruled that Donald Trump, Don Jr., Eric Trump, Allen Weisselberg, and Jeffrey McConney all committed fraud in New York State. The ruling was made on motions for summary judgment. The case is complicated, and I read several articles about it before finally turning to the text of the judge’s ruling itself. Before going further, I should note that this is a civil case, not a criminal case. That means civil penalties can be imposed, but there is no possibility of jail time. 

A motion for summary judgment is based on evidence already submitted to the court before trial. Based on that evidence, the Trumps’ attorneys moved for summary judgment in their favor—that is, for a judgment dismissing the case because the evidence and arguments did not support the charges. The New York Attorney General moved for partial summary judgment against the Trumps—that is, for a judgment that the evidence and arguments submitted before the trial already proved one part of the seven-part case against the Trumps. 

Summary judgment is granted when the evidence already submitted means there are no material issues of fact left to decide. 

The House Republican budget promises more tax cuts for the wealthy and cuts in services for everyone else. The Chaos Caucus of ultra-right House Republicans reject even that budget, and want to shut down the government entirely. 

“Don’t cut off your nose to spite your face,” says the old adage. That means not taking revenge in a way that will end up causing harm to yourself. Both a government shutdown and the Republican budget would damage the entire country. 

Child poverty more than doubled last year, a sad and entirely predictable consequence of Congressional action. Expansion of the Child Tax Credit (CTC) in 2021 slashed child poverty to 5.2 percent. Congressional Republicans refused to continue the expanded Child Tax Credit. Child poverty zoomed back up to 12.4 percent. 

That’s more than one in ten children in the country living in poverty. For Black and Hispanic children the number is even higher—almost one in five. More than a quarter of all Native American children live in poverty. 

We know how to help poor children. What we need is the will to do so. Child poverty should not be a partisan issue.

A Republican minority in Wisconsin has seized control of the legislature and won’t let go. Instead, they threaten a baseless impeachment of a newly-elected Wisconsin Supreme Court Justice, voted to remove the nonpartisan Wisconsin Elections Commission administrator, and passed a last-minute redistricting bill that they falsely claim follows the successful “Iowa model,” but that actually would allow them to maintain minority rule.

In 2022, Republicans in Wisconsin got 200,000 fewer votes than Democrats. Republicans lost every state-wide race. But gerrymandering won the day: despite massive popular vote losses, Republicans maintain absolute control of the Wisconsin legislature, with a two-thirds majority in the Senate and 64 of 99 seats in the Assembly. 

I grew up in a rural community, living on a farm near a small town. I know that small towns can be havens of neighborly ties and community support. They can also turn into police states under the corrupt reign of lawless officials. Sometimes that leads to tragedy, as it did this week in Marion, Kansas. 

I read about the police raid on newspaper editors, publishers, and reporters last night, and thought I would wait until today to write about it.  Then I woke up to the report of the death of the 98-year-old co-owner of the newspaper. Heather Cox Richardson’s daily newsletter began: 

“In Marion, Kansas, yesterday morning, four local police officers and three sheriff’s deputies raided the office of the Marion County Record newspaper; the home of its co-owners, Eric Meyer and his 98 year old mother, Joan Meyer; and the home of Marion vice mayor Ruth Herbel, 80. They seized computers, cell phones, and other equipment. Joan Meyer was unable to eat or sleep after the raid; she collapsed Saturday afternoon and died at her home.”

By this afternoon, the New York Times had picked up the story. 

This morning, I thought I would skip writing this blog post. After all, the New York Times covered the story. And Heather Cox Richardson did even better, giving the historical context of the assassination of abolitionist editor Elijah Lovejoy in Illinois in 1837. But then I thought: maybe even one person who reads my blog will read the story here for the first time. Maybe even one person will pass this story on to someone else who has not read it and does not know the vital importance of defending free press and free speech, of resisting even the small tyrannies of small towns. 

The Marion County Record managed to publish its own story online—they don’t know when they will be able to publish on paper because of all the equipment seized from the newspaper.

“Stressed beyond her limits and overwhelmed by hours of shock and grief after illegal police raids on her home and the Marion County Record newspaper office Friday, 98-year-old newspaper co-owner Joan Meyer, otherwise in good health for her age, collapsed Saturday afternoon and died at her home.

