The people of Springfield are brave, admirable and inspiring. It reminds me of the citizens of Minneapolis supporting their community. However, since Republicans control all branches of the federal government (including SCOTUS), I don't see how they (or we) will make a difference in this particular case. They will likely be hunted down by ICE and deported prior to the midterms.
When I read that sentence, I thought, "those bastards. Celebrating while others are suffering."
But then...
"Still, I couldn’t help but notice how small, and frankly dispirited, they seemed. Desperate, even, for engagement. They had just gotten exactly what they wanted, and yet there wasn’t much triumph to be found."
I thought for sure the Trumpers would be cheering. But no.
I know they're desperate for engagement. They want to mix it up with people. To get in their faces. To call them names. And I understand that, for many of them, they're REALLY tired of all the libtards who don't have any common sense who don't understand what's really going on and how Trump is saving the country and half the country is too stupid to see it and blah, blah, blah. They get eye rolls when they bring this stuff up, from friends, family, people in grocery stores. Family members won't talk to them anymore. They've lost friends over this.
And now, they're living the days they've voted for.
But they're not happy? Why?
I don't want to talk to these people, but someone ought to, I think. They're getting exactly what they want. These policies, in their minds, are exactly the ones needed to make this country great. So WHY aren't they happy? I really would like to know because it might help bring them back around to the foundational value of E Pluribus Unum and break this hunger for performative cruelty.
I would be grateful if The Bulwark's next story on this subject suggested practical ways in which Americans who wish to help Haitian refugees in our country in their moment of need might do so. Preferably with names of organizations and addresses.
Just leaving the Braver Angels convention in Philadelphia. BA is a grass roots organization dedicated to healing the partisan divide. This is the pledge we signed onto:
“I pledge to be a Courageous Citizen: to choose curious listening over contempt; to build alongside those with different politics; and to embrace our shared duty to renew America’s civic culture.”
It was a hopeful weekend with 900 citizens, split between red and blue, dedicated to respectful dialogue.
I spent almost thirty years practicing medicine in nearby Dayton, Ohio and, in the dark humor of a level one trauma center, I used to say that Springfield’s chief export was gunshot wounds. There’s some truth to that but the other truth is that the Haitian influx into the area changed that balance, and dramatically. Sure, they still get the ballistic victims but the town now has a much elevated level of economic prosperity, owing to the drive of the Haitian community. Jobs were available in Springfield and the Haitians filled them. I can’t tell you why the locals didn’t. Maybe there weren’t enough people that wanted to live and work in a bombed out rust belt town but if you’re coming from Haiti it must have looked damned good. New businesses spun off of the migrants and existing ones got a shot in the arm. Now our distant leaders in D.C. would drive a stake into the heart of a midwestern town for their political jollies. They already got a sick, euphoric high over the pets. I fear that the area will become the next Minneapolis but lacking the resources, will and manpower to mount an effort like there was there. Even worse perhaps, I fear the gunshot wounds that go along with it.
Keep listening to BlackFork Radio. It’s a great way to unwind from all of this.
I was there in Springfield, too, and had the same thought about the counterprotestors. Someone on the Strict Scrutiny podcast called Justice Alito a sore winner that day, and that’s all I could think. To be honest, I worry about this desperation. One of them was shouting “what about X” where X is the unhoused or veterans, etc., and it pains me that she is so close to understanding but would instead take out her vitriol on those who should be her compatriots in holding the powerful to account.
The vitriol saddens me, but also frightens me, to be honest. These folks would’ve become violent given the least provocation or permission, as evidenced by the several times people next to me were rushed at, called horrible names, and punched at (without contact) when I put down my phone with which I was recording them. We had to several times call the “community dialog” officers over to keep the counterprotestors from physically interacting with us, which might cause the question about what they were doing instead since there were about as many of them as the counterprotestors. It doesn’t take many to cause a great deal of harm, as we’re all learning from Belfast these days.
I got the sense from Jim's piece that there was just a small group of these people, standing around looking dejected when they should have been celebrating their big win.
I mean, it was both-and. We were there for a couple of hours. Most of the time the counterprotestors seemed dispirited, occasionally they mocked whoever was speaking, one got up on the dais and waved a “We the People” flag for a minute, but was removed without any real ruckus, and occasionally they didn’t like the look of one of the folks standing and facing them and got belligerent.
I don’t think any of that is surprising. They’re animated by discontent and have misidentified who is to blame. Springfield had been a dying town, and that hurts a lot of people. And this discontent has been inflamed for terrible purposes by the likes of the MAGA machine that has its way in rural Ohio—unchallenged and ongoing white nationalist nonsense lies come from politician and news media alike, often without so much as an objection by anyone at all.
Re: "...often without so much as an objection by anyone at all."
I hear that. Sometimes it's just easier to let them go.
There's that type of MAGA. That one guy. He radiates stupidity, but he gets his identity from whatever right wing nuttery he listens to. I think Rush Limbaugh was the guy who figured it out first. Hannity does it now. "We're closely monitoring the situation and we'll bring you all the new developments as soon as they come in." These guys made you feel like you were PART of something. Like listening to their shows three hours a day was a patriotic act, your civic duty. Limbaugh was really good at that. I used to genuinely enjoy listening to him in the early 90's. But, really, what I was doing was consuming ad content. I wasn't doing anything positive for the country. I was listening, passively, to a radio program.
But that one guy ... he's ready to engage. He WANTS to engage. He's been sitting there "doing his research" and he's ready for you. He wants it so bad.
