CNN Opinions of the Week: Democrat and Inflationary Warfare in the Era of the Prevalence of the Second World War
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The acronym “VUCA” was popularized in the 1980’s by strategists at the US Army War College. It stands for “volatility, uncertainty, complexity, and ambiguity.” Or, as professors G. James Lemoine andNate Bennett wrote several years later.
Is this a verdict on the leadership of President Joe Biden and the Democrats in Congress? Will it strengthen or weaken the election denialism many Republicans adopted after Donald Trump refused to accept his election loss? How would GOP control of one or both chambers of Congress shape America’s future and the final two years of Biden’s term?
It’s clear that the two parties differ even on the issues the election is being fought over. While Republicans stress inflation, crime and immigration in their campaigns, many Democrats look at threats to democracy and the overturn of Roe v. Wade as important reasons to vote for their candidates.
Republicans have listened to voters, heard their concerns and offered solutions as they try to regain control of the House and Senate, argued Alice Stewart. Democrats have been tone deaf when it comes to the real issues impacting Americans, choosing to focus on threats to democracy over everyday concerns about the cost of groceries and gas. The purpose of this election is not to make people fearful of a fallen democracy, but rather to give people food to eat.
The Democrats think the warnings about the future of democracy are justified. “We all understand inflation is temporary but losing our democracy could be permanent,” wrote Dean Obeidallah. The Washington Post reported recently that a majority of GOP nominees in 2020 have denied or questioned whether the presidential election was a success. We have never seen anything like this in our lifetimes – if ever in the history of the United States.”
Voters consider the economy to be their top concern. Historian Meg Jacobs said it was nothing new. The first political advertisement of 1952, for the winning Republican candidate, focused on inflation. Eisenhower promised to fight for the woman in the ad, who complained that high prices were driving her crazy. That was at a time when inflation was less than 2%!”
Battles over inflation get to the basic fights about who should have what. Should workers be paid higher wages, and should consumers shoulder more of the burden?
Mark Wolfe wrote that rising energy prices were hurting lower-income households and workers.
He warned that there is an unprecedented painful recession on the horizon. The reason: the “unusually rapid pace of monetary policy tightening” by the Federal Reserve Bank, which this week hiked interest rates by three quarters of a point for the fourth time in a row. Higher rates are rapidly slowing the housing market and putting pressure on companies to cut staffing, he argued. The Feds current policy stance is happening in a world economy that has also suffered from high inflation. The Fed’s leaders have signaled that they may start moderating the pace of interest rate hikes.
Source: https://www.cnn.com/2022/11/06/opinions/midterms-are-vuca-election-opinion-column-galant/index.html
The Midterms Are Vuca Election: CNN’s My Election Tool for Bringing Back the Kids Up to Down-Ballot Politics
The closing question for voters was ‘Who will fight for your freedom?’, which was delivered by Obama. Obeidallah observed, “The answer clearly is the Democratic Party, and the former President delivered that message, pointing to threats to reproductive rights and same-sex marriage by some Republicans.”
Having Obama make the closing argument “might not be such a great idea,” wrote Republican Marc A. Thiessen in the Washington Post. “Hindsight can be rosy, but Obama’s record of helping down-ballot Democrats is … less than stellar. In fact, Obama lost more seats in the Legislature than any president in U.S. history. It is a foregone conclusion that many Democrats don’t want Biden to join them. They are hoping that Obama will save them. To the contrary, based on this disastrous record, he may be electoral kryptonite.”
A note to our readers: On Tuesday, pivotal races will decide who controls the House, Senate and dozens of governorships across the country. You can follow the contests that matter to you and build a custom dashboard with CNN’s My Election tool. If you don’t have a CNN account, you can either log in or create one.
Source: https://www.cnn.com/2022/11/06/opinions/midterms-are-vuca-election-opinion-column-galant/index.html
Why Americans Don’t Care About the Capitol Crisis: The Case of Paul Pelosi and the 2020 Abortion Referendum in California and Vermont
When I talk to my fellow officers who defended the US Capitol on January 6, the discussion often ends with why so many Americans remain indifferent about the insurrection. Most Americans don’t seem to care. Is it an attempt to destroy our democracy? I don’t know…
I doubt that the attack on Paul Pelosi will be a turning point. We are not talking about isolated incidents or condemnation of violence by our leaders anymore. The husband of the third candidate for US presidency was beaten in his home for political reasons and the right-wing media and some Republicans celebrated in the violence.
