#intelligencer

[contemplatingoutlander]

In the New York Magazine article, “The Future of Trumpism: The greatest threat to Donald Trump’s hold on the GOP comes from Ron DeSantis, who may be more MAGA than the MAGA king himself,” Jonathan Chait discusses some of Ron DeSantis’s more disturbing beliefs about the U.S. Constitution and wealth.

Basically, DeSantis seems to believe that the Constitution was designed to protect elite wealth from being redistributed to the working classes. If DeSantis were to be elected president, there’s a good chance he would try to undo every progressive social safety net program we have created since the New Deal, including Social Security, Medicare, Medicaid, the ACA, SNAP, and TANF.

Below are some excerpts from DeSantis’s 2011 book Dreams From Our Founding Fathers: First principles in the age of Obama:

[Benjamin] Franklin and other Founding Fathers believed that respect for individual property rights was the sine qua non of a free society, and regarded the so-called “leveling spirit,” which seeks to equalize property through government action, as a danger that American institutions needed to check…. How to craft a government based on popular consent that did not devolve into popular majorities voting themselves the property of others was one of the main concerns for Madison and his colleagues at the Constitutional Convention. [...] Madison pulled no punches about specifying the particular types of faction that a republican form of government needed to guard against. “A rage for paper money, for an abolition of debts, for an equal division of property, or for any other improper or wicked project”…. Madison…also viewed these “wicked projects” as inimical to fundamental notions of justice and individual liberty. As a matter of first principle, the republic needed to be constructed to prevent such projects from ever coming into being.

[emphasis added]

--Ron DeSantis (2011, pp. 123, 128-129)

If Ron DeSantis wins the White House in 2024 and has a GOP Congress, and a Federalist Society dominated Supreme Court, he will be able to dismantle the social safety net in the U.S. with impunity. We cannot let that happen.

[edited]

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Ron DeSantis Photo-Illustration: Eddie Guy & Photo: Joe Raedle/Getty Images (before edits & title caption); Maya Angelou quote image source (before edits & a newer version of Maya Angelou’s signature) 

[dontmeantobepoliticalbut]

Biden’s Biggest Danger is Congressional Democrats Afraid to Tax the Rich

Behind the scenes, Democrats are knifing the administration’s legacy.

[hologramdenier]

Trump’s fleeting interest in female empowerment has always been undermined by his own sexism, and by the policies that he and his party prefer. The Barrett nomination reinforces rather than challenges the rule. As a potential successor to the late Ruth Bader Ginsburg, the conservative Catholic judge serves two primary functions. She’ll excite the Christian right ahead of a presidential election, and she outrages the libs. The reasoning isn’t all that sophisticated: Upset by Barrett’s nomination? You’re the real sexist.

Sarah Jones,  “Amy Coney Barrett and the Triumph of Phyllis Schlafly,” Intelligencer

[transsolar]

Looking forward to the opening: The John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts had announced that the REACH—its ongoing expansion project—will open to the public on September 7, 2019. Conceived as a nexus of arts, learning, and culture, the REACH will provide artists and visitors new and wide-ranging opportunities to fully interact and engage with the Center. Read the Article “Steven Holl’s Subtle ‘Reach’ Humanizes the Kennedy Center” by Justin Davidson in the Intelligencer

[im-marnie]

Every human being is a puzzle of need. You must become the missing piece and they will tell you anything.

Red Sparrow.

[dontmeantobepoliticalbut]

Progressives target Jim Cooper for primary challenge

Justice Democrats endorse foe to veteran Tennessee congressman.

The First Major Progressive Challenger of 2022 Is Here

Odessa Kelly runs to unseat a Blue Dog Democrat in Tennessee, recruited by the same group behind Jamaal Bowman and Cori Bush.

[dontmeantobepoliticalbut]

Conservative George W. Bush Is Now Too Liberal for His Party

George W. and Jeb Bush once defined not just Republicanism, but movement conservatism. Both have changed decisively after Trump.

[dontmeantobepoliticalbut]

GOP Congresswoman Blamed Wildfires on Secret Jewish Space Laser

Marjorie Taylor Greene is even nuttier than previously believed.