This Week, Today: The Bird is the Word
Elon takes ownership of Twitter. Plus – Dems pull their big hitter out from retirement at the 11th hour, and your author trafficks in doomsday about the state of our democracy.
Welcome to This Week, Today, your one-stop shop for fresh commentary on the newsmakers of the week and the important stories that evaded your radar.
This week’s edition is heavy on the Midterms—and heavy on Elon Musk! (That doesn’t sound right).
Without further ado, let’s get into it.
The Bird is the Word
“The bird is freed,” Elon Musk tweeted.
And with that, he put to rest a months long saga that saw him spontaneously sign an agreement to buy Twitter for 44 billion dollars, then file a lawsuit to back out of the deal (his buyer’s remorse coincided with a stock market crash that nearly halved Twitter’s market cap), then sign back on to the deal for his original agreed-upon-price just days before the trial was to proceed.
It’s already been one week since ownership officially changed hands. And yet the mass exodus of lefty elites and activist journalists from the platform over fears that Musk’s supposed “free-speech absolutism” would flood their beloved app with far-right “misinformation,” racial epithets, and unrefined political opinions has not come to pass.
Perhaps this will change if Musk makes good on his promise to reinstate Donald Trump’s account. My guess, though, is it won’t.
That’s because the man with the orange tinge drove their news cycles and provided them with a never-ending supply of material for their opinion pieces (perhaps even ensuring their jobs), and the urge to dish out angry counter-tweets to his 280-character riffs will prove too strong to forego. That’s a rage-hit that’s been missing from their lives for almost two years now. And God knows they need their fix.
Or perhaps they’ll come to their senses and realize just how absurd it was that Twitter censored a sitting U.S. president, while allowing official government accounts belonging to the Iranian, Saudi, Chinese, Russian, and Taliban regimes to remain on the platform.
Collectively, these five regimes have committed more human rights abuses than our animal brains are capable of even fathoming. But that’s beside the point. Do you remember what Trump said about COVID…and bleach?
In the meantime, it’s been comical to watch those who threatened to leave Twitter once Elon took over call their own bluffs. It seems reality sunk in that leaving the platform means walking way from their cherished blue check mark—the most intoxicating social currency of our time—and dispelling with their loyal community (echo chamber) of followers who espouse their exact same views.
If you opened up Twitter this week you would see these save-facers tweeting out rationalizations for why they’ve decided to stay on the platform. Most of their justifications seemed to follow a “fight the system from the inside” paradigm.
MSNBC commentator Tristan Snell tweeted, “Stay. Hold your ground like a Ukrainian.”
How brave.
Grant Stern, Executive Editor of far-left activist website OccupyDemocrats, tweeted, “Never back down, never surrender. I’m not leaving.”
What a hero.
Jess Piper, a Democratic candidate from Missouri running for Congress, tweeted, “I’m not leaving Twitter because of evil overlords. I’ve lived under a GOP majority for 20 years. I’m built for this.”
A true inspiration.
Actor Robert Reiner tweeted, “For those who are fighting to preserve our Constitutional Democracy, now is not the time to leave Twitter. Now is the time to VOTE BLUE!”
A patriot, really – a completely unpartisan patriot who doesn’t reduce issues into hollow zero-sum political strata.
To be fair, there are a handful of high-profile users who made good on their threat to leave the bird app. And I applaud them for sticking to their guns, even though I clearly think their hysteria is over the top.
But the irony is not lost on me that these influencers announced their departures in tweets – tweets that garnered thousands of views, likes, and retweets and therefore generated advertising revenue for the very company they were taking a principled stand against.
Jokes aside, and in all seriousness, I’m rooting for Elon, even though I have my fair share of misgivings with much of what he says and does.
When 90% of journalists who work at our most-esteemed publications are on Twitter—mixing it up with their readership, ranting about political issues with their colleagues, drawing inspiration for the stories they cover based off discourse they see on their feed—it’s hard not to agree with Elon’s claim that the app has turned into our culture’s de facto town square. These are the people who frame the articles that shape our views on the events of the day. And most journalists will admit they’re addicted to the darn app (and if they tell you otherwise, check their feed. Feed don’t lie!).
This ought to be wee bit concerning, since—NEWSFLASH—Twitter leans left. Quite left. It’s indisputable. All the way up from the consumer (a Pew study found 69% of users tilted Dem vs 26% Republican), to the average Twitter employee, to its content moderation team, to its management (Elon has since fired many of these execs).
And it would be insincere to think that this bias doesn’t affect the user experience on the app. The loudest voices in a room full of likeminded people get the most attention. The same rule applies when you’re on Twitter.