“She had not been able to eat after police showed up at the door of her home Friday with a search warrant in hand. Neither was she able to sleep Friday night.

“She tearfully watched during the raid as police not only carted away her computer and a router used by an Alexa smart speaker but also dug through her son Eric’s personal bank and investments statements to photograph them. Electronic cords were left in a jumbled pile on her floor.

“Joan Meyer’s ability to stream TV shows at her home and to get help through her Alexa smart speakers were taken away with the electronics. 

“As her home was raided, other officers descended upon the Record office, forcing staff members to stay outside the office for hours during a heat advisory. They were not allowed them to answer the phone or make any calls.

“Marion police chief Gideon Cody forcibly grabbed reporter Deb Gruver’s personal cell phone out of her hand, reinjuring one of her fingers, which previously had been dislocated.

“Officers seized personal cell phones and computers, including the newspaper’s file server, along with other equipment unrelated to the scope of their search.”

There’s more, and you can read it at the newspaper’s website. (You can also support the Marion County Record by subscribing.)

Of course, the raid and seizures were illegal. Federal law strictly limits the circumstances under which any law enforcement official may search or seize material from news media. None of those criteria were met.

Moreover, the search warrant was supposedly based on an affidavit alleging probable cause to believe that identity theft had been committed—but the affidavit is missing and was never filed with the court. So what was really going on? Before his mother’s death, Eric Meyer explained to the Kansas Reflector: 

“Eric Meyer, owner and publisher of the newspaper, said police were motivated by a confidential source who leaked sensitive documents to the newspaper, and the message was clear: ‘Mind your own business or we’re going to step on you.’

“The city’s entire five-officer police force and two sheriff’s deputies took ‘everything we have,’ Meyer said, and it wasn’t clear how the newspaper staff would take the weekly publication to press Tuesday night.

“The raid followed news stories about a restaurant owner who kicked reporters out of a meeting last week with U.S. Rep. Jake LaTurner, and revelations about the restaurant owner’s lack of a driver’s license and conviction for drunken driving.”

Coincidentally (?), the newspaper was also investigating separate allegations of misconduct by the town’s police chief. It had not published any story about either investigation because—as good journalists do—the staff was still investigating and fact-checking to be sure that they had all the facts before publishing anything at all. 

Meyer knows the crucial importance of local newspapers. The Kansas Reflector reported:

“Meyer, whose father worked at the newspaper from 1948 until he retired, bought the Marion County Record in 1998, preventing a sale to a corporate newspaper chain.

“As a journalism professor in Illinois, Meyer said, he had graduate students from Egypt who talked about how people would come into the newspaper office and seize everything so they couldn’t publish. Those students presented a scholarly paper at a conference in Toronto about what it has done to journalism there.

“’That’s basically what they’re trying to do here,’ Meyer said. ‘The intervention is just like that repressive government of Egypt. I didn’t think it could happen in America.’” 

Small towns can be havens of neighborly ties and community support. They can also turn into police states under the corrupt reign of lawless officials. When everybody knows everybody else, that means the sheriff and the judge and the police chief also know everybody. And that’s when they can issue a dangerous, even deadly, message: “Mind your own business or we’re going to step on you.”

My sister Kathy went to New College in September 1970. Kathy was queer, which made life in our small town difficult. She found welcome and home at New College for a brief time. She studied with Robin Morgan, who edited the groundbreaking anthology of the women’s movement published in 1970, Sisterhood is Powerful. She rode a motorcycle, wrote poetry, and edited a feminist newsletter at the college. 

New College really was new then, founded only ten years earlier. A private college for academically talented students, New College offered openness, academic freedom, and respect for students as they stretched their intellectual wings. 

The 1970s were a tough decade. Kathy didn’t make it through them. New College almost went under, but was saved by a deal that made it part of the Florida university system. Even as part of that system, New College remained a welcoming, open setting. 

