Category Archives: Republican

The Republican Party has suffered a total moral collapse and is now held together by a bunch of nutcases happy to endorse autocracy and neo-fascism, according to Howard Dean, the former presidential candidate and ex-chairman of the Democratic National Committee.

The Democratic Party grandee tells Molly Jong-Fast he wont run for office again, so he is no longer treading on eggshells, in a fiery edition of The New Abnormal.

Dean said there are still one or two decent Republicans in Washington, D.C. but they lack the backbone to stand up to the people who have taken over the party.

I hate to call Republicans right-wing fascists because often they supported me, but this is unrecognizable, he said. They believe in autocracy not democracy, they are racist. Its just shocking. Whats happened to the Republican Party.

He has said Republican members of the House of Representatives were particularly inept. There are some House Republicans who are basically a sentient YouTube comment section, Dean said. They have nothing to contribute, frankly, to American politics, except for incendiary and sometimes delusional public statements.

After the Jan. 6 insurrection, Dean said the need to keep these people from power has become all-encompassing, and he called on members of the progressive wing of the Democratic Party to follow the lead of Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez in moderating their language while continuing to push their agenda within the Democratic framework because the alternativea Republican administration containing the likes of Sen. Josh Hawley and former Secretary of State Mike Pompeois too alarming.

These people are crazy. Theyre conspiracy theorists, theyre whack jobs. Theyre embedding their own reality. I mean, if they ever really run the country, its going to be a disaster for us. Cause you... this is why autocrats dont run good economies because they start believing in their own BS, he said.

You have a Republican Party, which emotionally, essentially are neo-fascist. They fundamentally do not believe that another legitimate point of view exists other than theirs.

The former governor of Vermont said he had never been a Biden supporter but hes been stunned by the presidents performance so far and is pleased he wasnt making the same mistake as President Obama, who spent too much time waiting around for bipartisan support.

Bernie Sanders said that [Bidens] Rebuilding America bill was the most progressive piece of legislation hed seen since Johnson and the war on poverty. And, I mean, it is, Dean said. I think hes probably off to the best start of any president Ive seen in my lifetime.

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Howard Dean: The Republicans Are Now a Neo-Fascist Party - The Daily Beast

Miles T. Armaly and Adam M. Enders, political scientists at the University of Mississippi and the University of Louisville, argue that Trump appeals to voters experiencing what they call egocentric victimhood as opposed to those who see themselves as systemic victims.

In their January 2021 paper, Why Me? The Role of Perceived Victimhood in American Politics, Armaly and Enders argue that:

A systemic victim looks externally to understand her individual victimhood. Egocentric victimhood, on the other hand, is less outwardly focused. Egocentric victims feel that they never get what they deserve in life, never get an extra break, and are always settling for less. Neither the oppressor, nor the attribution of blame, are very specific. Both expressions of victimhood require some level of entitlement, but egocentric victims feel particularly strongly that they, personally, have a harder go at life than others.

There were substantial differences between the way these two groups voted, according to Armaly and Enders:

Those exhibiting higher levels of egocentric victimhood are more likely to have voted for, and continue to support, Donald Trump. However, those who exhibit systemic victimhood are less supportive and were less likely to vote for Trump.

The same pattern emerged in the case of racial resentment and support for or opposition to government aid to African-Americans, for building a wall on the Mexican border and for political correctness: egocentric victims, the authors report, tilted strongly in a conservative direction, systemic victims in a liberal direction.

In an effort to better understand how competing left and right strategies differ, I asked Kevin Arceneaux, a political scientist at Temple, a series of questions. The first was:

How would you describe the differences between the mobilizing strategies of the civil rights movement and Trumps appeals to discontented whites? Arceneauxs answer:

The civil rights movement was about mobilizing an oppressed minority to fight for their rights, against the likelihood of state-sanctioned violence, while Trumps appeals are about harnessing the power of the state to maintain white dominance. Trumps appeals to discontented whites are reactionary in nature. They promise to go back to a time when whites were unquestionably at the top of the social hierarchy. These appeals are about keying into anger and fear, as opposed to hope, and they are about moving backward and not forward.

What role has the sense of victimhood played in the delusional character of so many Trump supporters who continue to believe the election was stolen? Arceneaux again:

Their sense of victimhood motivates the very idea that some evil force could be so powerful that it can successfully collude to steal an election. It fits the narrative that everyone is out to get them.

Looking toward the elections of 2022 and 2024, Trump not only remains at the heart of the Republican Party but also embodies the partys predicament: Candidates running for the House and Senate need him to turn out the partys populist base, but his presence at the top of the ticket could put Congress and the White House out of reach.

Still, Arceneaux argues that without Trump, I do believe that the Republicans will struggle to turn out non-college-educated whites at the same rate.

