Welcome back to our Saturday coffee klatch with Heather Lofthouse, executive director of Inequality Media Civic Action (and my former student), where we explore the highs and lows of the past week. Pull up a chair and grab a cup. On today’s docket: — Biden’s State of the Union address. Why we think it ranks as one of the best ever.
Feb 11, 2023Liked by Robert Reich, Heather Lofthouse
This may just sound like an old codger yelling at kids to get off his lawn, but...one of my complaints about our current era is the infantilism that has taken over every facet of society. We live in an age of immediate gratification and exhibitionism. Poetry and music have been usurped by "performative expression". I could go on. Mitt Romney and Joe Biden are the faces of earlier days, when congressional members acted with gravitas, and acknowledged their responsibilities with solemnity and a sense of duty. The unhinged behavior of Republicans is a part of the Kardashian Era, perfectly epitomized by Donald J. Trump, the egotistical boy-child.
Feb 11, 2023·edited Feb 11, 2023Liked by Robert Reich
I will use my own congressional district to illustrate what I think happened to the Republicans in Congress.
For 28 years, Bill Thomas was our congressman (1979 – 2007). From 1987 to 2002, Kevin McCarthy served on the staff of Congressman Bill Thomas. When Washingtonian magazine polled congressional aides on the "best and worst" of Congress, Bill Thomas was voted #2 for "brainiest", #3 for "workhorse", and #1 for "meanest" and overwhelmingly for "hottest temper" in the House.
Bill Tomas stayed in office for 28 years, because he answered to oil, ag, mining, the real estate/development industry and the military industry (China Lake, Edwards Air Force Base, Lockheed, and Northrop).
Thomas had been in office 23 years, when a Congressional Research Service study, reported that his region was worse off than Appalachia in so many socio-economic indicators, they suggested congress consider intervening in the region. The CRS was correct. That is the reason, that our region is often referred to as colonized, apartheid or Third World.
The income gap in our district is gigantic. Mining, oil, and agriculture is back-breaking, dangerous work, for very low pay, often seasonal. We are home to the United Farmworker’s Union (Cesar Chavez and Delores Huerta) who represent some of the most exploited and lowest paid workers in the nation.
During Thomas’s time in office, the Republicans in our district built two, competing, political machines. However, both the Abernathy and the Bill Thomas machines were competing for BIG dollars from BIG corporations – NOT the votes of the underserved populations in our region.
Thomas had gained way too much power to simply retire. Thomas was known for studying testimony and research reports himself instead of relying on executive summaries from his aides. Kevin McCarthy was very well known as a puppet. His former teachers and professors say McCarthy was not a bright student (and that’s putting it nicely).
Thomas trusted McCarthy would do what he was told and when he retired, he backed McCarthy.
In a nutshell. 3 bad things happened to the Republican Party at the same time.
(1) Old Republican powerbrokers, like Bill Thomas and Mitch McConnell clung to power.
(2) Conservative Billionaire’s Think Tanks assumed the responsibility for legislation. In turn the Republican Party leadership backed puppets– not thinkers, statesmen, or brilliant politicians.
(3) The Republican base tried to get rid of the old powerbrokers with primary challenges. Conservative Billionaires squashed the uprising, by making the Tea Party dependent on them for funding.
When the conservative’s whole, stupid strategy finally backfired, it got Trump elected. Trump’s base is largely the Tea Party types who tried to clean the Republican house and failed. To keep these voters, Republicans have to make them hate and fear Democrats so much, they won't change party.
Turns out, billionaires can’t sit in Ivory Towers, and run a country with puppets. The Republican Party has no viable candidates because they did not develop them. They backed puppets, idiots, and yes-men (not leaders, skilled politicians. or legislators). What’s left of brains and thinkers in the Republican Party, do NOT have the personality, speaking skills, and appeal necessary to win elections.
The Democrats, and all of us, need to learn how to cope with idiots, because they are here to stay for a very long time.
