Abbreviated Pundit Roundup: The legislative sausage moves forward on the assembly line

[Brexiter]

Jennifer C Berkshire/The Nation:

The GOP’s Grievance Industrial Complex Invades the Classroom

When parents become a posse of vigilantes, outrage is in the saddle instead of teaching or learning.

“It’s really chilling,” says Jennifer Hough, a parent and member of the Southlake chapter of Dignity for All Texas Students. “The message that’s being sent to the teachers in this school district is that nobody’s safe.”

Analysis | There is a consistency to the debate over book censorship: Distress about change https://t.co/8qnh2wEEdJ

— Jeff Jarvis (@jeffjarvis) October 28, 2021

Will Bunch/Philadelphia Inquirer:

A Gladwyne mom, a ‘whiteness’ book, and the GOP’s scheme to rock the 2021 vote

Suburban school board races used to be about taxes, not charges of "indoctrination." Inside the GOP scheme to retake power through the schools.

For many years, school board elections in Lower Merion Township, Pennsylvania’s most affluent suburb, have been genteel, predictable affairs. Republican challengers would raise a fuss about high school taxes, and they would lose in a diverse, highly educated community that reflects the 21st century Democratic Party.

So it’s jarring in 2021 to see signs sprouting from Lower Merion’s fine-trimmed lawns: “Education Not Indoctrination” — that same slogan that well-funded GOP candidates in Virginia and elsewhere are also using in a strategy to make hay in an “off-year” election by riling up already angst-ridden parents about the way racism is taught in public schools.

With an arrest unsealed a few minutes ago, there have now been 650 individuals charged at the federal level for alleged crimes on Jan 6th at the Capitol. A breakdown of the numbers is here, along with the court records. https://t.co/usZHk9xlx0 pic.twitter.com/1vZ2DbYhXC

— Program On Extremism (@gwupoe) October 28, 2021

Lee Drutman and Meredith Conroy/FiveThirtyEight:

Democrats Worry A Lot About Policies That Win Elections. That’s Short-Sighted.

Democratic leaders, activists and strategists spend a lot of time discussing — and arguing about — policy under the assumption that the policies the party prioritizes affect whether they will win the next election. It’s been a big part of President Biden’s governing strategy so far, and one need look no further than Democrats blaming talk of defunding the police for losses in the House in 2020 or, conversely, citing health care in the 2018 midterm elections as the reason they did so well to understand the role they think policy plays in their electoral success.

But the research on whether choosing the right policy actually helps parties win elections is far less clear. How Democrats talk in 2021 and 2022 and what they prioritize may — or may not — help them win the 2022 midterm elections, but it will shape the policy and political landscape for the future in potentially profound ways. And that, perhaps, is what Democrats should be more worried about.

Time for campaign reporters to accept that Trump is far and away the front-runner for the 2024 nomination - and all the dark and ugly things that follow from that reporting fact. Latest in @TheAtlantic https://t.co/YEHPFYtz3G

— David Frum (@davidfrum) October 28, 2021

Joan Walsh/Nation:

These Two Virginia Democratic Women Have a Real Shot at Flipping GOP Seats

Although the national narrative is “Virginia Dems are in disarray,” there are some bright spots for progressives.

Target Smart estimates that Democrats have cast 55 percent of early votes as of Monday, compared with 30 percent by Republicans. And according to Blue Virginia, Tuesday was the biggest early voting day yet, with more than 53,000 voters casting ballots. (Two wonky provisos: Virginia voters don’t have to register by party, so estimates of partisan voting rely on “modeling” that looks at prior results and demography by district. Also: comparisons with earlier years are difficult to make; Virginia’s Democrat-powered early voting changes only fully kicked in this year.) Even so, the hand-wringing over lack of Democratic enthusiasm is starting to look unfounded.

Merck has granted a royalty-free license for its Covid antiviral pill to a UN-backed nonprofit. The deal will allow the drug to be manufactured and sold cheaply in 105 developing nations. https://t.co/R0Qr8Kr87F

— The New York Times (@nytimes) October 27, 2021

Helaine Olen/WaPo:

This is the real reason Americans distrust the child tax credit and other government benefits

Although some support for government aid waned as the pandemic wore on, the relief legislation President Biden signed in March included a significant one-year child tax credit. The benefit, paid as a monthly allowance, is on track to cut child poverty by 40 percent.


Popularity seemed inevitable. In many European countries, after all, child allowances are embraced not only on the left but also by many on the right, who see them as promoting “family values.”


Not so in the United States, where the credit has become mired in historical distrust of government aid and arguments over work requirements. These negative perceptions reflect the limited possibilities for government benefits of the sort that other nations take for granted — and how unlikely our status quo is to change.

A U.S. House report says at least 59,000 meatpacking workers became ill with COVID-19 and 296 workers died when the virus tore through the industry last year, significantly more than previously thought. https://t.co/1mRzDl3EFY

— The Associated Press (@AP) October 27, 2021

John Stoehr/Editorial Board:

With new anti-CRT laws, the Republicans give the impression they stand against brainwashing. But their goal is brainwashing


“Critical race theory” is 21st-century McCarthyism.

Three things need saying. One, that “critical race theory” is becoming the most destructive political boogeyman since Joseph McCarthy fear-mongered about Communists hiding behind every bush and tree.

Two, that this political boogeyman is being used by Republican state lawmakers to achieve what they have wanted — to use the power of the state to censor information and to police thought. We are close to updating the old Cold War pursuit of “un-American activities.”

Three, that by censoring information and policing thought, the Republicans can replace knowledge and understanding with lies and propaganda advancing a preferred way of seeing America, to wit: In America, everyone gets a fair shake in life. Social ills like poverty and racism are individual failings, not societal ones. Everything is fine. Nothing to worry about. Except “those people” making trouble.

Some health provisions in Dems’ framework that have gone under radar: - permanently reauthorizes the Children’s Health Insurance Program - permanent funding for Medicaid in U.S. territories - long-sought investments to improve maternal health care https://t.co/YX67wUJuMT

— Dan Diamond (@ddiamond) October 28, 2021

Philip Bump/WaPo:

Tucker Carlson made a movie to prove he’s not a white nationalist


Right-Wing Grievance: The Film


On top of this scene, large block text a la Wes Anderson: “The War on Terror,” it reads, and then, over Babbitt’s falling body, “2.0.”


So begins the trailer for what Fox News’s Tucker Carlson on Wednesday night described as a “three-part series” he produced that will be released next month that will run on Fox Nation, the right-wing broadcaster’s streaming service. But it does seem clear what the intent is. Carlson wants to elevate the idea — the surreal idea, the deranged idea — that the riot at the Capitol on Jan. 6 was fomented in whole or in part by the government so that it could crack down on the political right.

Politico:

A fear grows in Trumpworld: Have we gone too conspiratorial?

There is growing worry that talk of stolen elections, machine rigging and foreign plots will hurt election reform efforts and sap turnout.

For months, conspiracies about the 2020 election being stolen from Donald Trump have fueled Republican efforts nationwide to rewrite election laws. But now, some GOP operatives and Trumpworld luminaries are worried that the truly wild conspiracists may be mucking it all up.

Hogan Gidley, one of Donald Trump’s top lieutenants, took a subtle dig at some Trump allies and put some distance between their efforts and his group’s work on election reform. Other Republicans have expressed fears that talk of “audits,” machine rigging and foreign plots will depress voter turnout and discourage some people from seeking office.