Ed Goeas, a Republican pollster, observes that turning out working-class voters in 2024 will most likely not be enough for Trump to win: There are a large number of Republican voters (around 40 percent), who were either reluctant Trump voters or non-supportive voters, who make a Trump win in the general election look very undoable.

Ed Rogers, the Republican lobbyist I mentioned at the beginning of this column, argues that if Trump runs in 2024 despite the clout he wields today he is liable to take the party down in defeat:

I dont think Trump can win a two-person race in a general election. He cant get a majority. He pulled a rabbit out of the hat in 2016 and he got beat bad by an uninspiring candidate in 2020. 2024 is a long way away but I dont know what might happen to make Trump have broader appeal or more advantages than he did in 2020.

Stuart Stevens, a Republican media consultant who is a harsh critic of Trump, emailed me to say that Trump is the Republican Party and as a result:

We are in uncharted waters. For the first time since 1860, a major American political party doesnt believe America is a democracy. No Republican will win a contested primary in 2022 or 2024 who will assert that Biden is a legal president. The effect of this is profound and difficult to predict. But millions of Americans believe the American experiment is ending.

What is driving the Republican Party? Stevenss answer is that it is the threat of a nonwhite majority:

The coordinated effort to reduce voter access for those who are nonwhite is because Republicans know they are racing the demographic clock. The degree to which they are successful will determine if a Republican has a shot to win. Its all about white grievance.

Paul Begala, a Democratic consultant, described what may be Trumps most lasting imprint on his party: He said many prospective presidential candidates, including Josh Hawley, Kristi Noem, Ted Cruz and Ron DeSantis, seem to me to be embracing the growing nativist, anti-immigrant, anti-diversity fire Trump lit.

In the 28 years since the 1992 election, Begala continued by email, there has been more diminution in white voting power than in the previous 208 years dating back to the nations first presidential election.

For the Republican Party, Begala wrote, as white power diminishes, white supremacy intensifies.

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Opinion | Why Trump Still Rules the Republican Party - The New York Times

With help from Shia Kapos and Sarah Owermohle

'IT JUST GETS NOWHERE' A recent spate of high-profile shootings in America has, once again, sparked calls for Congress and the White House to act on legislation. But if the past is prologue, nothing will get done. It never does.

Fewer national debates are as intractable as those around gun policy. Its remarkable or, depending on your vantage point, dispiriting. Over the past decade, mass casualty events have become a macabre fixture of our culture. And yet, one can count on his or her hand the number of Republican lawmakers who, while in office, changed their position on gun control legislation during that period of time.

I asked a series of gun control advocacy groups to help me compile a list. Collectively, they identified five current House Republican members.

Two of the five Reps. Chris Smith of New Jersey and Fred Upton of Michigan havent really changed positions at all; theyve just backed away from lesser-known NRA-backed bills. Reps. Adam Kinzinger of Illinois and Vern Buchanan of Florida both of whom recently began supporting background-check legislation did not return a request for comment. Neither did Rep. Mike Turner of Ohio, who announced that hed support legislation that prevents the sale of military-style weapons to civilians after years of opposing it.

The stream is moving in both directions, however. Two Republican supporters of a 2019 background-check bill Reps. Brian Mast and Mario Diaz-Balart of Florida opposed a version of it in March, arguing that liberals altered its core purpose.

The relative stasis of the gun policy debate is a source of immense frustration and confusion for a lot of voters who wonder how nearly 40,000 people can die from gun violence (the majority by suicide) in a given year, only to have lawmakers do nothing about it. But for those who have worked in the trenches, its become one of the defining examples of political gridlock. Peter King, the former Republican New York congressman who supported gun control legislation, recalled trying to talk some of his GOP colleagues into backing those bills.

It just gets nowhere, he told Nightly. You can discuss tax issues. You can discuss appropriations bills. But on this, its a sacred right. When you grow up thinking guns are almost an absolute right, you really have to see a strong case on the other side to infringe on that right.

That gridlock is fed by a number of factors, advocates say. There is muscle memory: Politicians recall formative cycles, like 1994, when backlash to President Bill Clintons assault weapons ban fed a GOP takeover of the House and cemented the idea that gun control pushes lead to electoral waves. There are structural hurdles: A gerrymandered House means Republicans worry about primary elections above all else. And then there are cultural dynamics.

There is a paradox that has always bedeviled the gun debate, Jim Kessler, a longtime gun control advocate, said. As violent crime rises some voters seek stricter gun laws, and others go out and buy guns.

Kessler went on to argue that culture will end up working against the GOP, and that savvy Republicans will move to support gun control measures as their states become more suburban. Sen. Pat Toomey (R-Pa.), perhaps the most notable Republican to change his tune on gun policy, won re-election in 2016 because of his support for background checks, Kessler said, not in spite of it.