Tweets that reflect some far-left political opinion tend to get some of the most engagement on the platform in the form of views, likes, retweets, and comments. This prompts a user of the opposite political persuasion to chime in with a retort that is just as extreme, only from the conservative side. What follows is an intense pile-on from sympathetic users of both sides, hurling insults and demonizing their partisan “other.”
It’s a phenomenon that stifles any real conversation or debate, creates barriers, and pushes users into very clear ideological silos – typically into the extremes. And yet it’s the place that the truthtellers at your favorite news outlets spend a disproportionate amount of time on.
Find yourself liking or tweeting something from a more centrist position—as I have on occasion—and the algorithm relegates you to a small community of likeminded users, out of this fray. That’s all good and dandy, but it’s clear you’re not privy to the larger conversation – where all this action is happening.
I guess in that sense, Twitter is a pretty good reflection of our politics, where the fringe sorta rules the roost and the rest of us are left at a loss for words, dumbfounded by how radical figures and ideas went mainstream.
Now I’m not nerdy enough to understand how Musk could fix Twitter algorithmically to make it into a more effective digital public square where users can exchange ideas and perspectives in a constructive way. But when he tweets, “For Twitter to deserve public trust, it must be politically neutral, which effectively means upsetting the far right and the far left equally,” he’s got my vote. I’m on board. I’ll give him the benefit of the doubt.
I’ll also put aside my reservations about a multi-billionaire—the richest one of them all—owning yet another media company. I’ve done it before, I’ll do it again.
I still look to the Washington Post for reporting scoops even though it’s owned by Jeff Bezos – a man who refuses to pay Amazon warehouse workers living wages. I still read essays in The Atlantic, even though it’s owned by the widow of Steve Jobs – the man who hastened the West’s addiction to Chinese sweatshops to furnish our most cherished products.
And I’ll still visit the Hawaiian Island of Lanai—damnit!—even though it’s owned by Oracle founder Larry Ellison, a man who apparently has little respect for Hawaiian culture.
Such is human nature. Ideological purity is hard to achieve in this world of ours.
I suspect most will follow my lead and stay on Twitter. Their addiction is real.
But if Elon really can turn the app into a digital town square, it might just benefit them too.
The Great Scramble
Hopes that the Supreme Court decision overturning Roe v. Wade would produce a tidal wave of blue voters so large it would buck the historic trend of the incumbent president’s party getting shellacked in the midterms appear wildly fanciful at this point.
Just 4 months after the ruling, and mere days before the election, pocketbook issues appear to reign supreme in the eyes of voters. Half of registered voters cited the economy (28%) or inflation (22%) as the single most important issue animating their vote in the latest ABC News/Ipsos poll, while just 16% cited abortion.
This of course doesn’t bode well for the Dems because their leader, Joe Biden, has overseen—and failed to meaningfully combat—the worst inflation in 4 decades and the highest gas prices in U.S. history.
The Biden administration has sought to deflect attention from these failings in recent weeks by warning that the GOP could cut Social Security payouts and repeal the recently-passed Inflation Reduction Act (a bill that funds sweeping investments in green energy but remains ironically mute on how it will reduce inflation) if they retake power in Congress. And in an attempted hail-Mary on Monday, Biden redirected his ire from oil-producing kleptocracies Russia and Saudi Arabia (longtime targets of his blame for high gas prices) to American oil companies, whom he threatened to tax more heavily if they didn’t lower prices at the pump STAT.
But it seems voters can see through these deflections. Or at the very least, they’ve lost confidence in an administration that for months on end suggested inflation was “transitory” and promised that elevated gas prices were “temporary.”
As of this writing, FiveThirtyEight’s latest modeling predicts Republicans have an 84% chance of taking back the House of Representatives, while the fate of the Senate is in a dead heat, with Republicans enjoying a slight edge by their estimate. Since the makeup of the current 100-seat Senate is split 50 seats Dems, 50 seats Republicans, plus Vice President Harris as the tiebreaking vote for the former, all Republicans have to do to gain control of the chamber is flip one seat.
And all available polling—nonpartisan, partisan, and SUPER-DUPER PARTISAN alike—suggests the outcome will come down to a handful of tight races in Pennsylvania, Georgia, Nevada and Arizona.
So, when it’s the 11th hour and the approval rating of your party leader is in the shitter and his ability to ad lib remarks at political rallies is a blinking red question mark, what do you do?
Well, you send in the cavalry, of course. You call up the closer.
