Good morning to all APR denizens! (Rikon Snow’s “Rikon Reads” is here.)
Let’s jump right on in with former National Security Advisor Susan Rice, who writes in the New York Times about the assassination of Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps commander Qassem Suleimani and what it means for American relationships with Iran and the Middle East.
In deciding to eliminate General Suleimani, Mr. Trump and his team argue they were acting in self-defense to thwart imminent attacks on Americans in Iraq and the region. This may be true, as General Suleimani was a ruthless murderer and terrorist with much American blood on his hands. Unfortunately, it’s hard to place confidence in the representations of an administration that lies almost daily about matters large and small and, even in this critical instance, failed to brief, much less consult, bipartisan leaders in Congress.
Second, even if the killing of General Suleimani is justified by self-defense, it doesn’t make it strategically wise. Given the demonstrably haphazard and shortsighted nature of the Trump administration’s national security decision-making process (including calling off strikes against Iran 10 minutes before impact, inviting the Taliban to Camp David and abandoning the Kurds), it’s doubtful the administration spent much time gaming out the second and third order consequences of their action or preparing to protect American military and diplomatic personnel in the region.
Hayes Brown at Buzzfeed writes that the assassination of Soleimani fits the character of pretty much everything else that Trump has ever done; that is, it’s cheap and with an eye toward the appearance of toughness.
Because in every crisis and conflict that he has faced since becoming commander in chief, Trump has defaulted to the bluster that made him both an ever-present figure and perennial laughingstock in New York’s elite circles. For someone who absorbed the cutthroat tactics that both Fred Trump and lawyer-slash-boogeyman Roy Cohn wielded, power has always been about brute force. And if you don’t have the means to back that force up? You wave it off and approach your next target, bullying and pushing and cajoling until your way is the only way.
It was the declaration that he would be tougher than anyone on immigration that helped him net the Republican nomination in 2016. It was his willingness to turn on anyone who showed him the slightest disloyalty that made him the GOP’s only voice after he won the election, using his Twitter account to target anyone who would cross him. And it’s that desire to keep everyone and everything off-balance and afraid that has been at the center of his foreign policy.
And now...for some of the stupidest sh*t that I’ve ever seen.
Moving right along...
Ruben Navarrette, Jr. writes a post-mortem on the now suspended presidential campaign of his friend, Julian Castro, over at The Daily Beast.
At one point, a few months ago, there were more than two dozen people seeking the Democratic nomination for president and the chance to lock horns with Donald Trump in the general election in November. This means that, when all was said and done, and the debates were over, and the ad buys complete, there would be only one winner and at least 24 also-rans.
I always assumed that Castro, my friend of nearly 20 years, was likely to wind up among the latter. The odds were against him.
Don’t misunderstand. This was no reflection on Castro’s talent or political skill. He’s a smart guy, and he has a firm grasp on a number of issues. He does his homework, and puts in the miles when meeting voters. He is a quick study and strong debater. What he lacks in charisma, he makes up for in competence.
There’s so much in Navarrette’s post that I want to excerpt...you will be better off by reading the entire article.
The Washington Post’s Christopher Ingraham reports that even the MSM’s focus on rural white working class Trump voters misses the mark and is a mythology in the making.
But that focus also has perpetuated a number of myths, blurring out much of the messiness and complexity of rural life. As a Washington Post reporter who has resided in a northwest Minnesota farming community since 2016 — I wrote a book about it — I’ve had the opportunity to watch those perceptions solidify in real time, as well as compare them to the on-the-ground reality. (snip)
I want to partiuclarly focus on Myth #2
Myth #2: ‘Rural’ is synonymous with ‘white’
The unfortunate effect of such stories is that they don’t reflect the fact that a fairly large and growing share of rural Americans are, in fact, nonwhite: about 22 percent as of 2018, or more than 10 million people. Such residents often have political beliefs that are considerably different from those of their white neighbors. In contested national elections with razor-thin margins, support of rural minorities could make all the difference in a battleground state such as Pennsylvania or Wisconsin.