There is something to the idea that cultural changes can facilitate political outcomes. Peter Ambler, the executive director of the gun control group Giffords, noted that more voters and politicians became comfortable with gay marriage as they began to know people who were gay and out. Sadly, you are seeing more of that with gun violence, where it is becoming more of a kitchen table issue, Ambler added.

In the end, that may be the way this all progresses, with politicians being affected on a personal level and then embracing reform. But heres something to ponder: What if even that exceedingly ghastly outcome proves an insufficient foe to the status quo? What if more gun violence doesnt mean movement on gun legislation?

After all, the research is already quite persuasive: Developed countries with more guns have more gun deaths. And if folks need more information on it, it could come soon: the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention was only recently allowed to study gun violence as a public health matter.

But, as Frank Luntz, the famed GOP messaging guru, noted, the issue is not headlines or data or finding the convincing message or the right messenger. Its ideology.

It's really not a messaging issue for Republicans, said Luntz. They simply think banning guns will not make people safer. They blame the criminal, not the gun, for gun-related crimes.

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ACHIEVABLE ACHIEVEMENTS Sen. Angus King is still undecided on whether to support D.C. statehood, an important goal for many of the Democrats he aligns with. And the independent Mainer is in no rush.

Im still kind of pondering it, King said today. There are just other issues Im engaged in at this point.

King is one of five Democratic caucus members who have yet to support the statehood bill, souring what should be a milestone week for the movement to empower the capital city. On Thursday the House will approve statehood for the second time, and now Democrats have a supportive president in Joe Biden.

But the statehood proposal, like other central elements of the Democratic agenda, may not make it to the Senate floor this year given its lack of unified support from Bidens party. With infrastructure and voting rights bills proving difficult enough to get to the presidents desk, Democrats are putting long-held progressive priorities like a 51st state, Supreme Court expansion and a $15 minimum wage on the proverbial back burner while they focus on whats actually achievable, Burgess Everett and Sarah Ferris write.

After a Trump era that emboldened its left flank to push ambitious plans, the partys legislative agenda is gliding down from loftiness to pragmatism.

Passing infrastructure is more important than anything that were not sure that we can actually get the votes to pass, said Sen. Martin Heinrich (D-N.M.), who supports both D.C. and Puerto Rico statehood. Right now we need to focus our limited floor time on the most important stuff for the Biden administration to be successful and our country to be successful if we can do the other stuff, great.

Apostolic Faith Church on Chicago's South Side serves as a vaccination site operated by CORE, an organization that is going into communities to get residents vaccinated. | Photo by POLITICO's Shia Kapos

THE CORE OF CHICAGOS SHOTS PLAN Illinois Playbook author Shia Kapos emails us this dispatch about vaccination efforts in Chicago:

Amid what she called an alarming rise of Covid-19 cases among Black residents on the citys South Side, Mayor Lori Lightfoot toured a new vaccination site at Chicago State University part of a recently launched effort to close the vaccine disparities throughout the city.

While 50 percent of adult Chicagoans in the rest of the city have been vaccinated, a mere 12 to 19 percent of Black South Siders have received the vaccine, Lightfoot said. We can turn these numbers around the cases, the deaths, the hospitalizations but we can only turn them around if Black South Siders get the vaccine.

The key to making that happen may rest in a new partnership with an organization once known less for its work in health care than for its famous (and sometimes controversial) founder.

In the decade-plus since actor Sean Penn founded the Community Organized Relief Effort, or CORE, after the 2010 earthquakes in Haiti, the group has earned a reputation for its disaster-relief efforts across the Caribbean, notably in Haiti and Puerto Rico. For the last year, CORE has been in the trenches in the United States, combatting the coronavirus. Initially, it helped organize Covid-19 testing sites. Now, with the pandemic in a new stage, the group has pivoted to setting up vaccination sites in partnership with the city of Los Angeles, state of Georgia, and Chicago.

The partnership with CORE is part of Chicagos effort to advance a vaccine strategy that is focused on equity and inclusion and that pushes vaccines into communities that need them most, said Lightfoot. And COREs background working in international relief efforts bolsters not only its logistical abilities, but gives the group insight into how to build trust with the community it aims to serve.

People arent comfortable going across Chicago to get medical treatment, let alone a Covid vaccination, said John Holton, the area program manager for Chicago CORE. Its not enough to see politicians or notable names getting the vaccine, or Black or brown doctors promoting it, he said: Its about seeing people from the community who are reflective of their own experiences. So they can relate.

That attitude permeates how CORE approaches its work.

