Monday, August 02, 2021



Matthew Yglesias comments on SARS-CoV-19 and Hayes Brown on voter suppression. Can you guess the two things the messages have in common? (One is very obvious.).


Brown explains

Until we get rid of that or find a way to really shame these Republican senators who are so against the idea of expanding voting rights into voting for such a bill, then I don't see how you can out-organize the other two parts. You can't out-organize gerrymandering; you can't out-organize someone who can say "nope, we just tipped the results of the vote.


They're both right. Yglesias recognizes that DeSantis would have saved lives if he had stayed the course on vaccination. And Brown realizes that eliminating the filibuster is crucial to protecting the right to vote. Simply ginning up the Democratic vote to try to compensate for voter suppression (which may have saved Joe Biden's presidential bid) is insufficient.

But they both make the same, understandable and common, error of Democrats/liberals and centrists.

Brown states "... or find a way to really shame these Republican senators...." Similarly, Yglesias remarks "hope it was worth it to him."

Does Yglesias really hope it is "worth it" to DeSantis? Of course not. He wants the Florida governor to feel bad about it.

That's not going to happen- or at least it won't happen unless the anti-vaccination posture backfires politically on DeSantis.  He will not feel guilt or shame and those GOP senators will not be shamed into expanding voting rights.

Once and probably future Virginia governor about his opponent:

Shame and guilt or feeling bad is not how they roll.  Republican members of Congress enthusiastically followed Donald Trump throughout the latter's presidency. They saw him in Helsinki siding with a former KGB agent against our nation's intelligence services, try to pressure a foreign government to dig up dirt on an American politician, work hand-in-hand with a deadly coronavirus, and encourage insurrectionists intending to murder the Vice-President and possibly themselves.

It was all fine with them, the end game the establishment of one-party rule and evisceration of democracy. Democrats or liberals can plead "you should be ashamed" or "I hope you're happy with yourselves" and they will not change. It's who they are.

 


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