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We Lost the Battle for the Republican Party's Soul Long Ago
After Mitt Romney lost the 2012 presidential race, the Republican National Committee chairman, Reince Priebus, commissioned an internal party study to examine why the party had won the popular vote only once since 1988.
The results of that so-called autopsy were fairly obvious: The party needed to appeal to more people of color, reach out to younger voters, become more welcoming to women. Those conclusions were presented as not only a political necessity but also a moral mandate if the Republican Party were to be a governing party in a rapidly changing America.
Then Donald Trump emerged and the party threw all those conclusions out the window with an almost audible sigh of relief: Thank God we can win without pretending we really care about this stuff. That reaction was sadly predictable.
I spent decades working to elect Republicans, including Mr. Romney and four other presidential candidates, and I am here to bear reluctant witness that Mr. Trump didn't hijack the Republican Party. He is the logical conclusion of what the party became over the past 50 or so years, a natural product of the seeds of race-baiting, self-deception and anger that now dominate it. Hold Donald Trump up to a mirror and that bulging, scowling orange face is today's Republican Party.
I saw the warning signs but ignored them and chose to believe what I wanted to believe: The party wasn't just a white grievance party; there was still a big tent; the others guys were worse. Many of us in the party saw this dark side and told ourselves it was a recessive gene. We were wrong. It turned out to be the dominant gene.
What is most telling is that the Republican Party actively embraced, supported, defended and now enthusiastically identifies with a man who eagerly exploits the nation's racial tensions. In our system, political parties should serve a circuit breaker function. The Republican Party never pulled the switch.
Racism is the original sin of the modern Republican Party. While many Republicans today like to mourn the absence of an intellectual voice like William Buckley, it is often overlooked that Mr. Buckley began his career as a racist defending segregation.
In the Richard Nixon White House, Pat Buchanan and Kevin Phillips wrote a re-election campaign memo headed "Dividing the Democrats" in which they outlined what would come to be known as the Southern Strategy. It assumes there is little Republicans can do to attract Black Americans and details a two-pronged strategy: Utilize Black support of Democrats to alienate white voters while trying to decrease that support by sowing dissension within the Democratic Party.
That strategy has worked so well that it was copied by the Russians in their 2016 efforts to help elect Mr. Trump.
In the 2000 George W. Bush campaign, on which I worked, we acknowledged the failures of Republicans to attract significant nonwhite support. When Mr. Bush called himself a "compassionate conservative," some on the right attacked him, calling it an admission that conservatism had not been compassionate. That was true; it had not been. Many of us believed we could steer the party to that "kinder, gentler" place his father described. We were wrong.
Reading Mr. Bush's 2000 acceptance speech at the Republican National Convention now is like stumbling across a document from a lost civilization, with its calls for humility, service and compassion. That message couldn't attract 20 percent in a Republican presidential primary today. If there really was a battle for the soul of the Republican Party, we lost.
There is a collective blame to be shared by those of us who have created the modern Republican Party that has so egregiously betrayed the principles it claimed to represent. My j'accuse is against us all, not a few individuals who were the most egregious.
How did this happen? How do you abandon deeply held beliefs about character, personal responsibility, foreign policy and the national debt in a matter of months? You don't. The obvious answer is those beliefs weren't deeply held. What others and I thought were bedrock values turned out to be mere marketing slogans easily replaced. I feel like the guy working for Bernie Madoff who thought they were actually beating the market.
Mr. Trump has served a useful purpose by exposing the deep flaws of a major American political party. Like a heavy truck driven over a bridge on the edge of failure, he has made it impossible to ignore the long-developing fault lines of the Republican Party. A party rooted in decency and values does not embrace the anger that Mr. Trump peddles as patriotism.
This collapse of a major political party as a moral governing force is unlike anything we have seen in modern American politics. The closest parallel is the demise of the Communist Party in the Soviet Union, when the dissonance between what the party said it stood for and what citizens actually experienced was so great that it was unsustainable.
