Biden Establishes Antisemitism Task Force

The United States has an antisemitism problem. One would hope and expect that the debacle of the 1940s would have put people off that way of thinking forever, but not so much. Indeed, while the country as a whole is better on this front than it was, say, in 1939, there's a pretty good argument to be made that it's still worse than it was in, say, 1789. There aren't too many ways in which denizens of the eighteenth century were more tolerant than denizens of the twenty-first century, but this might be one of them.

Part of the reason that antisemitism is currently rearing its ugly head is, to be very blunt, the Republican Party. Not all Republicans, of course. But there are many people in the Trumpist wing of the party who may be pro-Israel, yet who are pretty clearly anti-Jew. On top of that, there is the well-established propensity of the Trumpists to traffic in antisemitic tropes. Consider, for example, this tweet that we noted Sean Spicer re-tweeting last week:

George Soros – the biggest Democrat donor – uses his network of 253 media organizations worldwide to push his radical views to the public. https://t.co/9KDXSMomvL

— NewsBusters (@newsbusters) December 6, 2022

In other words, "Jewish guy uses shadowy underground network to control the media." When Spicer gloms onto this, does he not realize he's perpetuating antisemitic stereotypes? We assume that he's clever enough to grasp the subtext here. On the other hand, as we noted in our item about him last week, he's never exactly seemed to be the sharpest tool in the shed. So, maybe not? What it amounts to is that he's either a bigot or a useful idiot. That tweet isn't even a little bit subtle.

Anyhow, in view of this ongoing national disease, the White House announced yesterday that it is going to form an anti-antisemitism task force. The group will be led by members of the Domestic Policy Council and the National Security Council, and will meet with leaders across the nation to formulate strategies for combating antisemitism.

On one hand, it is good to see a presidential administration trying to tackle this problem. On the other hand, blue-ribbon panels, task forces, listening tours and their ilk rarely seem to produce much in the way of substance. And that's true even with fairly mundane problems, like the best way to spend $1 billion to improve the nation's bridges. Antisemitism is an unusually pernicious problem, one that's been around for something like 10 times as long as the United States has. So, we'll see if the Biden initiative can make a dent, but we're not exactly holding our breath.

Meanwhile, as long as we're on this subject, the organization StopAntisemitism yesterday announced the winner of the oh-so-coveted title of 2022 Antisemite of the Year:

Yep, it's presidential dinner companion and all-around swell fellow Ye (nee Kanye West).

We have many questions about this "honor." How long has it been awarded? Does the winner get a trophy? If so, what does the trophy look like? Can a person win multiple times, or is more of a lifetime achievement award? Is Ye really the worst antisemite in the land? Worse than, say, David Duke or Nick Fuentes? And, most importantly, does holding Ye (or last year's winner, Anuradha Mittal) up to ridicule actually accomplish something? That's an honest question, and we haven't the faintest idea what the answer is. (Z)

Republicans Coming to Jesus on Mail-in Voting...

The math seems pretty clear to us, even without input from the staff mathematician. If Party A is encouraging its voters to vote by mail or on Election Day, and Party B says voting by mail is a scam and that its voters should only vote on Election Day, then Party A has a very clear advantage. After all, things can happen on Election Day, from bad weather to long lines to car troubles. If Election Day is, in effect, Option B for a party's voters, then the odds that those voters' ballots will actually be cast are far better.

Needless to say, this is not just a hypothetical. Party A is the Democrats, and they have been trouncing Party B, the Republicans, in mail-in voting for the last 2+ years. It is not so easy for Republican candidates in purple states to wake up on Election Day knowing they are in hole, and hoping they can run up the score enough with the in-person voting in order to make up the difference.

In view of this, and in view of the borderline fiasco that the Republican Party went through last month, prominent Republicans up and down the line are calling for the Party to embrace mail-in balloting. That includes RNC Chair Ronna Romney McDaniel, as well as Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-KY) and House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy (R-CA). It includes some of the most prominent would-be 2024 presidential candidates, like Gov. Ron DeSantis (R-FL) and Nikki Haley. Much of the Fox crew, including Sean Hannity and Laura Ingraham, has fallen into line. So have many Republican talking heads, including Karl Rove and Kellyanne Conway.

