News Day

01262021

The filibuster is a long and undemocratic Senate tradition that needs to end. Using the filibuster, a small minority can block Senate passage of legislation that is supported by a bi-partisan majority. 

Historically, filibusters blocked civil rights and voting rights legislation. Filibusters blocked anti-lynching bills in 1922 and 1935. In 1957, Senator Strom Thurmond spoke for 24 hours and 18 minutes in opposition to the 1957 Civil Rights Act. The filibuster against 1964 Civil Rights Act ran on for 60 days, with Southern Senators holding the bill hostage despite majority support. Finally, a bi-partisan coalition mustered enough votes to end the filibuster, and the Civil Rights Act passed by a vote of 73 to 27. 

President Obama called the filibuster “a Jim Crow relic.” In 2010, that relic killed the Dream Act. A majority of Senators supported the Dream Act, but they could not get it to a vote. In order to stop the filibuster, they needed 60 votes: they had only 55.

President Joe Biden has proven to be anything but “sleepy,” filling his first week with a pile of proclamations, plans, and executive orders. I’m finding it hard to keep up with the news—but in a good way. So here’s my recap of recent developments:  

“What we’re inheriting is so much worse than we could have imagined,” says Jeff Zients, President Joe Biden’s COVID-19 response coordinator. Basically, some Biden administration officials say, there was no plan. Now there is.

President Biden characterizes his plan as “a full-scale war-time effort.” The 200-page National Strategy for the COVID-19 Response and Pandemic Preparedness outlines seven goals: Continue reading →

Ten days after the insurrection that trashed the U.S. Capitol and killed five people, here’s a brief recap:

I know a lot of people who don’t want to take sides. They don’t like reading the news. They claim that all politicians or parties are alike, so they don’t want to be involved with any of them. They want to be neutral, uninvolved. If you are one of my friends or relatives who have tried to avoid taking sides or reading the news, this is a message to you. 

Neutrality is not an option today. Being neutral means acquiescing in the rampant white racism and violence that threatens to destroy our country.  

Taking sides today does not mean choosing between Democrats and Republicans. Taking sides today means choosing between our elected government and violent white nationalists who are trying to overthrow it. Taking sides means rejecting lies and supporting democracy.  

The motley coalition of white nationalists, neo-Nazis, and other Trump loyalists continues to pose a real and present danger to the country. They plan armed actions next Sunday and on January 20, Inauguration Day. They have organized actions in Washington, DC and in state capitols across the country. They want nothing less than to overthrow the U.S. Constitution and government. 

You can see their posters and videos and calls to armed action on the alternative social media sites they have set up. I will not repost them here. I will not repost them anywhere. Many (but not all) of their accounts, including the accounts of their Führer, have rightly been banned from Facebook and Twitter. Their poisonous plotting and propaganda carry real danger. Words and images have power. 

The biggest threats to the United States come from within: from right-wing terrorists, from white nationalists, from the Proud Boys and Ku Klux Klan and neo-Nazis among us. These are the people who stormed the U.S. Capitol yesterday, who smashed their way through locked doors, trashed offices, waved Confederate flags, took down the U.S. flag and replaced it with a Trump flag, urinated in a Congressman’s office, stole computers with classified information, and left without being arrested, vowing to return another day. After they left, law enforcement found pipe bombs and other weapons. 

Yesterday’s attempt to overthrow the government should surprise no one. This was an insurrection, a violent rebellion against constitutional government.

This month may be the most critical month in U.S. history since the Civil War.

Consider the past few days:

On Saturday, Trump called Georgia Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger and spent an hour on the phone trying to convince, cajole, and threaten him to switch votes and give Trump a win in Georgia. To cheat. To commit a crime. To “find” Trump votes that do not exist. Raffensperger refused. 

The stock market finished 2020 more than 16 percent higher than it began. No matter that 340,000 people died. No matter that the real economy, the economy of human beings, is an economy of misery.  

People have many ways of honoring and respecting George Floyd in death. Almost as many ways as he was disrespected and dishonored in life. A carefully reported, in-depth telling of his life story by Star Tribune reporter Maya Rao and her team, published on December 27, honors and respects George Floyd as it tells his story, set in the matrix of life stories and stories told in interviews of 38 people who knew him. 

Twitter gives 280 characters to tell a story. Facebook posts might be longer, but only a paragraph or two will show up on the front page. Newspaper opinion columns are usually limited to 800 words max. The average newspaper article is even shorter. A long-form analysis runs long at 1,200 words. “George Floyd’s Search for Salvation” clocks in at more than 15,000 words. Add to that the stunning photography, and videos, and you have a portrait of a man and his life and struggles. You also come away with a deeper understanding of the all-American disease of racism from Texas to Minnesota. 

I wish that everyone could read this story. Now, in the slower time of this last week of the year, I urge you to read and meet George Floyd. And to reflect on what you and I can do to honor his memory by changing our state, country, and world.