This election should signal a day of reckoning for the party and all who claim it as a political identity. Will it? I've given up hope that there are any lines of decency or normalcy that once crossed would move Republican leaders to act as if they took their oath of office more seriously than their allegiance to party. Only fear will motivate the party to change — the cold fear only defeat can bring.
That defeat is looming. Will it bring desperately needed change to the Republican Party? I'd like to say I'm hopeful. But that would be a lie and there have been too many lies for too long.
Tags: anti-decency, anti-normalcy, character-matters, compassionate-conservativism, compassionate-conservativism-fail, dark-side, exploit-racism, expose-flaws, fiscal-conservatives, humility, national-debt, personal-responsibility, racism, reckoning, republican-defeat, republican-part-collapse, republican-party, republican-party-autopsy-2012, republican-party-breakup, republican-party-not-hijacked-by-trump-logical-conclusion, republicans-grievance, republicans-reckoning, republicans-white-grievance-party, service, stuart-stevens
The New Cruelty
the New Cruelty is the Trumpian successor to the New Deal and Great Society.
.. And, indeed, Lewandowski seems especially vile in an era in which vileness increasingly appears to be a career path. But was his insensitive gibe off-message? Or was it simply a cruder version of the New Cruelty that has displaced whatever was left of "compassionate conservativism"?
.. Trump rode to the presidency by embracing broad, crudely designed policies—from the proposed ban on all Muslims to mass deportations of all illegals—that ineluctably lead to a zero-tolerance policy that demands the arrest of all illegal border-crossers, even those with infants or children.
.. his supporters enthusiastically cheered polices that treat large populations as an undifferentiated mass, regardless of individual circumstances. These policies do not treat individuals based on the "content of their character," or their merit, or the exigencies of their circumstances, but on their religion, nationality, and immigration status.
.. the president has cultivated a studied insensitivity, treating empathy as a sign of weakness or fecklessness.
.. The distinctive rhetoric of Trumpism isn't merely the use of insult and invective against political opponents; it is also the brutal willingness to degrade and demonize others as "animals" and "rapists" while unsubtly comparing them to the sort of vermin who will "infest" the country.
.. swaggering callousness became a hallmark of Trumpism, with harshness masquerading as toughness and cruelty as a sign of strength.
.. Ironically, conservatives used to lead the charge against zero-tolerance policies, because they produce foolish, knee-jerk, bureaucratic responses that lack common sense and result in absurd outcomes.
.. It was in the name of zero tolerance that a kindergartner was once suspended for bringing a dinosaur-shaped squirt gun to school and it was zero tolerance that led school boards to such excesses as expelling a high school student for having a single tablet of Advil in her purse.
.. What's important to recognize is that the children were not collateral damage of Trump's policy: They were the entire point.
.. Removing them from their parents was designed to be shocking because their trauma was intended as a deterrent.
.. the pitiless separation of young children from their mothers was supposed to send a chilling message to anyone foolish enough to seek asylum here.
.. More important, it was supposed to project strength, or at least the bully's imitation of strength.
.. Perhaps more than any other trait, it is this that motivates Trump: his need to appear strong and his fear of looking weak.
.. He is just another of the menagerie of misfit toys, in the likeness of Steve Bannon, who feed off Trump's sundry insecurities. They do not shape or influence those anxieties, they simply minister to them, encouraging the president in his use of spite to substitute for real strength.
.. Fred Hiatt described the New Cruelty as the ultimate victory of Bannonism:
Truculent, anti-immigrant nationalism; disdain for the "deep state"; disparaging democratic allies while celebrating dictators: These are now the pillars of President Trump's rule. In his administration's policy, foreign and domestic, and in the compliant Republican Party, Bannonism is ascendant.
.. Bannonism is now indistinguishable from Trumpism.
while it's tempting to see Bannon's fall as an inflection point, the reality is that his departure does nothing to change the fundamental nature of this presidency, which continues to be shaped by Donald Trump's hollow core, erratic character and impulsivity….