The careful reader will notice one name missing from that list. Donald Trump continues to rail against mail-in voting, reiterating his opposition to the practice multiple times during the most recent election cycle. This despite the fact that the former president always casts his own ballot via mail. In any case, there are a lot of Republicans who believe whatever the Dear Leader tells them to believe. So, if the GOP muckety-mucks want to make real progress on this issue, they either have to be willing to challenge the former president directly (fat chance) or they have to somehow convince him to support mail-in voting.

There is a downside for the Republicans if they now support mail-in voting. Many of the voter-suppression techniques they use don't work with mail-in voting. For example, that old favorite of having one polling station for all of (Democratic) Milwaukee but also one polling station for every (Republican) rural village of 50 people doesn't work if people can mail their ballots in. Also, laws thay forbid people from providing food and drink to people standing on line for 6 hours don't work if you can fill out your ballot in your own kitchen and then drop it in any mailbox. In addition, rejecting absentee ballots for the smallest error (voter didn't dot the letter "i" in the signature on the envelope) will start to hit Republican votes as well. And then what about having Postmaster General Louis DeJoy try to ruin the postal system so the ballots don't arrive on time? Many of those ballots that miss the deadline may be Republican ballots. Hadn't counted on that. Oops. The one trick that still works is requiring the voter to provide a photocopy of a valid ID along with the absentee ballot, but Democrats can run ads, etc. to inform voters about this. The bottom line is that encouraging everyone to vote by mail may undermine some of the voter-suppression law the Republicans have been carefully designing of late.

That, in turn, raises the question of exactly where Trump's opposition to mail-in voting is coming from. It could be that someone—Stephen Miller, Jared Kushner, etc.—got to him and convinced him that mail-in voting means more people get to vote, and more people getting to vote means Democrats do better. If so, then Trump might be persuaded that's not true anymore, and to reverse his position on this subject.

However, we suspect that what was really going on here is that Trump suspected he was going to lose the 2020 election and he preemptively decided that mail-in voting would make an excellent scapegoat. Or maybe he just figured it out in real-time, as the returns rolled in. In any event, he remains obsessed with "stop the steal." And if he's decided that railing against mail-in voting is essential to peddling "stop the steal," he's never, ever going to change his position on the issue. (Z)

...But They Still Suck at E-mail

As a general rule, Republicans are convinced that Big Tech discriminates against them. And, in their mind, that includes the big e-mail providers, most prominently Gmail. The so-called problem is serious enough that Sen. Steve Daines (R-MT) wrote an op-ed on the subject earlier this year. He declares:

A new, nonpartisan study from researchers at North Carolina State University has unmistakably exposed Big Tech's most egregious attempt to tilt the scale toward left-wing candidates. Ahead of the 2020 elections, the researchers found that Gmail, the most used email platform in the world, was a whopping seven times more likely to send conservative candidates' emails to a spam folder than it was to send left-wing candidates' emails to that unwanted destination.

By making it more difficult for right-of-center candidates to convey their message to voters, Gmail's political bias dramatically hurt Republican candidates while benefiting their Democrat counterparts. This is unacceptable.

Daines and 20 of his closest Republican friends in the Senate have even introduced a bill, the Political Bias In Algorithm Sorting Emails Act of 2022, or Political BIAS Emails Act of 2022, to address the problem. It is interesting how selective the GOP's support for laissez-faire economics seems to be.

A pair of Republicans, namely Erick Erickson (writing for his own blog) and Corbin Barthold (writing for The Bulwark), have taken a look at the problem and reached the same basic conclusion: The Republicans' problems are actually their own fault.