It partners with tech companies to ease the appointment-making process. It staffs its sites with volunteers from the community to make the people it serves more comfortable. And it works with hyper-local community health care organizations to administer the vaccines (on the South Side, that means teaming with the Howard Brown Health center). And it uses familiar community sites places known to South Siders, places theyre comfortable with to attract hesitant residents.

At the new vaccination site at CSU, the CORE-organized health teams will administer 750 first doses of the Pfizer vaccine each day. COREs vaccination site at the Apostolic Faith Church will accommodate another 250.

The church site is quiet, peaceful and familiar to visitors. On a recent sunny day, I ran into a drummer who teaches at a nearby music school, a businessman escorting his elderly parents, and a mom who jogged in while her tweens waited in the car outside.

I like that its in the neighborhood. I didnt want to have to go out of my way to get it, Arthur Adams, a licensed general contractor, told me as he walked out, patting his arm. He acknowledged being nervous about the vaccine, but decided to get it after his mom received it without a problem. I knew if I wanted to be around her, I needed to get the shot.

DOJ opens broad probe of Minneapolis police: Attorney General Merrick Garland announced that the Justice Department will conduct a broad investigation into alleged abuses at the Minneapolis Police Department, examining whether its officers have a pattern or practice of violating the civil rights of residents. The move, made public one day after a Minneapolis jury found former police officer Derek Chauvin guilty in the murder of George Floyd, appears to signal a return by the DOJ to more aggressive and frequent use of such probes, aimed at rooting out systemic civil rights abuses in police departments.

Biden: 200 million Americans have been vaccinated: This is an American achievement a powerful demonstration of unity and resolve, what unity will do for us and a reminder of what we can accomplish when we pull together as one people to a common goal, Biden said at a White House event.

FDA inspection report casts doubt on J&J vaccine contractors ability to restart production: A Johnson & Johnson contractors plant for producing coronavirus vaccines is not large or sanitary enough, and the company has not resolved issues that led to the contamination of millions of doses, the FDA said in a report released today.

Lofgren: Capitol officer being investigated for directions to pursue only anti-Trump protesters on Jan. 6: On the morning of Jan. 6, a Capitol Police officer radioed units outside the building and told them to scout out only anti-Trump troublemakers not pro-Trump protesters, according to the findings of an internal investigation revealed at a public hearing by Rep. Zoe Lofgren (D-Calif.).

Nightly asks you: A New York Times headline-turned-viral meme posits that you can be a different person after the pandemic. How has the pandemic changed you? Use the form to send your answers, and well include select responses in Fridays edition.

SUPER FRUSTRATED Conceding that soccers controversial new Super League was officially dead in the water, Italian team Juventus chief, Andrea Agnelli, searched for a scapegoat and landed on Brexit.

The Super League, which launched to political consternation and supporter unrest on Sunday night, had crumbled by this morning after a slew of clubs backed out amid a wave of protest from European leaders, fans and soccer stars.

The Juventus chairman, reportedly one of the leading architects of the rebel league, told Reuters that hed heard speculation that if six teams would have broken away and would have threatened the [English Premier League], politics would have seen that as an attack to Brexit and their political scheme.

While admitting that the concept was no longer feasible, Agnelli claimed people had lied to him about their interest in the project.

Im not going to say how many clubs contacted me in just 24 hours asking if they could join, he said, without naming them. Maybe they lied, but I was contacted by a number of teams asking what they could do to join.

BASED ON A TRUE PANDEMIC Health care reporter Sarah Owermohle, remote in hand, emails a Law & Order review to Nightly:

Law & Order isnt just lightly mentioning Covid, as some shows have done here and there over the past year. Its the center of multiple storylines. The plots abound in the long-running Law & Order: SVU and the brand-new Organized Crime spinoff: A crime family selling fraudulent masks and hijacking Covid-19 vaccines for the rich and privileged; a serial rapist going unnoticed while the citys public resources were stretched thin at the height of the pandemic; a woman lying about her trysts, citing public shaming of people who dont socially distance.

And then there are the little moments: people unsure if they should shake hands, wearing masks as they talk, or declaring that a witness is unavailable they died from Covid-19.

For more than 30 years, Law & Order and its spinoffs have branded themselves as using storylines ripped from the headlines. And over the past year, those headlines have provided plenty of fodder sometimes providing an uncomfortable fit for a show lionizing the criminal justice system.

Alongside the pandemic narratives are equally raw discussions of race, Black Lives Matter and widespread distrust of police. George Floyds name is uttered in several episodes, while multiple plots are lifted straight from the events of this past year. Audience favorite Detective Olivia Benson is confronted plainly with her implicit racial bias. The threads of systemic injustice run throughout, with white characters like Benson struggling with their positions in the system, and Black characters voicing the impact of racism in ways rarely made explicit in primetime network cop dramas.