“The polling suggests that the side supporting abortion rights is favored in many of these debates, especially in deep-blue California and Vermont,” wrote Brown. The defeat of the abortion referendum in Kansas was proof that red states can vote against pro-life initiatives.
About three-quarters of the states have some initiative up for a vote this year. “Democracy itself is on the ballot in 2022,” wrote Joshua A. Douglas. Not only do we have candidates who questioned the 2020 election or refuse to say they will accept defeat, but numerous states and localities will also vote on measures to change how elections are run.
Source: https://www.cnn.com/2022/11/06/opinions/midterms-are-vuca-election-opinion-column-galant/index.html
Midterms Are Vuca Elections: A Witch Hunt for the Boundaries of the Establishment and the Reionization of the Party
It was rumored on Friday that former President Donald Trump could launch a second campaign for the presidency in the next few weeks. “Democrats should not underestimate the threat that Trump poses,” observed Julian Zelizer.
“The Republicans remain a strongly united party. Very little can shake that unity. … the ‘Never Trump’ contingent failed to emerge as a dominant force. Indeed, officials such as Congresswoman Liz Cheney were purged from the party.”
“If Republicans do well next week, possibly retaking control of the House and Senate, members of the party will surely feel confident about amping up their culture wars and economic talking points going into 2024. With many election-denying candidates in the midterms, a strong showing will likely make it easier for the GOP to unite behind Trump.
Trump himself will feel emboldened, Zelizer wrote. The House select committee is investigating on January 6 and the criminal investigations are ongoing. … It will be more difficult to prosecute Trump once he is a candidate. Trump, a master of playing the victim, is sure to claim (as he has in the past) that any investigation is simply a politically motivated ‘witch hunt’ intended to take him out of the running.”
Source: https://www.cnn.com/2022/11/06/opinions/midterms-are-vuca-election-opinion-column-galant/index.html
Kalamitous Twitter Acquisition for Elon Musk and the Debate About West’s Disregarding Skewness and Holocaust Enclave
With the businesses that severed relationships with him, the chorus of outrage about West’s disgusting attack on Jews was subdued for many days. There is already a sustained surge of antisemitic comments in alt-right online communities, and the impact of someone like Kanye West who is a big and famous person has not been fully appreciated by some.
Elon Musk’s first few days of controlling Twitter have been tumultuous, with the Tesla CEO spreading misinformation, laying off a large share of the workforce and sharing the idea of charging users for blue-check verification status.
The Financial Times wrote that Musk made the power that US tech executives hold over our lives, from geopolitics to the health of democracy painfully tangible to all.
Immediately after the sale was confirmed, there were a lot of neo-Nazi and racist quotes on the site. There are several accounts that are linked to Russian and Chinese state media that have asked for the labels to be removed. Speculation about whether Musk would reverse the account ban for extremists, conspiracy theorists or Donald Trump himself was rife.”
In the New York Times, former advertising executive Rob Norman wrote that Musk has placed no limits on his own speech, and under his ownership, it seems likely to enable the inflammatory, provocative and sometimes verifiably untrue speech of others.
I know that advertisers worry about these things a lot because I represented the world’s biggest buyer of advertising space. In this case, advertisers’ worries could lead them to flee en masse, costing Twitter almost all its current revenue. Without that revenue, Twitter could be a calamitous acquisition for Mr. Musk, and the very future of the platform could be at risk.”
Source: https://www.cnn.com/2022/11/06/opinions/midterms-are-vuca-election-opinion-column-galant/index.html
“Midterms are Vuca Elections”: Reflections of Martha Hickson on the “Wrong Year of her Work”
Martha said it was her worst year of work for more than a decade. In 2021, protesters showed up at a school board meeting and “railed against ‘Gender Queer,’ a memoir in graphic novel form by Maia Kobabe, and ‘Lawn Boy,’ a coming-of-age novel by Jonathan Evison. They displayed isolated images from the book while giving out selected sentences.
“Next, they attacked Banned Books Week, an annual event celebrating the freedom to read. The protesters characterized it as a nefarious plot to lure kids to degradation,” wrote Hickson.