The GOP has a serious case of arrested development. Those like MTG are teenagers dressed as adults. Wa wa wa I never got enough attention. And all the Americans who follow them are feeling the same way. What about me?? What about me?? They are self centered individuals with huge egos and even bigger inferiority complexes.
Overall the Republican Party is a disgrace to this country. They lack civility, grace, compassion and empathy all of which which President Biden exemplifies.
Extremism breeds craziness, but it also raises money! Think rooting for 'your team'. They get that feeling that , for them ; Anything goes! They can get away with breaking the rules ; even threatening anyone who is not them! I can't help but wonder where this is heading. Meanwhile : There are all those people in Turkey and Syria killed and injured by the natural disaster that is a big earthquake. Somehow, I just don't feel like watching the Superbowl. We are going to have lunch with our son, who is an hour and twenty minutes down the road. We can take football or leave it.
Playing to their base....they love their social media. In their minds, acting up gets votes.
They should know better.....and would if they hadn't sat in the back of the class and not done their homework. As Tip O'Neil and T Boone Pickens (and others) have said, "The higher the monkey climbs the tree the more people can see its ass. Or as was said in the 16th century "He doth like the ape that the higher he clymbes, the more he shews his ars."
Extremism breeds insanity. And uncouthness. President Biden rose above it all and outshone every single one of the GOP including the bored-looking guy seated behind him.
Instead of buying chocolates and flowers for my mom this Valentine’s I am sending Médecins Sans Frontières a check to aid in Syria and Turkey on her behalf. She will appreciate it much more.
Thanks for the entertaining wake-up, Professor and Heather. I like your take on football and how rivalries are so much better and healthier in sporting events than the rifts we have between our own families and friends over politics. Enjoy the game, and that seven-layer dip! A.🌻
They are extreme but they all love trump and use him as their example. They are not conservatives but flame throwers trying to own the libs. They have no political philosophy other than a destructive desire
1. Gerrymandering has left so many Republicans in safe districts.
2. In our modern political sphere, donations are driven by social media.
3. Conflict is click-bait, allowing the unalloyed crazy to come out.
Ergo, a crazy GOP.
Now (see the new "Weaponization of the Federal Gubmint" House subcommittee) the Republicans are engaged in axe-throwing while the Democrats are left being axe-catchers.
I hate football because it causes too much cerebral damage. However, my undearly departed loved the sport. He would scream: kill em, smash em and had wonderful cathartic time.
Great Kaffeeklatsch with my green matcha tea!! 😜 I don't know about Heather's axe throwing to release frustration; personally I prefer to beat up my sourdough 🤣. Great exercise and -Frust-Release with an "oh so satisfying" crunchy crust as a result. And it's healthy if you add enough whole grain!! Happy weekend!
The recent SOTU address was one of the very few times where the crudeness of MAGA was exposed as the loser card. The over-confident blowhards usually don't win when civil discourse rules. The sad reality is that TFG nd MTG are blowhards and can appear to be winning and thus get votes.
Finally, Biden trapped and embarrassed them publicly which is more than Hillary or any prominent Dem has done since 2015.
I think as long as these Republicans support and implement policies their monied doners want--tax cuts, no IRS enforcement of rich tax cheats, no social policies that help promote the less fortunate, promote ‘culture’ wars that divide and misdirect--they could not care less how these folks conduct themselves.
I see working class people feeling angry that they have been cheated, left out, and that anger was adopted by Donald Trump, who seemed wonderfully free and unafraid to them , when he said he was going to "drain the swamp." Some of my Northern Vermont Trumpster neighbors used to be Bernie supporters. He, Bernie, takes that anger and analyzes how to equalize the unjust gap between wealthy investor/ worker who actually does the work building upon our country mostly built by enslaved people. Taxing the rich and raising corporate taxes, plus giving everyone healthcare, higher education without loans, fewer destructive, expensive wars, hopefully programs that you don't have to apply for by proving how poor you are. (see Thaddeus Stevens, champion of free education)To some of those less priveledged people we Democrats are like schoolteachers, and not saying what we think about issues. Not true of Bernie Sanders and i commend Joe BIden for being open to Bernie's progressive ideas. I cant stand Biden's "Leader of the free world talk" though.