As malign an influence as Bannon was, it seems naïve to now expect a more modulated or moderate Trump. Instead, we can expect Trump to attempt to insulate himself against Bannonite attacks by throwing out even more red meat for his base, and escalating the culture wars that Bannon has done so much to foment.
.. Bannon may have helped write the ill-fated travel ban, but it was Trump who denounced "Mexican rapists," and Trump who called for a Muslim ban. It was Trump, not Bannon, who rose from reality TV stardom to political prominence and power by spreading birther conspiracy theories.
.. It was Trump, not Bannon, who retweeted white supremacists and refused to distance himself from white nationalists during the campaign; Trump, not Bannon, who attacked a Mexican-American judge, demeaned women and mocked a disabled reporter.
.. Divorcing Bannon doesn't fix what is wrong with this presidency. The cancer at the heart of this White House isn't the staff. It's the man in the Oval Office and he is not changing.
Source: www.weeklystandard.com
Tags: anti-trump, bannonism, birtherism, bully, character, charles-sykes, charlottesville-virginia, compassionate-conservativism, content-of-character, corey-lewandowski, cruelty, cruelty-is-strength, dehumanize, empathy-as-weakness, erratic, family-separation, family-separation-approving, great-society, impulsive, individual-merit, moderate-trump, never-trump, new-cruelty, new-deal, problem-as-a-cancer, strength, trumpism, white-nationalism
Laura Bush: Separating children from their parents at the border 'breaks my heart'
Our government should not be in the business of warehousing children in converted box stores or making plans to place them in tent cities in the desert outside of El Paso. These images are eerily reminiscent of the Japanese American internment camps of World War II, now considered to have been one of the most shameful episodes in U.S. history. We also know that this treatment inflicts trauma; interned Japanese have been two times as likely to suffer cardiovascular disease or die prematurely than those who were not interned.
.. Americans pride ourselves on being a moral nation, on being the nation that sends humanitarian relief to places devastated by natural disasters or famine or war. We pride ourselves on believing that people should be seen for the content of their character, not the color of their skin. We pride ourselves on acceptance. If we are truly that country, then it is our obligation to reunite these detained children with their parents — and to stop separating parents and children in the first place.
.. People on all sides agree that our immigration system isn't working, but the injustice of zero tolerance is not the answer.
.. . She reported that while there were beds, toys, crayons, a playground and diaper changes, the people working at the shelter had been instructed not to pick up or touch the children to comfort them. Imagine not being able to pick up a child who is not yet out of diapers.
.. Twenty-nine years ago, my mother-in-law, Barbara Bush, visited Grandma's House, a home for children with HIV/AIDS in Washington. Back then, at the height of the HIV/AIDS crisis, the disease was a death sentence, and most babies born with it were considered "untouchables." During her visit, Barbara — who was the first lady at the time — picked up a fussy, dying baby named Donovan and snuggled him against her shoulder to soothe him. My mother-in-law never viewed her embrace of that fragile child as courageous. She simply saw it as the right thing to do in a world that can be arbitrary, unkind and even cruel. She, who after the death of her 3-year-old daughter knew what it was to lose a child, believed that every child is deserving of human kindness, compassion and love.
In 2018, can we not as a nation find a kinder, more compassionate and more moral answer to this current crisis? I, for one, believe we can.
Source: www.washingtonpost.com
Tags: acceptance, aids, compassion, compassionate-conservativism, family-separation, immigration, japanese-internment, kind, laura-bush, moral, moral-nation, pride, shameful, touch, touch-children, untouchables, zero-tolerance
The Vatican's America Problem
The Democratic Party, whose long-ago New Deal was built in part on Catholic social thought, has become increasingly secular and ever-more-doctrinaire in its social liberalism.
.. The Republican Party, which under George W. Bush wrapped the Catholic-inflected language of "compassionate conservatism" around its pro-life commitments, has been pinballing between an Ayn Rand-ish libertarianism and the white identity politics of the Trump era.