Law & Order is not a perfect franchise. (No television show but The Sopranos truly is.) But it is commendable, if not a bit disorienting, to watch a TV staple wrangle in real-time with the uncomfortable and sometimes devastating realities happening around us. (Some plotlines, however, like that of vaccination parties run by the mafia, are pure fiction though if you see these, send me tips.) That said, its hard to imagine a popular TV show let alone one dealing with justice or set in a pandemic hotspot totally ignoring events that have left such an indelible mark on the national consciousness. Its perhaps safe to assume that shows filming right now will continue to churn out Covid-related storylines, and the wealth of pandemic-related plotlines will not dry up any time soon. I, for one, am glad to watch them in the name of work.

A point of critique though: Law & Order characters keep pulling down their masks to talk. That, Detectives Benson and Stabler, is not what infectious disease expert Anthony Fauci advises.

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Five Republicans who've changed their minds on guns - Politico

An infrastructure package proposed by U.S. Senate Republicans on Thursday is about a quarter the size of Democratic President Joe Biden's sweeping $2.3 trillion proposal and focuses narrowly on broadband access and traditional infrastructure projects. read more

Here is a spending comparison between the $568 billion Republican proposal and Biden's more expansive one, which includes funds for schools and eldercare:

ROADS AND BRIDGES:

Republicans - $299 billion

Biden - $115 billion

BROADBAND ACCESS:

Republicans - $65 billion

Biden - $100 billion

PUBLIC TRANSIT:

Republicans - $61 billion

Biden - $85 billion

AIRPORTS:

Republicans - $44 billion

Biden - $25 billion

DRINKING WATER AND WASTEWATER:

Republicans - $35 billion

Biden - $111 billion

RAIL:

Republicans - $20 billion

Biden - $80 billion

PORTS AND INLAND WATERWAYS:

Republicans - $17 billion

Biden - $17 billion

TRANSPORTATION SAFETY:

Republicans - $13 billion

Biden - $20 billion

ELECTRIC VEHICLES:

Republicans - $0

Biden - $174 billion

MANUFACTURING:

Republicans - $0

Biden - $580 billion

SCHOOL CONSTRUCTION AND REPAIR:

Republicans - $0

Biden - $100 billion

HOME- AND COMMUNITY-BASED CARE:

Republicans - $0

Biden - $400 billion

Our Standards: The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles.

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Factbox: Republicans vs. Biden: What's in their infrastructure plans? - Reuters

A group of Republicans and Democrats are putting forward a new plan aimed at bolstering the nation's economic competitiveness against China. It represents a big test of whether Republicans and Democrats can still collaborate on key issues in Congress.

Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer along with Republican Sen. Todd Young introduced legislation on Wednesday to pour federal money into industries like semiconductors and artificial intelligence. Other co-sponsors included Democratic Rep. Ro Khanna of California and GOP Rep. Mike Gallagher of Wisconsin.

The package would also expand the National Science Foundation, providing $100 billion over five years to fund a new research and development agency. It also allocates $10 billion to build regional hubs across the US to boost domestic manufacturing and create new companies as well.

"This legislation will enhance American competitiveness with China and other countries by investing in American innovation, building up regions across the country to lead in the innovation economy, creating good-paying American manufacturing and high-tech jobs, and strengthening America's research, development, and manufacturing capabilities," Schumer said in a statement.

Khanna of California, a top House progressive, said in an interview that the broad coalition reflected deep backing for the measure. He believes lawmakers "hit the sweet spot" with a package aimed at countering China's economic influence, a rare area of bipartisan agreement in Congress.

"I think it is a huge step in that direction in terms of improving our competitiveness, improving our job creation and improving our support of critical industries," Khanna said in an interview with Insider. "It's a key area."

The White House released a statement supporting the package, though signaling it could still change.

"We look forward to working with Congress to further shape this legislation to renew America's global leadership in science and technology and to make sure we develop and manufacture the technologies of the future," White House press secretary Jen Psaki said in a statement.

China's economic ascent has prompted a groundswell of Republican and Democratic calls for the government to invest more money into research and development in recent years. The pandemic also exposed the reliance of the US on global supply chains that originate in China.

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Republicans and Democrats are teaming up to take a 'huge step' in the US's battle against China - Business Insider

Former President George W. Bush stepped back into the political fray on Tuesday with a pointed rebuke of the Trump-era Republican Party, putting aside his usual silence on politics to air his unhappiness with the partys direction on issues including immigration and trade.

I would describe it as isolationist, protectionist and, to a certain extent, nativist, Mr. Bush said in an interview on NBCs Today show on Tuesday, after he was asked to assess the state of the party.

Mr. Bush had been careful to keep a relatively low profile in recent years, but he has re-emerged to promote a new book of oil paintings and vignettes celebrating the contributions of prominent immigrants, in hopes, he said, of elevating the discourse.