My memory of Kathy’s time there makes reading about New College today all the more painful. This year, Florida Governor Ron DeSantis appointed new, highly conservative trustees, announcing plans to remake New College into something like the private, Christian, right-wing Hillsdale College. The new trustees promptly fired the college’s president and installed DeSantis ally and Florida education commissioner Richard Corcoran as president, despite his complete lack of education experience or credentials. Trustee Christopher Rufo tweeted, “We are organizing a ‘hostile takeover of a liberal college.’” This month, he boasted that 36 faculty members have left since the takeover. 

Rufo and DeSantis are leaders in a rightwing movement that aims to destroy not only academic freedom in universities, but schools and education at all levels. Their foot soldiers—in Florida and across the country—ban books, threaten teachers, and defund libraries. They want to ban mention of sex or gender in AP psychology classes. (Freud, anyone?) One Florida district forbids assigning Shakespeare plays because of concern over sexual content—only excerpts can be assigned for study, not entire plays. Racism is never far from the surface of this movement. In Texas, a trustee (local school board member) said a child “was traumatized by a poster showing different colored children holding hands and had to switch classrooms.”  

This week, New College moved to abolish its gender studies program, on orders from the board of trustees. Rufo bragged:

“The mission of New College of Florida is to restore classical liberal education and to revive the pursuit of transcendent truth—a mission ultimately incompatible with the disciplines of gender studies and queer theory, which are explicitly opposed to the classical conceptions of the true, the good, and the beautiful.” 

Not too hard to extrapolate from that: the study, the literature, the art, the lives of LGBTQ+ people are the opposite of “the true, the good, and the beautiful.” As are the study, the literature, the art, and the lives of women—or at least of those women who do not fit into the “classical conceptions” of their roles and nature. 

That fits right in with Florida’s new Black history curriculum for grade schools and high schools, which completely distorts and devalues Black history and Black lives. The curriculum requires that teachers instruct students about “how slaves developed skills which, in some instances, could be applied for their personal benefit.” Popular Information’s Judd Legum notes that, despite immediate denunciation across a broad political spectrum, DeSantis continued to insist on this distortion of history:

“That provision was blasted by Black Republicans. ‘There is no silver lining in slavery,’ Senator and presidential candidate Tim Scott (R-SC) said. ‘Slavery was really about separating families, about mutilating humans and even raping their wives. It was just devastating.’ Congressmen Byron Donalds (R-FL) and John James (R-MI) also spoke out against the curriculum. DeSantis responded by attacking the three Black Republicans, claiming they accepted Democrats’ ‘false narratives’ and ‘lies.’”

The same “hostile takeover” underway at New College threatens all public education, from grade school to grad school. In an essay about book banning, author Stephen King wrote:

“There are people out there who are deciding what your kids can read, and they don’t care what you think because they are positive their ideas of what’s proper and what’s not are better, clearer than your own. Do you believe they are? Think carefully before you decide to accord the book-banners this right of cancellation, and remember that they don’t believe in democracy but rather in a kind of intellectual autocracy. If they are left to their own devices, a great deal of good literature may soon disappear from the shelves of school libraries simply because good books — books that make us think and feel — always generate controversy.”

What he wrote about books applies equally to lesson plans and history curriculums. The job of education is opening minds, not closing them. 

If we care about the future of our children, grandchildren—or country—then it’s time to stand up and fight back. Caring means keeping your eyes and mind open and paying attention to the news, even when that keeps you up at night. Caring means voting against those who want to ban books and distort history.

Caring means sorting fact from fiction and truth from lies. Caring also means asking tough questions of candidates who are running for school board or library board or county commissioner. Caring might mean running for school board. It might mean talking to your neighbor or your niece, writing a letter to the editor, or baking cookies for a community meeting. Caring means action of whatever kind you can take. Inaction is not an option. 

The Other America shook the country in 1962. With a carefully researched non-fiction book, Michael Harrington laid open the wounds of poverty in the United States as dramatically as muckrakers like Upton Sinclair had in novels published half a century earlier. The paperback edition of The Other America sold over a million copies and is often credited with inspiring and making possible the War on Poverty that brought us Medicare, Medicaid, the food stamp program, Head Start, and dozens of lesser-known programs. 

In Poverty, by America, Matthew Desmond exposes the systematic nature of poverty and racism and their historic and contemporary interconnection in the United States. His careful research backs up his insistence that we can and must abolish poverty, that the cost of doing so is well within the realm of the possible.