.. Its seems to intend, reasonably enough, to
warn against Catholic support for the darker tendencies in Trumpism — the xenophobia and identity politics, the "stigmatization of enemies,"
the crude view of Islam and a wider "panorama of threats,"
the prosperity-gospel inflected worship of success.
.. the religious votes for the cheerfully pagan Trump and the growing interest in
traditionalism,
radicalism and
separatism
.. Between Leo XIII and the Second Vatican Council, Rome gradually made its peace with secular and liberal government, and embraced a style of Catholic politics that worked comfortably within the liberal order, rather than against its grain. And the church has good prudential reasons not to lean in too far to any kind of populism or post-liberalism, lest it lead toward authoritarianism or simple disaster.
.. their evident paranoia about what the Americans are up to, you see a different spirit: a fear of novelty and disruption, and a desire for a church that's
primarily a steward of social peace,
a mild and ecumenical presence,
a moderate pillar of the establishment in a stable and permanently liberal age.
Tags: ayn-rand, catholic, compassionate-conservativism, democrats, disruption, ecumenical, enemies, establishment, george-w-bush, libertarians, moderate, new-deal, paranoid, populism, prosperity-gospel, republicans, social-peace, social-thought, stigmatization, vatican, white-identity, xenophobia
In Search of the American Center
helps explain one of the mysteries of American politics — given that the Republican economic agenda is unpopular and the country has swung left on social issues, why can't Democrats win more elections? The answer (one of them, at least) is that as the country has moved left, the Democratic Party's base has consolidated even farther left, and in the process the party has lost the ability to speak to persuadable voters who disagree with the liberal consensus on a few crucial issues.
.. public opinion had actually become modestly more liberal in the years leading up to Trump — but the Democrats are now almost an open-borders party, so even modest skepticism about immigration tends to push voters toward the Republicans.
.. On abortion, where public opinion has been stable, Democrats have ditched their old attempts at moderation, undercutting the gains that secularization and the liberal turn on other culture-war issues should have naturally delivered them. And the party's base has no patience anymore for the kind of careful triangulation that Bill Clinton practiced on issues like crime and welfare policy, or for the then-Democratic voters who were reassured by it.
.. Bernie Sanders and Hillary Clinton supporters didn't differ very much on the actual issues.
.. Whether the Sanders or the Clinton faction rules, the demands of its large, consistently liberal core won't allow much room for the experiments in outreach that a minority party needs.
.. On both sides of the Atlantic, if you tried to build a consensus politics based around what voters actually want, it would be very moderately culturally conservative and very moderately economically liberal, and it would sit low in the upper left quadrant of our chart — the place where Trump won voters who had previously voted for Obama.
.. But on both sides of the Atlantic, if you sought to place the elite consensus on the same chart, it be much closer to the emptiest of quadrants — the land of austerity and open borders, free trade and the permanent sexual revolution, the Simpson-Bowles plan and Emmanuel Macron.
.. Both Bill Clinton's self-consciously moderate liberalism and George W. Bush's compassionate conservatism were rooted in a recognition that what the Acela Corridor wants is not quite what the country wants.
Tags: abortion, bill-clinton, compassionate-conservativism, culturally-conservative, democrats, economically-liberal, elites, george-w-bush, immigration, matrix-diagram, moderate-liberalism, open-boarders, persuasion, politics


UPDATE: BROOKLYNVEGAN PRESALE PASSWORD FOR NYC SHOW HERE.
Roxy Music frontman and longtime solo artist Bryan Ferry returned in 2018 with the new album Bitter-Sweet, and this year he'll be doing a world tour celebrating Roxy Music's eighth and final album, 1982's Avalon. The tour is billed as "playing songs from Avalon, solo & Roxy hits." Roxy Music are also getting inducted into the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame this year. The ceremony happens March 29 at Brooklyn's Barclays Center.
Bryan Ferry's tour includes NYC-area shows on August 7 at the Capitol Theatre and August 9 at United Palace. Tickets for the Cap and United Palace go on sale Friday (1/18) at 10 AM, with a BrooklynVegan presale for the United Palace show starting Thursday (1/17) at 10 AM. Check back here Thursday morning for the password.
