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The folks in the Bluelands remain red hot angry.
No other single attribute of our national town square explains as much about what is going in in DC, in the media, in the states, and in the Biden administration as does this reality.
And while our politico-media Mood Ring normally provides a highly attuned sense of the temperament of our Blue citizenry, I think in this case the readings are mostly underestimating both the level of seething rage and the degree to which that fury is determinative of both what is happening now and what is likely to come next.
Those who thought that Donald Trump’s departure (enhanced by his absence from social media) and Joe Biden’s ascent would cool the intense passions of the left were fundamentally wrong.
What’s on the list of items that make the Bluelands flat out, batstuff crazed?
Too long to replicate the whole thing here, but here’s a first, partial draft:
The failure of the Redlands to wear masks or socially distance; the Trump White House briefings; Marjorie Taylor Greene; the Capitol siege; the Murdochs; the Trump administration’s failure to follow the science; the existence of the Trump International Hotel; the separation of families at the Mexico border; the Electoral College; Mitch McConnell’s cold-blooded, ruthless wielding of power (including but not limited to what happened to Merrick Garland); Trump enablers such as Ohio Senator Rob Portman (“The cowardice of Rob Portman has done more damage to the Republican Party — and the republic — than the craziness of Marjorie Taylor Greene.”); Trump’s adult children, wife, and son-in-law; Facebook and Twitter (and Zuckerberg and Dorsey); QAnon, the Proud Boys, and other rightwing operations; the filibuster; Trump’s three Supreme Court picks; Sean Hannity & Co.; and all four years of the Trump presidency.
If the energy generated by all of this passion could be harnessed, it would be enough to fuel every PlayStation 4 in Brentwood and the Palisades for almost six months.
Which is, to be clear, an unfathomable amount of power.
I’m still getting my arms and head around all of the implications of this widespread and intense outrage on the left.
But among its many consequences is the ability of the Biden administration to toggle at will between pleasing and annoying the party’s progressive elite, confident that in the end the tribal feelings of the Blues will provide the unity required to, for instance, get both Bernie Sanders and Joe Manchin to vote for whatever pandemic relief reconciliation package emerges from the Pelosi-Schumer process.
It also means that anything a single Republican senator is for will be viewed with extreme suspicion, by definition, by the left.
The great irony (or is it a paradox?) of the Biden presidency right now is the very forces that give him the power he has to force through his agenda (as much as that is possible….) comes from a Blue Unity that makes it actually impossible to try for bipartisan deals.
Which reinforces a theory that would be in vogue at both DC Bobby Van’s if there were no pandemic: Joe Biden actually won the Democratic nomination and the general election not because he pledged to bring the country together but because he held the most promise to end Donald Trump’s time in the saddle and all that came with that.
Joe Biden might aspire to be the uniter-in-chief, but he is really the beneficiary of the intense, abiding feelings of disunity of 53%-57% of America.
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So, that is what you need to know about the Bluelands today.
What you need to know about the Redlands is this.
For all the titanic forces unleashed by the vacuum caused by Trump’s exit from the stage (which Trump himself still might fill!), there remains a ton of unity on the right.
To understand where that is now coming from, please read these two essentials:
1. Bret Stephens on how liberal policies are destroying California (and a lot of other places). The Golden State, he writes,
[R]anks 21st in the country in terms of spending per public school pupil, but 37th in its K-12 educational outcomes. It ties Oregon for third place among states in terms of its per capita homeless rate. Infrastructure? As of 2019, the state had an estimated $70 billion in deferred maintenance backlog. Debt? The state’s unfunded pension liabilities in 2019 ran north of $1.1 trillion, according to an analysis by Stanford professor Joe Nation, or $81,300 per household.
And then there’s liberal governance in the cities. In San Francisco, District Attorney Chesa Boudin has championed the calls for decriminalizing prostitution, public urination, public camping, blocking sidewalks and open-air drug use….
For four years, liberals have had a hard time understanding how any American could even think of voting for Republicans, given the party’s fealty to the former president. I’ve shared some of that bewilderment myself. But — to adapt a line from another notorious Californian — Democrats won’t have Donald Trump to kick around anymore, meaning the consequences of liberal misrule will be harder to disguise or disavow. If California is a vision of the sort of future the Biden administration wants for Americans, expect Americans to demur.
2. Rich Lowry on how Joe Biden is pursuing the most liberal agenda by any president since, well, since before the Mood Ring was invented.
A portion of the tribal Red Unity is due to the case that these two cats make – and/but an additional, not insignificant portion comes from the fact that you will rarely read about any of the reality addressed in these two columns in the Dominant Media.
That whitewash turns the Redlands redder.
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Amazing: Mitch McConnell’s Monday night statements in strong defense of Liz Cheney and an even stronger denunciation of Marjorie Taylor Greene.
More amazing: the failure of even the best Hill reporters to get a sense of whether McConnell coordinated his twin bombs with Kevin McCarthy and of how MAGAville is feeling about the Kentuckian’s purposeful play.
Watch bigly for both of those on Tuesday.
As huge as McConnell’s words were, the fallout will be the huger thing.
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ESSENTIAL READING
* The Trump campaign brain trust memo on why they think their guy lost is finally public. It is about the most dog-bites-man document you will ever peruse but it is still required perusing.
* Bruce Mehlman’s latest slide show is now on offer and it will, per usual, rev up your brain and inspire your thinking.
Here are three frames that I think frame things particularly well:
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After reading today’s edition, are you all fired up to help me out more?
Stuff you can do:
1. Bookmark and use the the new Walking Duck 24/7 news website.
2. Send an email to mhfg@walkingduck.com to participate in an upcoming focus group moderated by me.
3. Book me to speak to your group, company, or meeting by sending an email to markhalperintalk@gmail.com to set up an event.