The 43rd president, while aware of his limited ability to influence a party that long ago broke with many of his principles and came to distance itself from his record in office, is nonetheless intent, associates said, on making a case for reviving his more inclusive, pro-business brand of compassionate conservatism and supporting Republicans who want to move past former President Donald J. Trump.

I do feel that he recognizes that the party has drifted away from the core principles that he stood for, said Andrew H. Card Jr., his White House chief of staff from 2001 to 2006 and a longtime friend of the Bush family. I think he has maintained a lot of discipline not to opine on every little matter, but I think he now recognizes that this is a bruised nation, and he wants to help heal it.

For all the familiar flashes of self-deprecating humor, Mr. Bush is agitated and alarmed by the state of the nation. The Jan. 6 attack on the Capitol represented something of a breaking point for him, Mr. Card said.

I cried, and the former president, he cried, too, Mr. Card said, speaking of that day.

In the interview on Tuesday, Mr. Bush expressed his disgust at the pro-Trump mob that stormed the Capitol, but kept to his practice of not calling out Mr. Trump by name.

It kind of made me sick not kind of made me sick, it did make me sick, he said.

Mr. Bush, who left office in 2009 with low approval ratings stemming from the Iraq war and the financial crisis, has been a frequent target of Mr. Trump, who lashed out at him during the 2016 presidential campaign and suggested Mr. Bush should have been impeached for providing false intelligence in the lead-up to the conflict.

One of the factors that has kept Mr. Bush from weighing in more frequently during the Trump years, two people close to him said, was his concern that his statements could be used against his nephew George P. Bush, a Republican official in Texas, who has ambitions for seeking higher office in a state where Mr. Trump remains popular.

This would be a consequential year for Mr. Bush, whose youthful brashness has receded with his hairline, even without the chaos of the election and its aftermath.

Two weeks after the attack on Capitol, Mr. Bush quietly marked the 20th anniversary of his first inauguration, in which he called for bipartisanship after waging a bare-knuckles battle during the Florida recount to win the White House over his Democratic opponent, Al Gore.

Later this year comes a second, and more painful, moment: the 20th anniversary of the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks, a date President Biden has chosen as his deadline for the complete withdrawal of troops from Afghanistan.

Mr. Biden consulted Mr. Bush and former President Barack Obama before announcing his decision to bring the American presence in the war to an end. It is not clear what counsel, if any, Mr. Bush offered Mr. Biden, but in the NBC interview, Mr. Bush expressed concerns about a full withdrawal, especially the potential effects on women and girls in Afghanistan, whose rights had been severely limited under Taliban rule before the American invasion.

My first reaction was wow, these girls are going to have real trouble with the Taliban, he said. I think the administration hopes that the girls are going to be OK through diplomacy. Well find out. All I know is the Taliban, when they had the run of the place, they were brutal. Brutal.

On immigration, Mr. Card said the former president still has the will to ensure that there is a path to citizenship for immigrants in the country illegally.

Mr. Bushs own plan failed in Congress and has long been deeply unpopular with the partys conservative base.

Mr. Trump took full advantage of the backlash against Mr. Bushs plan by taking a much harder line. A Reuters/Ipsos poll in March found that 56 percent of Republicans do not favor a path to citizenship, up from 38 percent who held that position early in Mr. Trumps presidency.

But Mr. Bush continues to make the case, put forward by his allies in the business community, that a more welcoming immigration policy, including an expansion of some work visas, is needed to modernize the economy and expand prosperity for native-born workers.

Over the weekend, Mr. Bush called on congressional Republicans to tone down their harsh rhetoric about immigration and urged them to enact comprehensive changes.

Continued here:

Bush Says Republican Party Is Isolationist and Protectionist - The New York Times

Republican senators may unveil their counteroffer to President Biden's infrastructure proposal by the end of this week, Senator Shelley Moore Capito said Tuesday, while the president continues to solicit bipartisan opinions on the massive package.

Republicans have concerns about Mr. Biden's $2 trillion proposal, arguing that it contains too many provisions that are unrelated to traditional forms of infrastructure, such as funding for home care for the elderly and disabled and electric cars. Republicans are also balking at Mr. Biden's proposed method of paying for the package a corporate tax rate from 21% to 28%, as well as a new global minimum tax for multinational corporations.

Capito, a Republican from West Virginia, told reporters at the Capitol that Republicans would present their counter-proposal within "several days" and "hopefully by the end of the week." She said that "lines of communications are open" between Republican senators, and that she and a group of ten other Republicans would likely "settle on a conceptual sort of idea" for their proposal.

The Republican plan will be focused on toplines, Capito said, but would not necessarily be detailed. However, it will include specific projects and methods of paying for them.