“But the real sucker punch came when one protester branded me a pedophile, pornographer and groomer of children. After a successful career, with retirement on the horizon, to be cast as a villain was heartbreaking.”
The response from my employer was worse. The board sat in silence that night, and for the next five months refused to utter a word in my defense.”
CNN Opinion has a series on midterm issues called, “America’s Future Starts Now.” the concluding personal essay is written by Hickson. Nine education experts also weighed in with thoughts on how to move America’s schools forward.
Source: https://www.cnn.com/2022/11/06/opinions/midterms-are-vuca-election-opinion-column-galant/index.html
Tom Brady and Gisele Bndchen: A Divorcing Power Couple in the Israeli Parliament after the U.S. Elections
The elections in Latin America and the Middle East brought back some familiar faces. In Brazil, the former President of the country, Luis Incio Silva da Silva, came back from a serious defeat to defeat the incumbent.
“Not since the end of the military dictatorship in the 1980s have Brazilians been faced with two more starkly contrasting candidates, each with diametrically opposing political outlooks for the country,” Wierson wrote. A large percentage of the voting population didn’t buy into either of the visions for the country
Benjamin Netanyahu is likely to get the chance to form a new government in Israel because of last week’s election.
The most stable of Israel’s political parties is called likud. Netanyahu is the master of Israel and it is a nation shaped by the right wing more than at any point in its history.
It’s not unusual for a celebrity power couple to split, and it’s not uncommon for Tom Brady and Gisele Bndchen to divorce. The split has enormous public interest, according to the person. The “fascination with the Brady-Bündchen divorce comes from the fact that this couple’s split hits a perfect celebrity sweet spot: These are two people who are absolutely nothing like us, but who nonetheless seem to be splitting up over a familiar gender dynamic that is imminently relatable.”
“Bündchen’s public comments indicate a worry about Brady’s health playing a dangerous sport and a desire – after years of sacrificing so that he could thrive professionally – for him to spend more time with their family.”
This is “a familiar and frustrating” dynamic: “The woman who steps back to care for children and make sure her husband succeeds – and the husband who doesn’t quite seem to appreciate that sacrifice and continues to push professionally far past when he needs to, at the expense of his family.”
The Respect for Marriage Act: A final step before the U.S. Supreme Court overturns the supreme court ruling over gay and interracial marriage
The final step before the law protects gays and blacks will be taken by the House on Thursday.
The bipartisan group, which includes GOP Sen. Rob Portman of Ohio, Democratic Sen. Tammy Baldwin of Wisconsin, GOP Sen. Susan Collins of Maine, Democratic Sen. Kyrsten Sinema of Arizona, and GOP Sen. Thom Tillis of North Carolina, said in a statement Monday that they “look forward to this legislation coming to the floor.”
But the bill’s supporters said in September that more time was needed to negotiate the issue with Republicans – and sought to delay any vote in the Senate until after the November midterm elections, which Schumer agreed to.
If the Supreme Court overturns Obergefell it will force a state to recognize the same-sex marriage of someone else.
House Speaker Nancy Pelosi wrote in an op-ed published to The Washington Post Wednesday she is “overjoyed” that one of the last bills she will help pass while she holds the title of speaker will be the legislation protecting same-sex marriage in the United States.
President Joe Biden applauded Senate passage of the Respect for Marriage Act last week, saying in a statement: “For millions of Americans, this legislation will safeguard the rights and protections to which LGBTQI+ and interracial couples and their children are entitled.”
Biden added: “I look forward to welcoming them at the White House after the House passes this legislation and sends it to my desk, where I will promptly and proudly sign it into law.”
The Supreme Court’s move in June holding that there is no longer a federal constitutional right to an abortion immediately sparked controversy and criticism from liberal groups as well as concern that the court’s conservative majority could take aim at same-sex marriage in the future. When the court overturned abortion rights, Justice Clarence Thomas called for the court to revisit the decision that legalized same-sex marriage.
Several conservative members of the Supreme Court seemed sympathetic on Monday to arguments from a graphic designer who seeks to start a website business to celebrate weddings but does not want to work with same-sex couples.
The justices looked at the case through the lens of free speech and suggested that an artist or person making a product which violates her religious beliefs could not be forced to do so.