Critic’s Summary is a long-running series that collects the most important political debate and analysis from around the internet and publishes it every morning.
Today is Marianna Sotomayor and Lee Ann Caldwell The Washington Post reports that the Congressional Black Caucus continues to support President Joe Biden.
With Biden once again in a political bind, some Black congressional members appear ready to rally behind the embattled president, an embrace that could have a major impact on whether the Democratic president can stay in his reelection race, according to five people familiar with the conversations.
The importance of the Congressional Black Caucus, a group of about 60 members that includes Clyburn and House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries of New York, was made clear Monday night when Biden met with the group over a Zoom call, his first time speaking with a group of elected officials. The message many black Democrats planned to convey to Biden, according to people familiar with the group’s thinking, was: “We’re with you, as always.” […]
The desire to defend Biden appears so widespread among CBC members that three people with the group said the group could formally endorse Biden in a statement in the coming days. The group’s influence could blunt broader concerns about Biden among its colleagues and influence Jeffries’ views on how House Democrats should respond in an unprecedented situation.
The Wi-Fi service at the transportation company I use is awful, and being able to tell you this makes me partly responsible for this very brief critic roundup.
Tom Nichols The editor-in-chief of The Atlantic magazine points out the double standards practiced by the media when covering Joe Biden and a shoe salesman.
But criticism of recent media coverage of Biden is entirely correct on one point: Many media outlets have long employed a serious double standard in their coverage of Biden and his opponent, Donald Trump. When Biden stumbles over his words, we question his mental state, but when Trump acts like a crazed street preacher, it’s… well, it’s Tuesday. If Biden Fight Club ImmigrantsIf Trump were to do it, he would already be out of the race. Trump would do it, and the country (and much of the media) would shrug. Recognizing this inequality is the easy part, but there is a harder realization: the double standard is a structural problem, it’s not going to change, and everyone in the Democratic coalition is going to have to grit their teeth and accept that reality.
The structural problem is that in an open society, almost any opinion may be expressed in public, even outright lies. This liberal democratic principle allows Trump to lie and propagandize freely, and he and his entourage do so with confidence and ease. These tactics have been highly effective among a Republican base numbed by relentless propaganda, a daily bombardment of bullshit that leaves a smoke-filled, porous no-man’s land in the minds of most anyone exposed to it for any length of time.
The media can’t counter this with the same “barrage of truth” — there just aren’t enough hours in the day. But it’s also inaccurate to say the media hasn’t tried to cover Trump’s strange behavior lately. Ruth Benguiat, a professor at New York University who regularly warns about Trump’s fascist plans, said: Posts I was annoyed yesterday that the front pages in several national newspapers were all about Biden, and not about “Trump and Epstein, Trump and Putin, Trump wants to inject bleach, Trump wants to deport 20 million people.” (If you’re looking for in-depth coverage of the unique threat Trump poses to American democracy, January/February issue(“If Trump wins”)
Kristen Godsey The editor-in-chief of The New Republic magazine points to signs of a malaise affecting 21st century American voters.
The nihilism that permeates American culture today is similar to the nihilism that characterized the final decade of the Soviet bloc countries. After the 1986 Chernobyl nuclear disaster, then-Prime Minister Mikhail Gorbachev Delivered He gave a national address to explain the disturbing rumors. At the start of the COVID-19 pandemic, U.S. government officials were trying to address the mask shortage. tell of The noble lie He said masks were unnecessary. Soon after, President Trump downplayed the pandemic. False claims The combination of hydroxychloroquine and azithromycin has been claimed to offer protection against COVID-19, giving rise to numerous conspiracy theories in both contexts. […]
In the face of a broken two-party system, growing partisan divisions, a politicized Supreme Court that is ignoring serious charges of ethics violations, rigged congressional districting, an unwanted redistricting of the 2020 election, and the possible end of American democracy as we know it, who wouldn’t want to sink into a balmy beach read during a vinyasa boot camp at a remote island spa retreat? As poet Audre Lorde once said, Said“Taking care of yourself isn’t about self-indulgence, it’s about self-preservation.”
But internal migration can foster habits of indifference: a genuine desire to protect oneself from the pressures of an unfair system. Facilitating withdrawal And our Perceptions of hopeMore importantly, if the system changes unexpectedly, we may not be ready to fight for a new world.
Stephen Erlanger, Lara Jacques, Claire Moses The New York Times Profile of NATO’s new Secretary General, Mark Rutte.
NATO, which celebrates its 75th anniversary this week with a summit in Washington, was founded to prevent further Soviet expansion into Europe but has found a new purpose in helping Ukraine counter Russian aggression. Beyond that challenge, NATO faces China’s attempts to dominate Asia and Iran’s expanding nuclear program while Moscow strengthens its ties with both China and Iran.
Key member states like France and Germany are grappling with the rise of far-right parties clearly sympathetic to Moscow; Hungary and Turkey are authoritarian democracies; and there are new demands for increased military spending. (…)
But the 57-year-old Rutte has calmly managed the Netherlands’ four fractious and disparate governing coalitions, putting the need for consensus above personal ideology. He is familiar among other leaders and has won praise from both President Biden, who backed him to become prime minister, and from Trump, who once said after a meeting in the Oval Office, “I like the guy!”
Finally, today, John Allsopp Columbia Journalism Review We consider some lessons that can be drawn from the second round of France’s early elections.
The whiplash-inducing headlines offer an important lesson globally about the folly of journalists to assume the will of the people before it has been expressed. But the surprising top-line results threaten to obscure a much more complex ongoing story. First (and as many of last night’s headlines proved), what happens next is highly uncertain. With no party or coalition holding a majority in Parliament and it remaining unclear who the next prime minister will be, the likelihood of long-term turmoil is growing. (Macron is set to remain president until 2027 no matter what happens, but the new parliamentary calculations could severely undermine his power and force him to “cohabit” with a prime minister from a rival party.) Nor should the far-right’s slump obscure the extent to which they have already wormed their way into the heart of French public life, especially in the media. The election campaign offered further evidence of this tendency, even if many voters ultimately rejected it.
Have a great day everyone!