Capito responded to Mr. Biden's comments that he would want Congress to settle on a proposal by mid-May, calling it "a good signal that he's he's ready to start to engage."

"I'm already engaged with Senator Carper on the water bill and also on the highway bill so you know these engagements are not just they've been ongoing, in some areas," Capito said, referring to a bipartisan water infrastructure bill with Environment and Public Works Committee Chair Tom Carper. Carper has also previously said that he would like to approve a new highway funding measure by Memorial Day. The committee approved a bill to invest nearly $300 billion in highways in 2019, but it never went further on the Senate floor.

"So hopefully we can use our committee process to work through that and do it the old fashioned way. Give and take," Capito said. She added that she believed there would be bipartisan support for including broadband expansion in the final bill.

Capito said last week that the "sweet spot" for an infrastructure proposal would be between $600 and $800 billion and would focus on "roads, bridges, ports, airports including broadband into that, [and] water infrastructure." However, she later told reporters that the $600 to $800 billion number was "just a ballpark figure." Both numbers are less than half the cost of the president's proposal.

Senator Roger Wicker told reporters on Tuesday that he expected the counteroffer to be in the $600 billion range, although he said it could be less. "If we want bipartisanship, it's on us to make a good faith effort," Wicker said.

Mr. Biden has been meeting with bipartisan groups of lawmakers in recent days. On Monday, he met with several senators and representatives who had previously served as governors and mayors, to get their opinions on how an infrastructure bill could be implemented at a state and local level.

"I am prepared to compromise," Biden said at the meeting. "It's a big package, but there are a lot of needs."

Republican Senator Lisa Murkowski, who was not at the meeting on Monday, told reporters that she believed Mr. Biden was still engaged in outreach with Republicans.

"I'd like to think that when he invites leaders over, for that kind of conversation, that he is leaving the door open for their input," she said.

Democratic Senator Chris Coons, a close ally of the president, said last week that he would be open to passing a package that cost $800 billion to $1 trillion. He later told reporters that Capito's proposal to do one bipartisan bill, and then a second infrastructure package containing Democratic priorities, was a "strong approach."

"Out of the whole, more than $2 trillion worth of things proposed in the jobs and infrastructure plan, that means we would take, let's say $800 billion of it out, move that is a bipartisan bill, partly paid for with fees. And then several weeks later passed by reconciliation, a Democrat-only bill that would do the rest of that agenda," Coons said.

Budget reconciliation allows for bills to pass with a simple majority, instead of the 60-vote threshold typically needed to advance legislation, meaning that the second infrastructure package could pass without any Republican votes. Congress used the complicated and arduous reconciliation process to pass Mr. Biden's $1.9 trillion American Rescue Plan last month.

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GOP senator says Republicans will have infrastructure counteroffer by the end of week - CBS News

EXTON. Pa., April 21, 2021 /PRNewswire/ -- Republican US Senate Candidate, Everett Stern will launch a series of statewide speaking engagements in Pennsylvania with an address to the Huntingdon County Republican Committee Spring Dinner on April 22, 2021 at Smithfield Fire Hall. The event is expected to attract 21 County chairs and an estimated 300 attendees, with follow up events at the Lake Raystown Resort in Entriken, PA.

On Monday, April 26, Stern will speak at the Berks County Republican Committee Spring/Dinner Kick Off at Stokesay Castle, in Reading PA. This year's event is slated by the organizers as "the largest and most attended Berks GOP Spring Dinner/Kickoff event ever remembered; certainly, in the last 20 years."

Stern, who is running as a Common-Sense Conservative says "It is a great chance for people to hear what I have to offer and for me to listen to what they have to say."

For further information on Everett Stern US Senate 2022:

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Contact: Everett Stern [emailprotected]

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Everett Stern to address the Huntingdon and Berks County Republican Committees - PRNewswire

One of the biggest challenges in fighting the COVID-19 pandemic over the last year has been political polarization on public health measures whether its the shuttering of stores, physical distancing or mask wearing and vaccines are no exception.

Some groups with initial vaccine hesitancy such as Black Americans and Latinos have shown clear declines in hesitancy as vaccination rates have increased. But partisan identity is now the biggest predictor of vaccine hesitancy 44% of Republicans say they do not intend to get vaccinated while 92% of Democrats have been vaccinated or intend to be.

These vaccine-hesitant Republicans may be the biggest barrier to eventual herd immunity in America, which could require 70% to 85% of the population to be vaccinated or immune to the coronavirus. In other words, effective outreach to this subgroup is critically important to ending the pandemic.

What are the best ways to persuade Republicans to get the vaccine? Research suggests three approaches: improving public health messaging in general, getting trusted political voices (GOP leaders) to promote vaccination, and getting positive vaccination messages out through nonpolitical messengers. What does not seem to help is having Democratic leaders ask Republicans to get their shot.

