Jonathan Chait: How to Make a Semi-Fascist Party

Paul Waldman: Republicans have found the 2022 version of ‘death panels’

While Democrats have spent the bulk of their campaign ad dollars warning voters about the threat their opponents pose to abortion rights, Republicans have focused on inflation and crime. But now it looks like the GOP has expanded its campaign agenda. Punchbowl News reports on some startling new ad expenditures.

Since Aug. 1, Republican candidates and groups have spent more than $12 million on roughly 24,000 airings of ads warning of a massive influx of IRS agents.

In other words, Republicans have found their “death panels.” Or at least, they think they have.

They could say that it’s better for our tax collection agency to have fewer resources so it won’t trouble too many taxpayers, but instead they say an army of 87,000 jackbooted IRS agents is coming for you.

That washes clean their own actions as well. So when they defund the IRS, they aren’t helping the wealthy avoid paying their fair share, they’re keeping regular folks safe from the tax Gestapo. Or as House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy (R-Calif.) recently promised, “On our very first bill, we’re going to repeal 87,000 IRS agents.”

They’ll certainly try; congressional Republicans believe few things with more conviction than the idea that wealthy people paying taxes is a moral outrage. But whenever they come up with a new “death panel,” remember that the whole point is to make you terrified of government. And because the things government is actually doing aren’t scary enough, they have to spin out horror stories that are nothing but fiction.  https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/2022/10/05/republicans-irs-death-panel/

Jonathan Capehart: Why Black people feel Jackson’s ‘seat at the table’ is ours, too

When you’re Black in America, you spend a lot of time counting firsts. The higher the first, the more we marvel (and shake our heads at how long it took to happen). The higher the first, the more the person who achieved it comes to represent how we want the nation to see us.

The latest vessel of our aspirations is Justice Ketanji Brown Jackson, the first Black woman confirmed to the Supreme Court and the third Black person ever to sit on its mahogany bench. And, man, did she show up and show out during her first week at work. But the real test — for her and us — comes in all the weeks that now follow.

Jackson spoke up early during Monday’s arguments in a case challenging the Clean Water Act, asking questions before half her colleagues did and within the first 10 minutes. On Tuesday, she took the facile reasoning about laws “deeply rooted in this Nation’s history and tradition” that Justice Samuel A. Alito Jr. used to help overturn Roe v. Wade and turned it into a sledgehammer against Alabama’s gerrymandered congressional maps.

Jackson’s skillful questioning not only set legal Twitter aglow; it also became another item of pride for African Americans, especially Black women. “I love that Justice Jackson isn’t doing the thing that a lot of Black women are expected to do when we start a new job chock full of white folks which is to be quiet and not make a fuss. To know our place,” journalist Imani Gandy tweeted. “She’s come out SWINGING and I LOVE IT.” https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/2022/10/06/jackson-supreme-court-first-arguments-progress/

Edward Luce: America Is History’s Most Successful Failing State

A key sign of a fading power is its currency losing value. Britain, like ancient Rome, could tell you a thing or two about that. By this yardstick America is close to an imperial peak. The euro is too fragmented, and China’s yuan too restricted, to threaten King Dollar’s primacy. Bitcoin is a pyramid scheme. Yet political science tells us that America is more divided than at any point since the eve of its civil war in the 1850s. Could it be defying the laws of historical gravity — a failing state that outshines its rivals?

The answer is yes, for the time being. A nation can be both rich and ungovernable for long periods. The last country anyone would compare to America is Belgium, which has been dubbed the richest “failed state” in the world. Yet US politics looks more like Belgium’s every day. https://politicalwire.com/2022/10/06/america-is-historys-most-successful-failing-state/

Tim Miller:The Most Toxic Politicians Are Dragging Us to Hell With Emails and Texts

As it turned out, grass-roots fund-raising is also what ending democracy looks like. As with any other mass movement, people-powered campaigns followed the standard Hofferian trajectory: beginning as a cause, turning into a business and becoming a racket. Our online fund-raising system is not only enriching scam artists, clogging our inboxes and inflaming the electorate; it is also empowering our politics’ most nefarious actors.

It is how Donald Trump and his cast of clueless coupsters raised nine figures to ‘stop the steal’ that they had fabricated to try to stay in power. It is one way our most extreme candidates dominate the conversation and gain power in our political system. It has redirected money from politicians who work to find compromises that might just help people, diverting it instead to those who either have no chance to win or, worse yet, can win and want to undermine that work for their own ends. And it’s hard to imagine how we can stop it. https://www.nytimes.com/2022/10/06/opinion/small-dollar-donations-online.html

Bess Levin: Get Ready For Elon Musk To Turn Twitter Into A Right-Wing Cesspool That Could Hand Trump 2024

Republicans are, for obvious reasons, excited about Mr. Musk’s taking over Twitter. But the ultimate political consequences of his ownership are harder to predict. It’s theoretically possible—though, I concede, probably unlikely—that Mr. Musk’s owning Twitter could be good for Democrats in 2022 and 2024, if it allows more Republican politicians to stake out extreme positions on Twitter that end up backfiring on them at the ballot box. But whatever moves Mr. Musk makes before 2024, it’s a good bet that they will be closely scrutinized for signs that he is putting his thumb on the scale.

