Lili Loofbourow/Slate:
Why Joe Biden Gets Away With It
Of the aforementioned items, the plagiarism might be both the least concerning and the most instructive. While Biden’s campaign seems to have copied some language from the BlueGreen Alliance and the Center for Climate and Energy Solutions, this, as Politico points out, is far from exceptional. Plenty of other campaigns have done much the same thing. The issue for Biden is that the incident hooks up with a reputation problem: an earlier instance of plagiarism that caused him to pull out of the 1988 presidential race.
What remains concerning about that history is Biden’s tendency to enthusiastically claim life experiences that aren’t his own, whether because it’s politically advantageous or rhetorically exciting to do so. He didn’t just use hefty chunks from a published law review for a 15-page paper in law school. He didn’t just lift some phrases from Bobby Kennedy. In 1987, Biden started borrowing not just language but biographical details from U.K. Labour Party leader Neil Kinnock, citing nonexistent coal-mining ancestors and wondering aloud why he was the first in his family to go to college (he wasn’t). Biden also lied—repeatedly, and despite being repeatedly corrected—about marching for civil rights. He has (correctly!) said that he helped in other ways, but he did not march; that didn’t stop him from claiming he did and inviting people to “remember” those brave actions with him. Why would someone do this? …
One answer might help explain Biden’s appeal today. In certain environments, and contemporary politics has become one of them, lies and mistakes become love tests: If you mess up enough for long enough, while convincing people you’re on their side, plenty of folks will come to find your mistakes not just negligible but charming. They’re proof of your humanity.
Keep in mind Uncle Joe has a talent for empathy at the retail level. He’s also got that nostalgia thing going for him. Although he’s no lock, he just might continue to get away with it, at least with some voters.
McClatchy:
Why Trump may have an unexpected weakness with rural voters in 2020
Since Clinton’s defeat, Democrats have debated whether the party should emphasize reaching out to Trump voters or mobilizing their own electoral base. For many activists, trying to win over Trump supporters is a waste of resources for a voter bloc in lockstep support of the president.
Democrats who see a way to make inroads in rural regions say this mindset is a mistake.
“There’s an opportunity to improve there, but we have to connect and we have to commit,” said J.B. Poersch, president of Senate Majority PAC. “There have to be resources at the table here.”
Nate Cohn/Upshot:
Politicians Draw Clear Lines on Abortion. Their Parties Are Not So Unified.
It’s one of the most polarizing issues in America, and a political litmus test. But surveys find many voters struggle with its ethical and moral perplexities.
Jennifer Victor/Medium:
How Trump Remade the Republican Party in His Image
Trump took advantage of weak glue holding the GOP together
While Trump remains relatively unpopular — his overall approval rating hovers somewhere in the 40th percentile and has never topped>46% — his popularity among Republicans is around 90%. With strong support from his own party, it is unsurprising that his co-partisans in the Senate would remain loyal. On the other hand, as former president Bill Clinton’s improprieties came to light, he began to lose support among Democrats, and the same is true for Republicans during the Richard Nixon impeachment (although neither lost the total support of their party). But Trump, by some standards has already been shown to have violated more norms (or maybe laws) than Nixon or Clinton did, and remains steadfastly supported by nearly all Republicans. Why?
A look back at Trump’s road to the White House can help explain his ability to withstand scrutiny. Trump ran as an outsider in 2016 and took advantage of a lack of policy coherence in the Republican Party. When he won the Republican nomination, and then the White House, he became the leader of the party. As its leader, he commands immense power to shape the party and define what it stands for.
In essence, Trump did to the Republican Party what he’s done for his real estate properties around the world: First, he purchases or builds a property, then he boldly features the “TRUMP” name on the property, and promotes it as a high-end, exclusive product that everyone wants. This may or may not be a successful strategy in real estate (or steaks, or bottled water, or golf courses), but it is a highly unusual way to build or brand a political party.
You basically have to have no morals and no conscience to pull this off.
Ann Mah/ TIME (2018):
This Picture Tells a Tragic Story of What Happened to Women After D-Day
They called it the épuration sauvage, the wild purge, because it was spontaneous and unofficial. But, yes, it was savage, too. In the weeks and months following the D-Day landings of June 6, 1944, Allied troops and the resistance swept across France liberating towns and villages, and unleashing a flood of collective euphoria, relief and hope. And then the punishments began.