To start—although this has little to do with the spam filtering—the Republicans are pretty terrible at e-mail marketing. Both parties abuse e-mail (and thus their supporters), but the GOP takes things to extremes. Republican operatives send a much greater volume of e-mail than their counterparts. The red team is more likely to send marketing messages to people who did not sign up for them, and is less respectful of unsubscribe requests. Further, Republican e-mail pitches tend to be much more over-the-top, both in terms of verbiage about "the enemy," but also in terms of claims about the benefits of donating. Barthold, for example, highlights an e-mail that claims that recipients had "ONE HOUR" to send money that would produce a "3400% IMPACT INCREASE." He wonders, as do we, exactly what a "3400% IMPACT INCREASE" is, and why it's not a 3300% IMPACT INCREASE or a 3500% IMPACT INCREASE. Finally, Republicans are more likely to engage in shenanigans, like automatically signing people up for recurrent donations.

These things don't have much to do with the very real fact that Republican e-mails are much more likely to be filtered as spam than Democratic e-mails. That's not to say there is zero impact; frequency of e-mails is a trigger for spam filters. Further, if people feel harassed, and they don't see a better way to close the spigot, they might "teach" their mail client that messages from, say gop.com are spam.

However, the primary source of the Republicans' spam problem is that, on the whole, they practice terrible e-mail hygiene. E-mail frequency is actually a part of that, so is sending multiple copies of the same e-mail to the same person (which will happen when commingling various e-mail lists). It's also a problem to send an e-mail to too many recipients at the same time. Further, some campaigns (ahem, Marco Rubio) did not properly configure their e-mail accounts for proper authentication (in other words, the receiving servers could not confirm that the e-mails came from the source that the e-mails claimed to be from). Including too many images, as Republican campaigns are wont to do, is another red flag for spam filters.

Democrats, on the whole, tend to be more tech savvy when it comes to campaigning. For example, they got ActBlue up, and running, and raking in the money, much earlier than the Republicans were able to get WinRed operating. And the blue team's tech skill extends to fundraising e-mails; they may use some of the same sleazy marketing tricks, but they don't use them as often, and they are careful to avoid the various e-mail hygiene issues that the Republicans have yet to fully grasp.

There are two lessons here. The first is that the GOP hand-wringing and teeth-gnashing about how unfair Facebook/Gmail/Snapchat/etc. are to right-wingers may well be a bunch of hot air and ignorance. The second is that whether or not there's any substance, the carping works very well. Sensitive to attacks from the right, and fearful of legislation or other oversight, Gmail has loosened its spam filters for political e-mails in general and for Republican e-mails in particular. So, the next time you have a chance at a 3400% IMPACT INCREASE, you will likely know about it without having to look in the spam filter. (Z)

Tim Scott for President?

It's still so long until the 2024 presidential election, we feel a little silly writing about relatively unsubstantial scuttlebutt like this. Still, we think there's some meaningful subtext here. So, we will pass along that quite a few Republican senators are talking a big game about the possibility of Sen. Tim Scott (R-SC) running for president.

Note that Scott himself is not saying much one way or another, which means he's certainly thinking about a run. And now, let's talk about the subtext. The most obvious point here is that the senators really, really don't want Donald Trump to be their presidential candidate again. Almost as obvious is that they are not enthused about Ron DeSantis. Maybe that's because he's not one of their own, or maybe it's because they think he's ultimately a poor candidate, or maybe both. The Scott fans are similarly not excited about other members of their ranks, including Sens. Josh Hawley (R-MO), Tom Cotton (R-AR), Rick Scott (R-FL), Ted Cruz (R-TX) and Marco Rubio (R-FL). The former three have already said they're not planning to run in 2024, and the latter two will either wake up and smell the coffee or else will get trounced in the primaries (again).

Of course, the support for Scott also reflects the ongoing Republican delusion that if they just nominate a candidate of color, minority voters will flock to the GOP banner in droves. This is not going to happen; that sort of identity politics does not really operate at the presidential level. Or maybe it does. Is it conceivable that some Republicans, especially in swingish states in the South like North Carolina and Georgia simple won't vote for a Black person? Been there, done that, didn't like the result. Beyond that, having the "right" type of candidate does not make up for having the wrong type of platform.