This may just sound like an old codger yelling at kids to get off his lawn, but...one of my complaints about our current era is the infantilism that has taken over every facet of society. We live in an age of immediate gratification and exhibitionism. Poetry and music have been usurped by "performative expression". I could go on. Mitt Romney and Joe Biden are the faces of earlier days, when congressional members acted with gravitas, and acknowledged their responsibilities with solemnity and a sense of duty. The unhinged behavior of Republicans is a part of the Kardashian Era, perfectly epitomized by Donald J. Trump, the egotistical boy-child.
I will use my own congressional district to illustrate what I think happened to the Republicans in Congress.
For 28 years, Bill Thomas was our congressman (1979 – 2007). From 1987 to 2002, Kevin McCarthy served on the staff of Congressman Bill Thomas. When Washingtonian magazine polled congressional aides on the "best and worst" of Congress, Bill Thomas was voted #2 for "brainiest", #3 for "workhorse", and #1 for "meanest" and overwhelmingly for "hottest temper" in the House.
Bill Tomas stayed in office for 28 years, because he answered to oil, ag, mining, the real estate/development industry and the military industry (China Lake, Edwards Air Force Base, Lockheed, and Northrop).
Thomas had been in office 23 years, when a Congressional Research Service study, reported that his region was worse off than Appalachia in so many socio-economic indicators, they suggested congress consider intervening in the region. The CRS was correct. That is the reason, that our region is often referred to as colonized, apartheid or Third World.
The income gap in our district is gigantic. Mining, oil, and agriculture is back-breaking, dangerous work, for very low pay, often seasonal. We are home to the United Farmworker’s Union (Cesar Chavez and Delores Huerta) who represent some of the most exploited and lowest paid workers in the nation.
During Thomas’s time in office, the Republicans in our district built two, competing, political machines. However, both the Abernathy and the Bill Thomas machines were competing for BIG dollars from BIG corporations – NOT the votes of the underserved populations in our region.
Thomas had gained way too much power to simply retire. Thomas was known for studying testimony and research reports himself instead of relying on executive summaries from his aides. Kevin McCarthy was very well known as a puppet. His former teachers and professors say McCarthy was not a bright student (and that’s putting it nicely).
Thomas trusted McCarthy would do what he was told and when he retired, he backed McCarthy.
In a nutshell. 3 bad things happened to the Republican Party at the same time.
(1) Old Republican powerbrokers, like Bill Thomas and Mitch McConnell clung to power.
(2) Conservative Billionaire’s Think Tanks assumed the responsibility for legislation. In turn the Republican Party leadership backed puppets– not thinkers, statesmen, or brilliant politicians.
(3) The Republican base tried to get rid of the old powerbrokers with primary challenges. Conservative Billionaires squashed the uprising, by making the Tea Party dependent on them for funding.
When the conservative’s whole, stupid strategy finally backfired, it got Trump elected. Trump’s base is largely the Tea Party types who tried to clean the Republican house and failed. To keep these voters, Republicans have to make them hate and fear Democrats so much, they won't change party.
Turns out, billionaires can’t sit in Ivory Towers, and run a country with puppets. The Republican Party has no viable candidates because they did not develop them. They backed puppets, idiots, and yes-men (not leaders, skilled politicians. or legislators). What’s left of brains and thinkers in the Republican Party, do NOT have the personality, speaking skills, and appeal necessary to win elections.
The Democrats, and all of us, need to learn how to cope with idiots, because they are here to stay for a very long time.
The GOP has a serious case of arrested development. Those like MTG are teenagers dressed as adults. Wa wa wa I never got enough attention. And all the Americans who follow them are feeling the same way. What about me?? What about me?? They are self centered individuals with huge egos and even bigger inferiority complexes.
Overall the Republican Party is a disgrace to this country. They lack civility, grace, compassion and empathy all of which which President Biden exemplifies.
It’s just sickening!!!
