CSotD: The Falcon Isn’t Listening
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Does anybody even care about Ronald Reagan anymore? His presidency (1981-89) is cited as the starting point for the Republican revolution, though many more politicians and commentators were involved in that movement. But Reagan was more than a figurehead; he was active and charismatic and, as Ohman recalls, intent on uniting the nation, even if it meant uniting them all on his side of the aisle.
But if you are 35 or younger, you weren’t born yet, and if you’re 45, you likely have only an impression of him rather than a focused memory of his presidency. The median age of Americans is 39.1, meaning that those of us who remember Reagan should be tolerant of those who do not.
Which perhaps explains why he is no longer held up as a saint even by the conservatives who so admired him back then, but another factor is that, as strong as his conservative bona fides were, he still governed all Americans, not just those who voted for him.
Donald Trump not only speaks of “the enemy from within” but has sent the military to occupy Democratic cities and has announced plans to withhold federal funding from states that did not vote for him in 2024. You shouldn’t have to remember Reagan to recognize this as going against the principles of our nation, and Telnaes points out the source of the threat.
Too strong? Too partisan? Read about the raid on a Chicago apartment building, in which naked children were hauled out in the middle of the night, zip-tied to each other and separated from their parents as their homes were trashed and left open to looters.
Their crime was being poor, living in a Blue city and having Venezuelan neighbors. Meanwhile, Kosplay Kristi was leading a raid on people in nearby Elgin complete with choppers and smoke grenades.
German cartoonist Yousef Alimohammadi criticizes authorities for using firehoses to quell demonstrations instead of for putting out fires, and the scene is reminiscent of our Civil Rights Movement, in which demonstrators were blasted with firehoses and attacked by police dogs.
But at least they had gone into the streets understanding the risks they faced. It’s quite a different thing when federal troops turn their violence on people for the crime of living in a place that voted wrong, or for coming from another country, or for looking as if they might have.
Or, in the case of the children, having been born to the wrong sorts of people.
Meanwhile, National Guard, federal officers and police in Memphis have been, in the words of Stephen Miller, unleashed and freed to set upon residents with bats, with guns and with no limitations. As a state, Tennessee voted for Trump, but the county that includes Memphis went for Harris.
So I guess if you live in Nashville, you’re safe, which may be the worst part of this whole thing. The brutality is falling on specific places and, within those places, largely upon the poor.
If you are white, middle-class and live in a safe area, it’s like reading about an earthquake on another continent: You shake your head, say “tsk-tsk” and then go on with your life.
Others may find out more about our government than they wanted to know.
Juxtaposition of the Day
There’s a certain “told ya so” in operation, because during the 2024 campaign, Kamala Harris repeatedly said that Trump was aiming to impose the extreme right-wing principles of Project 2025, the Heritage Foundation’s extensive plan to reshape American government.
At the time, as de Adder recalls, Trump dismissed the notion, claiming he’d never even heard of the plan, even as he beefed up his staff with some 140 of the people who had written the book.
Finally, he’s feeling confident enough in his foot soldiers to take off the mask and admit that he is a willing tool, following the orders of the architects of the plan.
He specifies his target as the enemy, “Democrat Agencies,” using the shortened partisan term for the Democratic Party to emphasize that he’s carrying out an actual purge. And he refers to “Radical Left Democrats” which leaves out the vast majority of members of that party, unless he’s purposely indulging in propaganda.
Y’know, the way official government publications add partisan Republican messages in violation of ethics rules.
Matson notes that the Republicans may well be welcoming the current government shutdown, refusing to compromise in order to force a crisis that will help advance their Project 2025 goals by weakening public support for Democrats.
Ramirez takes the cue and declares that the shutdown is a result of Democrats insisting on getting their way. That seems more than an oversimplification, given that the Democrats were open to negotiating some compromise that would maintain a reasonable level of healthcare funding.
The Republicans offered a bill that would maintain the status quo for a month, but didn’t explain why quarreling over things then would yield a different result than working them out now.
Bramhall accuses the Democrats of gambling with the shutdown, but here’s a problem at least with his metaphor, if not his analysis: Craps is a game in which understanding probability can genuinely pay off. Knowing the odds doesn’t guarantee a win, but it sure makes it a lot more likely.
In that way, it is an honest version of the classic WC Fields exchange:
Gambler: Say, is this a game of chance?
Cuthbert J. Twillie: Not the way I play it.
However, it’s different playing against someone with massive TV networks and chains of newspapers altering the odds.
If the odds were being fairly applied, things might be different, but with Fox, Sinclair and others leaning on the table, who knows how the dice will roll?
As it is, ain’t nobody winning a lot of popularity contests, though this poll was taken before the shutdown and before the secret police had begun hammering down doors and dragging children from their beds.
While, for the moment at least,
Turning and turning in the widening gyre
The falcon cannot hear the falconer;
Things fall apart; the centre cannot hold;
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