The real lesson here is this: Although the Republicans have many officeholders who look in the mirror and see a future president, the bench is actually kind of thin, because most of them appear to be unelectable. Even if the GOP manages to jettison Trump, who sure looks likes a loser, it is not going to be easy to find a candidate who won't be an underdog to Joe Biden or one of a dozen other Democrats. That's why the people who run the Republican Party are already desperately casting about for someone. (Z)

Victory Has Many Fathers, Defeat Is an Orphan... Especially in Congress

The 2024 campaign is underway, and that means that the two major parties need to figure out who is going to oversee their campaign committees for this cycle. The Republicans will likely wait to answer that question until the situation in the House is figured out. The Democrats, on the other hand, are ready to move full steam ahead.

Let's start with the Senate. Sen. Gary Peters (D-MI) did a heckuva job running the Democratic Senate Campaign Committee (DSCC) this cycle. Not only did all of the incumbents keep their seats (which is the chair's #1 job), but the party also flipped the seat in Pennsylvania. So, Peters' colleagues would very much like him to hold onto the job for another 2 years.

Peters, for his part, is not so sure. He concedes that he enjoyed running the DSCC this cycle, but says he's just not certain he wants to do it again. He might not say it openly, but the Senator knows full well that the Democrats have a brutal map in 2024, and that if things go badly, the DSCC chair is going to get a lot of blame, fair or not. Maybe Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-NY) will manage to twist Peters' arm and get him to sign up again. Failing that, nobody knows who might do the job. Maybe they can stick Sen.-elect John Fetterman (D-PA) with it.

On the other side of the Capitol, meanwhile, the dynamic is very nearly the opposite. The Republicans now control a majority of the small fraction of seats that are actually in play. 2024 is a presidential year, which tends to favor the Democrats. And, by all indications, the House GOP Conference is preparing to spend the next 2 years shooting itself in the foot with score settling and muckraking, and relatively little in the way of governance.

Consequently, 2024 should be a good year for Democrats when it comes to the House. And the chair of the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee (DCCC) is wide open, since current occupant Rep. Sean Patrick Maloney (D-NY) just lost his seat. So, there are at least two House members champing at the bit: Ami Bera and Tony Cardenas (both D-CA). There may be others whose identities are not yet public. House Minority Leader-elect Hakeem Jeffries (D-NY) gets to make the choice all by himself; it will be his first really big decision. Assuming he picks one from Bera and Cardenas to run the DCCC, maybe he can send the other one down the hall to run the DSCC.

In any event, it may be nearly 2 years until Election Day, but the outlines of the 2024 election cycle are, in many ways, already quite clear. (Z)

Braun, Ricketts Make It Official

Gov. Pete Ricketts (R-NE) would like to be a senator. Sen. Mike Braun (R-IN) would like to be a governor. These aspirations were not really a secret, but in the last week, both men made things official.

In Ricketts' case, he's term-limited, so if he wants to continue his career in politics, the most attractive option is the seat that is going to be vacated by Sen. Ben Sasse (R-NE) on January 8 of next year. That is also the day that Ricketts' term ends, which is undoubtedly not a coincidence. The Governor could easily call up the Senator, ask him to resign one day early, and then appoint himself to the seat. However, Ricketts decided he didn't like those optics. So, he's going to "submit an application" to his successor, Gov.-elect Jim Pillen (R-NE) and let Pillen make the appointment. How good are the Governor's chances that his application is accepted? Well, Pillen was able to triumph in his tough primary thanks to Ricketts' endorsement, Ricketts' campaigning on his behalf, and a generous $100,000 donation from the Ricketts family. In other words, non-Ricketts candidates need not apply.

As to Braun, he just doesn't like being a medium-sized fish in a big pond. He wants to be the biggest fish, even if it's in a much smaller pond. So, the Senator filed the necessary paperwork for a gubernatorial run last week and he made his official announcement yesterday. The press conference was held at a chichi steakhouse in Indianapolis called Prime 47. That name comes from the restaurant's address, which is 47 Pennsylvania Avenue. Note that whoever succeeds Joe Biden will be the 47th president and will live at Pennsylvania Avenue. Is Braun engaging in a little bit of subliminal suggestion as to his post-gubernatorial plans?