All North American dates are listed on the poster below, and previously announced Africa, Australia, New Zealand, Asia, Europe, and UK dates are listed below that.


Silence fell in the prison cell.
"Will there be mishaps in the Northern Territory?" Wya asked in a rather downcast mood, "Will Eckstedt really send troops down south on the grounds that the king was assassinated?"
"That is exactly Lampard's intention. With this reason, he may easily gain the support of the residents here." Looking at their expressions, Thales could not help but say, "However, I think the other archdukes will not agree—every one of them can see that this is a scheme of Lampard's."
"What happened previously has proven this." Thales shook his head. "Judging plainly from Black Sand Region itself, it is impossible to take down Broken Dragon Fortress."
"But they have Miranda." Kohen sighed and gritted his teeth. "Her safety will affect the attitude of the Northern Territory's vassals—and Broken Dragon Fortress' supplies and backup all rely on the stability of the Northern Territory."
Her mood was evidently poor.


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Humanities in flux: strategies and tools for success
by sams | Aug 16, 2021 | Uncategorized | 0 comments
This edition of Talking Humanities reflects on how the humanities are changing and the future of the discipline over the next decade.
We have perspectives from the UK, Ireland and the US, including a case study of how digital is changing the future of humanities research.
What is consistent across the contributions is the turbulence of the changes currently taking place – and how they yield fresh and innovative opportunities to enrich and strengthen these subjects and practices at the heart of what it is to be human in an ever-changing world.
In our 'long read' article, 'Permeable worlds and territoriality', Ludmilla Jordanova, emeritus professor of history and visual culture at Durham, explores the flexibility and fluidity of the boundaries that define the humanities.
Rather than being limited by them and 'tut-tutting' about change, practitioners should exploit them to extend their practice and build new, productive relationships with partners. 'This is not about unrealistic, polymathic utopianism,' she writes. 'It is about perfectly feasible possibilities for enhancing practices'
Robert Newman, president and director of the North Carolina-based National Humanities Center, also welcomes change, albeit 'with a turn toward the practical'. In 'Bursting the humanities bubble to resist decline', he writes: 'To reverse their decline for another decade, the humanities must burst their residential bubble which once was a necessity and is now a detriment.'
In 'The SHAPE-ID Interdisciplinary Research Toolkit' Professor Eve Patten, director of the Trinity Long Room Hub at Trinity College, Dublin, outlines the inter-university work which went into producing a toolkit that supports interdisciplinary research in the arts, humanities and social sciences, with live links to the various helpful tools.
'What will the humanities look like in ten years?' Professor Christopher Smith, executive director of the Arts and Humanities Research Council, traces the changes already happening in the humanities and which will shape their future. Despite the current turbulence he is upbeat and points out: 'The humanities are inescapable and inescapably relevant. We have enormous opportunities…'

redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaCommonCrawl


Dental-practice buyers and sellers may think that a sale is complete when the sale agreement is signed, the check issued, and handshakes completed. However, a successful transition needs much more work.
Less than 2 percent patient loss six months after the sale.
No practice failures. An average production increase of 25 percent within six months.
The purpose of the checklist is to plan for a seamless practice transition. The goal is for the patient to see no changes in the practice, except for the person doing the dentistry.
What are the key elements of a good practice transition? The elements should include a positive staff and a well-written letter of introduction to patients. With these two elements in place, a buyer's patient loss will be minimal, even if the seller does not stay with the practice. Fewer than 10 percent of my sellers stay with the practice for more than a few days. In general-dentistry practices, a long-term seller transition is not necessary to achieve less than a 2 percent patient loss and an average 25-percent increase in practice production.
The letter of intent, sale agreement, leases, and other documentation need to be reviewed and approved by buyers, sellers, financial advisers, and attorneys for both sides.
The financing source also will have several documents that need to be reviewed and approved.
