Opinion

Back in November of 2000, I recall telling everyone who would listen that there was no way that the Supreme Court would take the case of Bush vs Gore. It was unthinkable that they would want to wade into a partisan argument being waged in the state of Florida over the disputed election result. After all, only 537 votes separated the two candidates in a state that would decide the electoral count. And the circumstances couldn't have been more partisan: the dispute was happening in a state run by the Republican candidate's brother and two of the justices on the Court had been nominated by that same candidate's father. How could the Supreme Court even think of intervening under these circumstances, particularly since the process in place under Florida law was still going on and there are remedies for a stalemate written into the Constitution?

Well, history proved me an ass.

Like many Americans under 50, I found things to do other than watch the Super Bowl. So I spent Sunday night doing what many others likely did, not watching the actual event, but reading the Twitter reactions to the event.

Within my networks, what seemed to matter the most was the Superbowl halftime performance (I watched it later on YouTube). It was an homage to 90s hip hop. Eminem, Dr. Dre, Snoop Dogg, Kendrick Lamar and Mary J. Blige headlined the show, and a cameo was made by 50 Cent.

Lester Holt, the NBC News anchor, interviewed the president last week. In response to a question about inflation and “what your definition of ‘temporary’ is,” Joe Biden said he was being “a wise guy.”

While that got the most attention, there was something else worthy of our time. The interview illustrated a problem all democracies share in the link between the public, public opinion and the press.

Let me make this short, and I hope, sweet. I'm addressing all the true patriots out there. You know who you are.

About that dicey Ukraine situation: What if Vladimir Putin could be mollified by gaining his own NATO-like foothold next to the United States? Like, right next to it. Or sort of inside it.

Right-wing media is having a tizzy about the apparent lack of mainstream coverage around an alleged – and highly dubious – scandal that former president Donald Trump was being spied on by the Hillary Clinton campaign back in 2016.

The conservative furor centers on a court filing by John H. Durham, the Trump-era special counsel probing Russia's 2016 election interference.

I used to care about ideologies. I think that’s because I used to care about my public image more than I do now. These days, I’m less interested in whether someone or something is liberal or conservative. I’m more interested in whether they stand for or against democracy.

Still, it’s worth discussing. The press corps tends to treat schools of thought as if they were trapped in amber. Liberals always do X and conservatives always do Y, and so on. But ideologies live in the stream of history, same as the rest of us. They are complex and contingent.

With one political party entirely committed to expanding inequality, and the other divided on the issue, overwhelming public support and commonsense ethical commitments don’t carry much weight.

That’s how oligarchies consolidate. The wealthy horde power and wealth, then that power and wealth gives them the ability to shape institutions to further increase their power and wealth.

In the mid-1990s, the producer Dr. Dre began seriously studying piano. He had many millions in the bank and more raw-sounding hit rap records than anyone. By a lot. That’s when he began studying music theory lessons and made The Chronic 2001, which is so sonically superior to the original that it’s not even a conversation worth having.

That’s what jumped into mind upon seeing the Compton-born producer sit at a white piano during Saturday night’s Super Bowl halftime performance. Andre Young’s ambition. Upon possibly the most stunning made-for-TV concert stage I’ve laid eyes on, Dre—presenting as orchestrator of the entire affair—played a few live opening piano notes from his Eminem Peloton crowd rouser “Lose Yourself.”

In the weeks after the January 6 insurrection, the Washington Post published a disturbing piece that hinted at how everyday Republicans had come to embrace the politics of terrorism. In Oklahoma City, the Post noted, the memory of the Alfred P. Murrah Federal Building bombing has become a flashpoint, as both Republican politicians and ordinary citizens bully anyone who tries to draw a line between Timothy McVeigh's crime and Donald Trump-incited storming of the Capitol. The link is obvious, however. Both crimes were committed by white nationalists who refuse to accept a multiracial democracy — but woe on those who say as much in Oklahoma. When Oklahoma's Department of Education shared information from the bombing memorial linking McVeigh's attack with the domestic terror attack on the Capitol, their Facebook page was flooded with vitriol.

"How in the world is this even remotely the same as the Oklahoma bombing??!!!" one teacher wrote. Another derided the education department as the "Oklahoma Dept of Socialist Indoctrination." An angry dad clashed with other parents who argued that McVeigh's radicalism and the anti-government rhetoric at the Capitol were "the very definition of the same context."

One angry Oklahoman even shared the right-wing slogan about the "tree of liberty" needing to be "refreshed" with "blood" in the comments, seemingly unaware that the same phrase was on the T-shirt that McVeigh wore the day he murdered 168 people.

It appears that the GOP establishment is pursuing one of its typically lame quixotic attempts to see if it might be possible to oust Donald Trump from the leadership of their party. Or, at least, they are working hard to persuade the mainstream media to tell all those suburban swing voters that they're trying.

We've seen multiple articles in recent days making the case that Trump is weakening and that GOP leadership is taking a strong hand to the party in advance of the 2022 election. Some ambitious politicians even took to the Sunday shows to proclaim their independence.

Right-wing outrage was in full force Sunday night as conservatives slammed the NFL for its Super Bowl halftime show featuring Snoop Dogg, Dr. Dre, Mary J. Blige, Kendrick Lamar, 50 Cent, Anderson .Paak, and Eminem – who took a knee.

"The NFL is now the league of sexual anarchy. This halftime show should not be allowed on television," tweeted Charlie Kirk, founder and head of Turning Point USA, a far right-wing advocacy group that pals around with white supremacists.

Campaigns that challenge people to abstain from alcohol for one month — often in support of a good cause — have emerged across the globe over the past decade. Dry January officially launched in 2013 with a public health campaign by British charity Alcohol Change.

Other “month of abstinence” campaigns have included Dry July, Sober September, Sober October and “Dry February” — a few examples of campaigns from Australia, New Zealand, the United States, Canada and beyond. Dry campaigns have gained traction with people increasingly taking a time out from drinking alcohol for one month.

Those of us who have repeatedly sounded the alarm about the Republican Party's threat to democracy and American society have often been told we were exaggerating or being ridiculous. We were hyperbolic, attention-seeking or just plain wrong — because, after all, the Republican Party's leaders and voters really do love America.

Last week the Republican National Committee dropped any remaining pretexts of patriotism or love of democracy with its now-infamous statement that those who attacked the U.S. Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021, were "ordinary citizens engaged in legitimate political discourse." Reports suggest that a draft version of that RNC statement was even bolder in its embrace of right-wing terrorism.