Yes, I’m talking about Barack Obama, Mr. “Cool as a cucumber in a bowl of hot sauce,” as Kid Rock, a Trump supporter, dubbed him this week.
Nearly 6 years out of office, the former president is still his party’s most sought-after surrogate. His ability to connect with voters—including swing voters and independents who occupy the political center of our country (a larger share of our population than our political duopoly would like to admit)—and rile up the Dem base is unmatched.
And he delivered a masterclass in oration and persuasion this week during his multi-state tour to campaign for Dem Senate, House, and Gubernatorial candidates who find themselves in close races with Republican opponents.
Kicking festivities off in in Georgia to rally for Incumbent Senator Raphael Warnock, Obama made quick work – serving up moment after moment of headline-grabbing sound bites.
Addressing the elephant in the room head-on, he acknowledged the strain inflation has placed on everyone’s purse strings, before turning to humor to suggest that the GOP themselves haven’t offered any novel proposals to combat it.
“What’s their answer?” he asked rhetorically with a beaming smile.
“They want to give their rich friends a tax cut…That’s their answer to everything. When inflation is low – let’s cut taxes. When unemployment is high – let’s cut taxes. If there was an asteroid heading toward Earth, they would all get in a room and say, ‘you know what we need? We need tax cuts for the wealthy.’”
“How’s that going to help you?” he concluded, chuckling along with the audience.
He proceeded to call into question the qualifications of Warnock’s Republican opponent, former pro footballer Herschel Walker, in a lighthearted manner that poked fun, but didn’t demonize, the embattled candidate. (Obama knows that vilifying the other only serves to turn off swing voters who are already wary of our toxic political climate).
“Seems to me he’s a celebrity who wants to be a politician – and we’ve seen how that goes,” he exclaimed to uproarious applause. “Let’s say you’re at the airport and you see Walker and you say – ‘hey there’s Hershel, [a] Heisman winner. Let’s have him fly the plane!’ You probably wouldn’t say that.”
“And the opposite is true,” Obama added. “You may have liked me as president. But you would not want me starting as tailback for the [Georgia Bulldogs] … I mean could you imagine my old, skinny behind getting hit by some 300-pound defensive tackle?”
Sleeves rolled up, a certain swagger evident in his body language by now, he addressed the GOP’s embrace of election denialism.
“First time I ran for congress, I lost the primary by 30 points. I got WHOOPED. WHOOPED. Had a big ‘L’ on my forehead. You know what I didn’t do though? I didn’t claim that the election was rigged…I took my lumps. I figured out why my campaign didn’t connect with voters. I tried to run a better race the next time.”
Campaigning in Wisconsin for Senate contender Mandela Barns and incumbent Governor Tony Evers, he doubled down on his economic message – both acknowledging the pain of inflation and claiming that Republicans are just throwing stones without identifying solutions.
“Own the libs and getting Donald Trump’s approval. That’s their agenda,” Obama said. “They’re not interested in solving problems. They’re interested in making you angry, and then finding somebody to blame,” he added. “And they’re hoping that’ll distract you from the fact that they don’t have any answers of their own.”
He proceeded to deliver a scathing critique of Incumbent Wisconsin Senator Ron Johnson’s embrace of plans to reduce federal spending on Social Security. He did so in a manner so full of emotion that it even took Robert Gibbs, one of Obama’s former senior-most advisors, by surprise.
“Some of your parents are on Social Security. Some of your grandparents are on Social Security…they worked hard jobs for it. They have chapped hands for it… And if [Ron Johnson] understands giving tax breaks for people with private planes more than he understands ensuring seniors who worked all their lives are able to retire with dignity and respect, he’s not the person who’s thinking about you, and knows you, and sees you.”
The clip instantly went viral—like SUPER DUPER-viral—with Democratic strategists remarking with a mix of glee and regret that this was the sort of message and energy missing from their party’s campaign platform in the preceding months.
What didn’t go viral were the remarks Obama made just minutes after this rant.
“I know these are tough times. But we’ve been through tough times before. The important thing is to resist the temptation just to throw out hands up, turn inward, see politics as a zero-sum game,” he said. “Underneath it all…we have more in common than our politics and our politicians suggest…what unites us can be stronger than what divides us,” he closed.
This was characteristic half-glass-full Obama speaking eloquently and with resonance. It was the sort of unifying sentiment that might strike a chord with the millions of voters in the center of our country who have become disenfranchised with the toxic rhetoric hurled back and forth between our two parties.
Of course, cable news outlets opted to give airtime to the more partisan “gotchas” instead of this sound bite.