Extremism breeds craziness, but it also raises money! Think rooting for 'your team'. They get that feeling that , for them ; Anything goes! They can get away with breaking the rules ; even threatening anyone who is not them! I can't help but wonder where this is heading. Meanwhile : There are all those people in Turkey and Syria killed and injured by the natural disaster that is a big earthquake. Somehow, I just don't feel like watching the Superbowl. We are going to have lunch with our son, who is an hour and twenty minutes down the road. We can take football or leave it.
Playing to their base....they love their social media. In their minds, acting up gets votes.
They should know better.....and would if they hadn't sat in the back of the class and not done their homework. As Tip O'Neil and T Boone Pickens (and others) have said, "The higher the monkey climbs the tree the more people can see its ass. Or as was said in the 16th century "He doth like the ape that the higher he clymbes, the more he shews his ars."
Extremism breeds insanity. And uncouthness. President Biden rose above it all and outshone every single one of the GOP including the bored-looking guy seated behind him.
Instead of buying chocolates and flowers for my mom this Valentine’s I am sending Médecins Sans Frontières a check to aid in Syria and Turkey on her behalf. She will appreciate it much more.
Thanks for the entertaining wake-up, Professor and Heather. I like your take on football and how rivalries are so much better and healthier in sporting events than the rifts we have between our own families and friends over politics. Enjoy the game, and that seven-layer dip! A.🌻
They are extreme but they all love trump and use him as their example. They are not conservatives but flame throwers trying to own the libs. They have no political philosophy other than a destructive desire
1. Gerrymandering has left so many Republicans in safe districts.
2. In our modern political sphere, donations are driven by social media.
3. Conflict is click-bait, allowing the unalloyed crazy to come out.
Ergo, a crazy GOP.
Now (see the new "Weaponization of the Federal Gubmint" House subcommittee) the Republicans are engaged in axe-throwing while the Democrats are left being axe-catchers.
Another klatch when I am actually having my coffee while I listen! Thank you, Heather and Robert!
I hate football because it causes too much cerebral damage. However, my undearly departed loved the sport. He would scream: kill em, smash em and had wonderful cathartic time.
Great Kaffeeklatsch with my green matcha tea!! 😜 I don't know about Heather's axe throwing to release frustration; personally I prefer to beat up my sourdough 🤣. Great exercise and -Frust-Release with an "oh so satisfying" crunchy crust as a result. And it's healthy if you add enough whole grain!! Happy weekend!
The media is complicit. They give the megaphone to the outrageous; not the quietly devoted.
The recent SOTU address was one of the very few times where the crudeness of MAGA was exposed as the loser card. The over-confident blowhards usually don't win when civil discourse rules. The sad reality is that TFG nd MTG are blowhards and can appear to be winning and thus get votes.
Finally, Biden trapped and embarrassed them publicly which is more than Hillary or any prominent Dem has done since 2015.
I think as long as these Republicans support and implement policies their monied doners want--tax cuts, no IRS enforcement of rich tax cheats, no social policies that help promote the less fortunate, promote ‘culture’ wars that divide and misdirect--they could not care less how these folks conduct themselves.
First post - so just going to suggest cold brew coffee with oat milk...
I see working class people feeling angry that they have been cheated, left out, and that anger was adopted by Donald Trump, who seemed wonderfully free and unafraid to them , when he said he was going to "drain the swamp." Some of my Northern Vermont Trumpster neighbors used to be Bernie supporters. He, Bernie, takes that anger and analyzes how to equalize the unjust gap between wealthy investor/ worker who actually does the work building upon our country mostly built by enslaved people. Taxing the rich and raising corporate taxes, plus giving everyone healthcare, higher education without loans, fewer destructive, expensive wars, hopefully programs that you don't have to apply for by proving how poor you are. (see Thaddeus Stevens, champion of free education)To some of those less priveledged people we Democrats are like schoolteachers, and not saying what we think about issues. Not true of Bernie Sanders and i commend Joe BIden for being open to Bernie's progressive ideas. I cant stand Biden's "Leader of the free world talk" though.