As Andrew Bleeker, president of the progressive political public affairs firm Bully Pulpit Interactive, told Politico, Trump coming back to Twitter could have a “tremendous impact on 2024 elections, especially if Donald Trump is a presidential candidate. You can think of it as a $40 billion donation to the Trump campaign. Of course, Trump won’t be the only font of disinformation and hate returning to the platform should Musk take the reins. Per the Times’ Roose:

“I think there’s a serious threat to democracy,” Jessica González, co-CEO of Free Press, a nonpartisan media advocacy organization, told Politico. “I think we’ll see prolific conspiracy theories, and white supremacists return to the platform and a lot more people who hold power and who are willing to use platforms to spread hate and harassment campaigns.”

Musk has previously stated that Twitter should avoid getting involved in content regulation, and given his long, well-documented history of spreading misinformation, attacking his perceived enemies, and retaliating against people who he thinks have wronged him, it’s easy to see why. Which is pretty concerning to people who think Twitter already has a problem with misinformation and abuse (especially toward women and minorities). He’s also claimed that his interest in buying Twitter is all about his love for free speech though, obviously, he’s only actually a defender of free speech when it suits him.

Anyway, be afraid. https://www.vanityfair.com/news/2022/10/elon-musk-twitter-deal-donald-trump-right-wing-hate

Jennifer Rubin: Cheney is a strong GOP voice against election deniers. Where are the rest?

The extent to which Republican election deniers will appear on the ballot in November is horrifying. The Post reports that nearly 300 nominees openly challenge President Biden’s election, a profound lie that threatens the core of our electoral politics. This means that after the midterms, federal and state offices will be infested with individuals who are willing to lie about the 2020 election or too deluded to understand there was zero evidence of fraud.

Worse is the tepid response from Republicans who know better.

Rep. Liz Cheney (R-Wyo.) remains the shining exception that proves the rule of Republican cowardice. In addition to calling out the “Putin wing” of her party and Fox News for spreading Russian propaganda (disclosure: I am an MSNBC contributor), she slammed Arizona Republican candidates on Wednesday at an appearance at Arizona State University hosted by the McCain Institute.

It’s unfathomable that former officials who can no longer suffer political harm would remain mute in the face of the debacle for democracy that Cheney raises. All they need to say is, “I agree with Cheney. Don’t vote for any of these people.” Really, is simple honesty and patriotism that hard? https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/2022/10/06/cheney-election-deniers-republicans-arizona/

Norm Ornstein: How Far Would a Republican Majority Go?

If there is one timeworn cliché about elections, it is that the next one is the most significant in our lifetime. There is reason to believe it is true this time. Although the outcomes remain uncertain, one thing is clear: If Republicans win control of the House of Representatives, the country will face a series of fundamental challenges much greater than we have had in any modern period of divided government, including a direct and palpable threat of default and government shutdown.

The Republican majority will be more radical, reckless, and willing to employ nuclear options to achieve its goals than any of its predecessors have been, and its leadership, starting with McCarthy, will be either compliant or too weak to head off catastrophe. https://www.theatlantic.com/ideas/archive/2022/10/economy-default-2022-republican-midterm-elections/671707/

Lawrence Freedman: The consequences of Putin's weakness

For a long time Putin’s control over the media allowed him to ignore the growing gap between his claimed ambitions and the situation on the ground. It was evident from the start of the Special Military Operation on 24 February that all was not going to plan. Yet despite many subsequent setbacks, Putin continued to claim that success would eventually be Russia’s. This official optimism lasted to the end of August. Ukraine’s offensives had yet to show much progress and Russia had not given up on its own. Putin could hope that the prospect of a long cold winter ahead would lead Europe to abandon its support for Ukraine, pushing it to end the war on Russian terms.

This optimism has now evaporated and it is impossible to pretend that all is well. The costs of this doomed enterprise are being felt at home, marked by those left dead, wounded and traumatized by the fighting, and the flight of men fearful of facing a similar fate if they are sent to the front. Those in the West who doubted that Ukraine’s fight back could lead to all occupied territory being liberated assumed that Putin could be persuaded to agree some compromise deal, one that would leave him with some of Ukraine’s territory if not as much as he wanted. Yet at no point has Putin given any encouragement to such views. It has become very difficult to imagine a ‘face-saving’ deal as there is not much ‘face’ left to be saved. Humiliation has occurred. Moreover Putin has put himself in the position where agreeing a peace involving even partial withdrawal from currently occupied territory would mean abandoning territory that he claims to have acquired for Russia. And Ukraine has rejected any talk of a partial withdrawal. https://samf.substack.com/p/retribution-and-regime-change