Insurances, such as commercial liability, life, disability, practice overhead, Workmen's Compensation, and malpractice.
Licenses and ID numbers, such as federal, state, and local tax-identification numbers.
Business licenses and a dental license.
OSHA, DEA, and other registrations.
Insurance-carrier agreements and fee-schedule approvals.
The staff needs to be involved in the transition when appropriate. This usually is after a letter of intent has been signed and financing approved. The goal is to transfer the loyalty of the staff from the seller to the buyer. The receptionist is the key person in terms of retaining patients in the practice. The patients will pay attention to her enthusiasm for the transition and this will help allay any fears they may have about the new dentist.
Do not make any staffing changes until the buyer is secure in the practice. It can be a fatal mistake to fire the receptionist early in the transition.
The seller must mail a well-written patient letter of introduction to active patients and referral sources. This is an important element in transferring patient loyalty. The letter can accomplish a lot if it is sincere, takes the patients' feelings and fears into account, and praises the buyer's character and background.
To prepare for the increase in new patients, the buyer may want to spruce up the practice. A new coat of paint works wonders. In a practice where the seller may have neglected the facility, it is an inexpensive leasehold improvement. One buyer improved the initial impression of the office merely by using brighter light bulbs. The goal is to make the patient contact cycle be a positive experience for the patient.
The Seattle coffee company, Starbucks, focuses on the "Starbucks experience": an inviting, enriching environment in the stores that is comfortable, accessible, stylish, and elegant. Store design and staff training emphasize the quality of everything the customers see, touch, hear, smell, or taste. They want to send the subliminal message — everything here is best-of-class.
Look at the dental practice-transition the same way.
Gary Schaub is from Portland, Oregon. He is founder and president of HELP Appraisals & Sales, Inc., a dental appraisal and brokerage firm. Schaub can be reached at (503) 223-4357. He is a member of American Dental Sales, Inc., the largest group of dental brokers, appraisers, and consultants in the United States. See the ADS Classified ads for names and phone numbers of ADS members in your area.


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Protesters target London's major ring road for 4th time
AP , Monday 20 Sep 2021
Although dozens of protesters have been arrested over the four demonstrations, police are being urged to take swifter action to end the protests
Police officers work to free protesters from Insulate Britain who had glued themselves to the highway, at a slip road at Junction 4 of the A1 motorway, near Hatfield, England, Monday, Sept. 20, 2021. AP
Environmental protesters pressuring the British government to insulate all homes brought traffic chaos to London's major ring road on Monday for the fourth time in recent days.
The ``Insulate Britain'' protesters have targeted the M25, one of the country's busiest highways, blocking entry roads by gluing themselves to the road and painting the name of their group on the road as well as a blue heart.
Although dozens of protesters have been arrested over the four demonstrations, police are being urged to take swifter action to end the protests.
``We are taking powers to be able to remove protesters when they are threatening critical national infrastructure, when they are threatening to cause serious economic damage and I think that is entirely right,'' Prime Minister Boris Johnson told reporters Sunday on the RAF Voyager while heading to New York for the UN General Assembly.
``And no, I don't think these people do any favors to their cause. I think that what they do is detract from a very important moral mission that is widely shared now by the people of this country,`` he added.
Insulate Britain said Monday that it will keep up the protests.
``Actions will continue until the government makes a meaningful commitment to insulate all of Britain's 29 million leaky homes by 2030, and all social housing by 2025,`` it said in a statement.
Chief Superintendent Nick Caveney from the Hertfordshire Constabulary, which made a further 29 arrests Monday for a total of 76 overall, warned of more disruptions ahead and said police were doing everything they can to stop the protests before they cause traffic chaos.
Other police forces around the 117-mile (188-kilometer) ring road have also made dozens of arrests.
Kent Police said Monday that a dozen protesters were arrested at the Dartford River Crossing, east of the British capital, on suspicion of conspiracy to cause a public nuisance before they were able to gain access to the road.
British government
Environmental protesters
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