The victims were among the most vulnerable members of the community: Women. Accused of “horizontal collaboration” — sleeping with the enemy — they were targeted by vigilantes and publicly humiliated. Their heads were shaved, they were stripped half-naked, smeared with tar, paraded through towns and taunted, stoned, kicked, beaten, spat upon and sometimes even killed.
One photograph from the era shows a woman standing in a village as two men forcibly restrain her wrists; a third man grabs a hank of her blonde hair, his scissors poised to hack it away. Just as the punished were almost always women, their punishers were usually men, who acted with no legal mandate or court-given authority. Although some were loyal resistance members, others had themselves dabbled in collaborationist activity and were anxious to cleanse their records before the mob turned on them, too. About 6,000 people were killed during the épuration sauvage — but the intense, cruel, public ferocity of the movement focused not on serious collaborationist crime. Instead, it zeroed in on women accused of consorting with the enemy.
WaPo:
For Democrats, Trump impeachment question is a personal struggle transcending politics
The Democrats can be broken down largely into three categories.
There are the waverers — torn between leadership that opposes impeachment and a fiery base that demands it. There are the skeptics, echoing Pelosi’s fear that impeachment would only make way for a Senate acquittal and a political triumph for Trump. And there are the die-hards determined to press for the ouster of a president they consider a singular threat to the republic.
Rep. Veronica Escobar (D-Tex.), a freshman representing a heavily Democratic border district, is emblematic of the personal and political struggle facing each member of the caucus.
“I am terrified of another four years of Donald Trump,” Escobar said. “But I cannot ignore the oath that I took to uphold the Constitution and to defend our country against all enemies, foreign and domestic.”
This story, read in whole, is a good marker of where we are.
Iowa poll time!!!
Maine Beacon:
New state ballad honors 20th Maine, despite pro-Confederate objections
The stirring anthem recorded and performed by the band The Ghost of Paul Revere tells the story of the 20th Maine Volunteer Infantry Regiment, which fought for the Union Army under General Joshua Chamberlain in the American Civil War. The regiment is best known for its brave defense of Little Round Top at the Battle of Gettysburg on July 2, 1863.
“Music transcends the bounds of time, distance, language, and culture to bring people together,” said Mills as she signed the legislation. “The ‘Ballad of the 20th Maine’ does just that by reminding us of our proud heritage, the role our great state has played in the history of our nation, and to be forever grateful to those who served and saved our country.”
The bill to enshrine the ballad was sponsored by Rep. Scott Cuddy (D-Winterport) and passed without objection in both chambers. It did see some initial opposition in the legislature’s State and Local Government Committee, however, where two Republicans raised objections that the song’s unabashedly pro-Union message may be unfair to the South.
“I find it a little bit, we are united states, we are not Union, we are united states. And I find it just a little bit – I won’t say offensive but that’s what I mean – to say that we’re any better than the South was,” said Rep. Frances Head (R-Bethel) during a May 1st public hearing on the bill.
“I am a lover of history and especially a lover of the civil war period and regardless of what side people fought on, they were fighting for something they truly believed in,” said Rep. Roger Reed (R-Carmel), who specifically praised Confederate General Robert E. Lee. “Many of them were great Christian men on both sides. They fought hard and they were fighting for states’ rights as they saw them.”
I hadn’t realized Maine was a traitor — er, sorry — Confederate state. Live and learn.
Thread:
Virginia Heffernan/LA Times:
The cheater in the Oval Office should be banished from the tribe
But because our norms appear to be inadequate to the current catastrophe in the White House, Trump is not yet in handcuffs. So while Congress equivocates about the Mueller report and its implications for impeachment, voters ought to recognize a more homespun truth that it doesn’t take a degree in con law to understand.
The president is a cheater.
Rural issues alert:
And now for something completely different:
Politico:
Trump backlash sparks avalanche of 2020 policy proposals
The sheer multitude of policy proposals is staggering
“The one thing you’ll always hear in focus group research is, ‘I want to see the plan,’” [Doug Herman, a California-based Democratic strategist] said. “But what that translates to in real life is that they want to see you hold up a stack of papers and say, ‘This is my plan.’ Most voters don’t really care what’s in it. They just want to know you have a plan.”
They haven’t read the Mueller report either.