Alan Greenblatt, writing for The New Republic, wonders if the Democrats have finally found their version of ALEC
For decades, the left has dreamed of building an organization to rival the American Legislative Exchange Council, the conservative group that has crafted and coordinated Republican legislation in the states since the early 1970s. Every few years, it seems, a new progressive group appears—only to quickly vanish because it was unable to establish a winning strategy or sustain enough donor interest. But SiX, five years after its founding, is showing signs of staying power.
When Donald Trump was elected president, Democrats weren’t just shut out of power in Washington: The party had lost roughly 900 legislative seats during the Obama presidency. In the wake of the 2016 election, a number of groups sprang up to help the party regain power at the state level: Sister District, Forward Majority, and the National Democratic Redistricting Committee, among others. The effort has paid off—to a point. Despite Democratic gains in both 2018 and 2019, Republicans still have trifectas—control of the governorship and both legislative chambers—in 21 states, versus 15 for Democrats.
Winning office is a necessary step, but figuring out what to do once you’re in power—how to translate electoral wins into policy action—is an entirely different game. State legislators have to get up to speed on a multitude of issues. Most of them work part-time and have little or no staff. That means they have to do all their own homework, not just writing bills but figuring out how to promote them. “There are a lot of groups out there that help you get elected,” New York state Representative Nily Rozic told me. “There aren’t that many that take up the cause once you get elected.”
I’d never heard of the State Innovation Exchange and I haven’t had time to do a deep dive into what the organization has accomplished. However, one thing that rings true from Mr. Greenwood’s article is note that “Democrats’ interest in the states tends to evaporate once the party takes power in Washington.” Granted, there are a number of liberal organizations (NAACP, Planned Parenthood, Lambda Legal) that already do a lot of necessary work in the states, SiX seems to be a necessary sort of “umbrella group.” Again, I need to do a deeper dive than I have to this point.
Barbara Goldberg at Reuters reports that the American Dialect Society has chosen a Word of the Decade: ‘They’
(Reuters) - U.S. linguists on Friday chose “they” as their Word of the Decade, recognizing the growing use of third-person plural pronouns as a singular form to refer to people who identify their gender as neither entirely male nor entirely female.
Separately, the American Dialect Society bestowed its Word of the Year honors on the increasingly common practice of introducing oneself in correspondence or socially by the set of pronouns one prefers to be called by - declaring in an email, for example, “pronouns: she/her.”
The two awards were decided by some 350 member of the society at its annual meeting of academics, graduate students and word lovers who voted by a show of hands, said Ben Zimmer, a linguist and lexicographer who chairs the group’s New Words Committee.
The most popular pick for Word of the Year was “(my) pronouns,” a reflection of “how the personal expression of gender identity has become an increasing part of our shared discourse,” the society said in a statement announcing the outcome.
Finally, I would be a remiss GenXer if I did not mention the death of jazz trumpeter Jack Sheldon on December 27, 2019 at the age of 88.
Jack Sheldon, an acclaimed jazz musician whose trumpet graced the award-winning song “The Shadow of Your Smile” and who was known to TV viewers as the puckish sidekick to talk show host Merv Griffin, died Dec. 27 at 88.
His longtime manager and partner, Dianne Jimenez, confirmed the death but did not provide other details.
Mr. Sheldon was a prominent part of the vibrant West Coast jazz movement in the 1950s alongside fellow artists Art Pepper, Stan Kenton and Shorty Rogers. He also played with jazz and pop greats including Benny Goodman, Peggy Lee, Lena Horne and Frank Sinatra.
Mr. Sheldon’s tender horn solo on “The Shadow of Your Smile,” which was introduced in the 1965 film “The Sandpiper,” helped earn it song of the year at the Grammys and best original song at the Oscars.
Now I didn’t know any of that.
I only knew Jack Sheldon as a frequent voice on Schoolhouse Rock, which originally ran on ABC from 1973 to 1984.
Can’t possibly be much more GenX than Schoolhouse Rock.
Everyone have a good morning!