In Nevada and Arizona, Obama’s next campaign stops, he regurgitated many of the same talking points. He claimed Republicans didn’t have a solution to inflation. He warned that Social Security checks could be on the chopping block if they came to power. He spotlighted the danger continued election denialism posed to our democracy.
And he concluded these rallies, as he has every political rally in recent years, with his trademark pep speech:
“If your anxious, if your frustrated – don’t complain. Don’t boo. Don’t tune out. Don’t get bamboozled. Don’t fall for that okie-doke – VOTE!”
By the end of the week, it was clear that Obama had dominated the news cycle, with pundits of all stripes coming out of the woodwork to acknowledge that he’s a once-in-a-generation political talent. National Review, the imprint for the intellectual right, ran a story claiming Obama displayed a “decorous vibrancy that [is] so rarely exhibited by Democratic politicians.”
Now I don’t know exactly what “decorous vibrancy” means, but I know it’s good.
It was also clear that Obama tapped into a tone in these rallies that’s been missing from the Democratic Party for some time now. That tone was one of moderation.
On more than one occasion, he acknowledged the growing wave of crime throughout the country – striking a contrast with his Democratic colleagues, who have been content to stick their heads in the sand on this issue and even entertained calls from their activist wing to “defund the police.” Instead of reflexively labeling abortion-opponent’s “bigots,” he acknowledged the issue was controversial, saying at one rally that he “genuinely believes there are good people of conscience who may differ from [him] on the issue.”
Finally, he acknowledged the importance of bringing civility back to our political discourse – urging rally attendees to resist the urge to demonize people who have views on issues that are different from their own. We all know this is a message that’s been missing from our political climate for some time – something both the Democratic and Republican parties have been happy to ignore.
Now whether Obama’s last-ditch effort to coax swing voters and fence-sitters to the Dem’s camp will be successful enough to stave off a return of Republican control in the Senate remains to be seen. Obama may be talented and popular, but he’s no longer the president.
It speaks volumes that Biden opted to travel to New Mexico, California, and Illinois—blue strongholds—this week instead of the swing states that are embroiled in highly-competitive races. It’s evident he’s no longer the energetic and capable politician that he once was. Voters can see this.
They can also see the Obama cross-country trot for what it is – a great scramble. For too long the Dem’s have entertained a jumbled, elite-speak message that doesn’t connect with average voters, nor acknowledge the economic and social realities they face. I’m afraid Obama’s message—however focused and practical it is—may be too little, too late
That’s why I’m betting on history in this election. And history shows the midterms are a referendum on the President.
Obama was right to point out at his Georgia rally that there is an asteroid heading for earth. Only thing is, as Mike Murphy, a GOP strategist, pointed out, it’s “an asteroid that’s a billion tons and it’s got an elephant riding it.”
Both chambers of Congress will turn red next week. Get ready for a return to gridlock.
The Big Worry
Dear Reader,
I must admit, I’m a tad concerned about the state of our democracy. Now, I know the latest polling suggests that 61% of Republicans—nearly a third of all Americans—still believe that Joe Biden didn’t win the 2020 presidential election in a fair and legitimate way.
But at some point, something’s gotta give. If not for the sake of our democracy, for the sake of stability in the country we call home – the country so many of us love.
It’s not hyperbolic to state that this issue—deep-seated mistrust in our election system—more than any other, could logically lead us down a path to something dark and sinister like a civil war, should it continue to be stoked by opportunistic politicians.
A civil war would upend our whole way of life. And whether you’re left, right, ultra-left, ultra-right, smack-dab-down-the-middle centrist, agnostic, or plain indifferent, this is not in your interest.
The 2020 election was the most litigated election in the history of our country. Of the some 60 lawsuits Trump-affiliated attorney’s brought to state and federal courts alleging some form of voter fraud, just one case (yes one) was determined by a judge to have standing and merit. That case centered around discrepancies in a small number of mail-in ballots in Pennsylvania (too few to change the election outcome in that state). The rest of these suits were laughed out of court by state and federal judges for lacking standing or merit. Many of these judges were themselves Trump appointees.
Trump’s own Attorney General, Richard Barr, one of his staunchest defenders—the man who so fervently pushed back on the “Trump-Russia collusion” investigation as a misguided “witch hunt” (which, as the investigation confirmed, is exactly what it was)—calls the allegations bullsh!*% , the result of some Trump fantasy, delusion, or lie.
But here we are, two years later, and a heap of major Republican candidates have made 2020 election denial the central animating issue of their campaign. And I’m worried. If we can’t trust our own judicial system, and we can’t find credence in members of Trump’s own inner circle, who can we trust? What’s holding this country together right now?