New research finds that people are more likely to accept vaccination if they believe that doing so is normal. Americans tend to underestimate public levels of vaccine receptivity, which is relatively high. Informing Americans about that fact can increase vaccine receptivity. But general public health messaging alone is unlikely to motivate large numbers of Republicans who are skeptical.

Another approach is having trusted sources put out strong, consistent pro-vaccination messages. For example, partnering with local faith leaders was considered crucial to effectively promoting public health behaviors during the Ebola crisis in West Africa.

Could Republican leaders and community members serve a similar function, driving uptake among their vaccine-hesitant base? So far, that has not happened. The GOP leadership has not made the pro-vaccination message a priority with its base. However, Donald Trump, who was vaccinated in January, did praise the vaccines at the Conservative Political Action Conference in early March, calling them a modern miracle and encouraging the audience to get vaccinated: Everybody, go get your shot.

Could Trumps support of the vaccine help? A new experiment found that it could with some people. Republicans who were told that Trump and other Republicans supported vaccination reported 7% higher vaccination intentions than if they were told that President Biden and other Democrats supported vaccination. At the same time, Republicans who viewed the Democrats endorsement said they would be less likely to encourage others to get vaccinated.

This new study and others show that there is a movable middle of Republicans who are persuadable. But there was no real movement among Republicans who had previously said they were extremely unlikely to get vaccinated.

This finding reveals a neglected feature of political polarization around vaccination: Republicans are themselves deeply divided on the issue. Although many have already been vaccinated or plan to be, there are substantial numbers that remain solidly resistant even with support from Trump, and reaching that hard core will be a struggle.

Another strategy to reach these Republicans is through trusted nonpolitical figures and organizations. Religious leaders, athletes, entertainers and organizations with appeal among Republicans all could be persuasive if equipped with ways to communicate effectively. For example, religious leaders and some NASCAR drivers have promoted vaccination. Research suggests that military figures could also be persuasive.

Biden recently said that increasing vaccine receptivity would best be achieved through one-on-one interactions with doctors and medical health professionals, a claim supported by polling research. This fits with research on political persuasion in general, where deep canvassing in-depth, empathetic, one-on-one conversations has emerged as an effective technique for persuading conservatives on political issues.

Although engaging in individual conversations about the vaccine may seem inefficient during a crisis that demands swift action, a concerted effort to promote such conversations by healthcare professionals, and giving them the tools to do so, could be one of the few ways to move Republicans who are vaccine-resistant.

No single strategy can turn around vaccine hesitancy that so deeply reflects the nations political polarization. Public health officials will need to draw on several tactics simultaneously targeting Republicans who are on the fence as well as those who are resistant if we are to build vaccine confidence across political divides. Public health and a return to our pre-pandemic world will depend on it.

Robb Willer is a professor of sociology, psychology and organizational behavior at Stanford University. Jay Van Bavel is an associate professor of psychology and neural science at New York University.

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How we can convince Republicans to get the COVID vaccine - Los Angeles Times

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The administration again looked at its list of Sensible Policies to Make the Crazy People Crazier and checked off another box. From the Washington Post:

That DC statehood is only fair and just is beyond question at that point, and one of the ways you know that is by looking at the arguments mustered against it. You may recall a little while back at the end of March, at a House hearing on the topic, Republicans in Congress marshaled as evidence against the proposition this rather overly nuanced objection from Rep. Jody Hice of Georgia.

(At the moment, Hice is an announced Republican candidate for Secretary of State in the next Georgia Republican primary, so we should all feel really good about that, right?)

The arguments have not become more refined in the ensuing months. For example, Rep. Nancy Mace held a press conference at which she said that D.C. wouldnt even qualify to be a congressional district. More than one person noted that Mace said this while standing in front of Rep. Liz Cheney, who is the sole member of the House from Wyoming, which makes her the person who represents an entire state with fewer people than live in the District, and that has one more senator than it has representatives.

The fascinating element of this controversy for me always has been the sub rosa acknowledgement by the Republicans that two new Senate seats for the District are two new Senate seats that they cannot possibly win. And they know that to be true because they know in the darkest part of their political hearts that to compete for those two seats would obligate them to abandon all the cotton-candy illusions, and the angry, bigoted fictions, on which theyve based their politics for four decades. They would have to cut white supremacy loose in all its forms. They would have to cease interpreting poverty as a moral failing. They would have to detach themselves from the crackpot notion of a tax-less economy. They see all that as political suicide. Its easier not to confront it at all but, rather, to ignore the mirror that the District is, and what it shows them about themselves.

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The Real Republican Argument Against D.C. Having Senate Seats Is That They Can't Compete for Them - Esquire