These various games of musical chairs aren't going to change anything very much. All four men here are plenty conservative, and there is little chance that the Democrats will be able to contest either of the Senate seats; Indiana and Nebraska are just too red these days. Ricketts certainly knows how to keep his nose clean, so the only possibility for things to get interesting is if the Indiana GOP nominates a real nutter to be Braun's replacement. We're talking a candidate even worse than Herschel Walker or Mehmet Oz, which might not be physically possible. (Z)

Special Election for McEachin's Seat Is Set

Gov. Glenn Youngkin (R-VA) announced yesterday that he has scheduled the election necessitated by the death of Rep. Donald McEachin (D-VA). It will be held on February 21 of next year. The candidates will be chosen by the local party organs no later than December 23.

Virginia law is surprisingly imprecise when it comes to special House elections. The relevant statute says only that "When any vacancy occurs in the representation of the Commonwealth of Virginia in the House of Representatives, or when a representative-elect dies or resigns, the Governor shall issue a writ of election to fill the vacancy." That actually adds nothing that is not already in the U.S. Constitution, which reads: "When vacancies happen in the Representation from any State, the Executive Authority thereof shall issue Writs of Election to fill such Vacancies."

In other words, Youngkin could theoretically have scheduled the election for tomorrow, or for December of next year. The local Democratic Party, who will effectively decide which person will fill the seat, is already complaining about the short timeline, so the Governor has plenty of cover for pushing things to February. However, it has undoubtedly occurred to him that the new representative will not be seated until well after the choose-the-next-speaker soap opera. The absence of one Democratic vote makes wannabe Speaker Kevin McCarthy's life a wee bit easier, as it makes some sort of Democratic-Republican moderate alliance a wee bit tougher to pull off. (Z)

A December to Rhymember, Part VII: Oh Ye, of Little Faith

We're going to take our cue from the first item above, which means today's verse has a much more serious tone. Let's start with a piece entitled "Conman's Sonnet" from L.M. in Tampa, FL:

They still believe in the golden god,
who cheats at home,
who cheats abroad,
who will not call the righteous friends,
and flatters vicious enemies,
and pursues only greedy ends,
and will betray the very ones
that offer troth.
When the edifice of falseness falls,
who will the godling blame
to save his skin, to clear his name?
Here's another query:
Is he malicious? or merely mercenary?
Both, I think. I think it's both.

L.M. adds: "By the way, I think the answer to the 'who' question above is getting clearer, given the news about Kanye and Fuentes and the Constitution: eventually it will be everyone, but before that it will be Jews."

And then there is this, from P.J. in Simsbury, CT

Trumpty Dumpty wanted a wall.
Trumpty Dumpty had a great fall.
All of the MAGA women and men
Couldn't put Trumpty together again.

"Make me your leader," old Trumpty implored.
"I promise you this—you'll never be bored!"
The Capitol rioters most surely agreed
That Trumpty is all you ever would need.

Trumpty Dumpty said, "Ban all the Muslims,
The Mexicans, too—all of those hoodlums.
We want a country that is pure and all white.
All of those foreigners are hugely a blight."

She's just not my type if she's less than an eight.
Grabbing her pu**y just wouldn't be great.
Those loser accusers are all telling lies...
It's locker room banter with one of the guys!

I love all my Trumpers, especially Nick.
Herschel and Kanye I also would pick
To be my close friend or maybe VP.
I really don't know—I'll just wait and see.

That Nancy, she really would not settle down,
And Dick should tell Liz not to act like a clown!
What's Kellyanne doing to talk to that crew?
They all should just love me, not call it a coup!

We don't know if critical verse helps anymore than naming the 2022 Antisemite of the Year, but it can't hurt. And we continue to welcome submissions, of course. (Z)

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