And what’s going to happen if Republican candidates lose their Senate, House, and Gubernatorial races next week? Will they follow Trump’s lead and reject the results?
And if they win, are they just going to stand smugly at that podium thanking God that their election was safe and secure, before going on to say, “But that 2020 election—I tell you what, that thing was fraudulent through and through!” ???
Do you see how hypocritical and downright icky this can get? How politicians are likely to bend reality next week? How certain candidates are likely going to try and save some face, or at least deflect from commenting on this inconsistency?
I’m also under no illusion that election denial is constrained just to the Republican Party. There are elements of the Democratic Party that have done absolutely no favors for our democracy.
Georgia Gubernatorial candidate Stacey Abrams is exhibit #1.
Abrams lost to Brian Kemp (Republican) in her previous bid to become governor in 2018. But she refused to concede that she lost – claiming that state voting laws made it difficult for certain segments of Georgia’s population to vote, including certain minority voters she was convinced would vote her way. She stood so firm in her position that she spent more than 25 million dollars in legal fees to sue the Georgia Secretary of State in an attempt to prove that discriminatory and suppressive election practices had skewed the results of the election.
Well, the suit failed; the judge ruled the election was fair and that Abrams’ allegations were unsubstantiated. And yet to this day, Abrams’ claims that the 2018 election was stolen from her (albeit in roundabout language).
And it seems no one from the Democratic Party has ever admonished her for this. In fact, she’s considered in Dem circles to be one of handful of rising progressive stars in the party (she was even in the running to be Biden’s Vice President).
What’s she going to do if she loses for the second time next week???
Finally – have you heard about the Democrat-affiliated Super PACs pouring money into the campaigns of far-right Republican candidates?
Yup. I was flabbergasted when I learned this. Earlier this year, Dem strategists funneled tens of millions of dollars into the campaigns of extreme-Republican House and Gubernatorial candidates who were running in primaries. The strategists’ rationale was that by elevating extreme candidates over more sensible Republican candidates, it would be easier for their Democratic candidates to win in the subsequent general elections.
By and large the primary strategy worked. And now a handful of Dem’s across the country are embroiled in races with Republican opponents who believe the 2020 election was stolen, Ted Cruz’s father assassinated JFK, and Hillary Clinton is a lizard dressed in people clothes.
I find this practice to be deeply insidious and downright undemocratic.
The Democratic Party—a party rallying so hard to gaslight Trump’s untruth that the election was stolen—is simultaneously funding candidates that perpetuate this very untruth?
How does this help elevate the quality of political discourse in our country? How does it help lower the political temperature in America and reel it back from the extremes?
More importantly – how will Democrats react if these fringe opponents actually win?
I have my theories. But I’ll tell you what they won’t do – they won’t take any responsibility for aggravating our democratic backslide.
But, alas, I’m rabbling, and asking a lot of questions, and trafficking in doomsday. I’ll wrap this up by quoting Biden from a speech he gave in September:
“Democracy cannot survive when one side believes there are only two outcomes to an election: either they win or they were cheated.”
It’s my hope that both parties heed this message next week.
Sincerely,
A concerned citizen
What I’m reading:
The Democrats’ Midterm Challenge, The New Yorker
Democrats are losing because liberalism has become cruel, The Spectator
The British Barack Obama?, The Weekly Dish
James Bennet was right, Washington Post
Is Tim Ryan the Last of the Midwestern Union Democrats?, The New Yorker
Joe Biden attempts the biggest overhaul of America’s economy in decades, The Economist
How Team Biden Tried to Coup-Proof Brazil’s Elections, Foreign Policy
Political Correctness Is Losing, New York Magazine
America is now a tyranny of the minority, Washington Post
Leaked Documents Outline DHS’s Plans to Police Disinformation, The Intercept
Threads I’m watching:
Midterms – do I have to say it? Let’s see how this all pans out.
Twitter. Now that I’ve got my intial barage of thoughts out about Elon’s purchase of the bird app, what’s next? How’s he gunna make this damn thing profitable?
Kim Jung-un has yet to test that nuke. But he’s sure doing everything short of that. On Thursday, he launched an Intercontinental Ballistic Missile that apparently failed in flight. Looks like he’s trying to perfect the delivery mechanism he would hypothetically use to hit America with a nuke. Talk about detterrence. Man, has this lil’ man made strides! His dad must be proud.
Finally, a bit of breaking news. Axios reports Trump is looking to officially declare his decision to run in the 2024 Presidential Election on November 14th, after the midterm results are in. Buckle up.