And so they show up in Springfield at an event like this, ready to bathe in liberal tears. The best thing to do is just leave them alone, but part of me wants to engage them too, to hold up a mirror to them. To let their families know this is who they are. Doubt it would do any good, though. They're cooked, as the kids say now.
Yeah, we didn’t engage. I just stood there videoing to discourage any shenanigans. It felt important given that as soon as I’d stop filming, they would try to escalate. There were some smart things I felt like saying, of course, but I’m old enough to know better.
"Still, I couldn’t help but notice how small, and frankly dispirited, they seemed. Desperate, even, for engagement. They had just gotten exactly what they wanted, and yet there wasn’t much triumph to be found."
For years I have been saying that MAGA voters are drug addicts. Not "like" drug addicts, but real addicts, not to a "substance" (gambling addicts aren't) but to feel-good WORDS, not even actions, from their chosen cult leader. But for a decade, with every "fix" they get, they're more miserable than ever. Even if everyone they dislike, e.g. people of the wrong color, "gender," or anyone else in "the left" disappeared (as JVL claims they want) they would still be miserable. The irony is that we Never-Trumpers are the ones who really want to help them, i.e. give them "tough love" to cure their addiction and make them happier in the long run. Their cult leader and his countless shameless protectors just want to exploit them. A few have already learned the hard way. More will follow.
The people who support this ruling remind me of the folks who turned in their Jewish neighbors during the Holocaust. We are sending these families into harm’s way and some find this funny. How low we have gone.
Different Bulwark writers bring different skills & gifts to increase our understanding. Swift, Cohn, & Carrasquillo are especially adept at connecting with individual people, telling us their individual stories, showing us across miles, social distances, & years of difference how close all of our hearts really are... even (maybe especially) when hearts are hurting
Jim, I love your newsletters and I love the Cincinnati vibe. On our road trips between Rochester, New York and New Orleans we loved crossing the bridge over from Kentucky into Cincinnati. I was just looking at some old photos from it the other day Columbus has really good energy also. I hate that this is happening there.
Linda - old Buckeye here, long gone from my native sod. Jim's writing here + his own Cinci-related Substack are love letters from home even when he's reporting on unlovable situations. Re: Columbus - we have an adult grandchild who made his way there for college & stayed, exactly because of the positivity found there (not around the statehouse of course, that's a different story) - so many great people lifting each other up there!
As an aussie, July 4th isn't one of our days, but I hope people in the US can still make it a day of celebration of all the things America really is, & just forget about the orange lunatic for a while 👍👍
I look forward to your Overtime every week. Thank you for all the what I missed this week. I especially appreciate the personal side of things. I'm all for fireflies, sparklers and a good BBQ on the 4th.
Will they vote? Will they help get out the vote in November? It is a nice symbol and it costs nothing. When it costs something will they show? The Haitians will be hunted by ICE and they will live in fear. Will any of the folks who attended put their life on the line for them?
Will they offset the billionaires funding the GOP and driving this policy? There is more money and the power of the federal government behind this policy than the people opposing it or simply showing up and displaying some solidarity.
I wish them all the best they can achieve. However I doubt the GOP is going to worry as they will pump money and negative advertising now until November and if they can keep promoting negative stories about Haitians they will make them a regular target as they have with the Somalis.
The deep brutal truth is America is a deeply racist nativist country and its veneer of being friendly and tolerant is thin. Trump has demonstrated that because he has won two elections and the Democrats are struggling.
Been voting 54 years (mix of Democrat, Republican and independent). Not one cent spent on advertising has ever affected my vote. I never listen to any sales pitches (I mute TV commercials, etc.) let alone from politicians, whose job is to lie. If everyone were like me no one would bother giving any money to candidates.
Thank you, Jim. I need all the rays of light I can find these days, and yours is one of the brightest. Happy Fourth of July to you and the family and all of America.
Jim - So good!! Thank you.
" ... I plan to reread the Declaration of Independence... and prepare to do all I can ..."
that, and the speeches of thomas paine, too.
The people of Springfield are brave, admirable and inspiring. It reminds me of the citizens of Minneapolis supporting their community. However, since Republicans control all branches of the federal government (including SCOTUS), I don't see how they (or we) will make a difference in this particular case. They will likely be hunted down by ICE and deported prior to the midterms.
It's devastating and demoralizing. For all of us.
Re: "Take a guess at which group was happier?"
When I read that sentence, I thought, "those bastards. Celebrating while others are suffering."
But then...
"Still, I couldn’t help but notice how small, and frankly dispirited, they seemed. Desperate, even, for engagement. They had just gotten exactly what they wanted, and yet there wasn’t much triumph to be found."
I thought for sure the Trumpers would be cheering. But no.
I know they're desperate for engagement. They want to mix it up with people. To get in their faces. To call them names. And I understand that, for many of them, they're REALLY tired of all the libtards who don't have any common sense who don't understand what's really going on and how Trump is saving the country and half the country is too stupid to see it and blah, blah, blah. They get eye rolls when they bring this stuff up, from friends, family, people in grocery stores. Family members won't talk to them anymore. They've lost friends over this.
And now, they're living the days they've voted for.
But they're not happy? Why?
I don't want to talk to these people, but someone ought to, I think. They're getting exactly what they want. These policies, in their minds, are exactly the ones needed to make this country great. So WHY aren't they happy? I really would like to know because it might help bring them back around to the foundational value of E Pluribus Unum and break this hunger for performative cruelty.
I would be grateful if The Bulwark's next story on this subject suggested practical ways in which Americans who wish to help Haitian refugees in our country in their moment of need might do so. Preferably with names of organizations and addresses.
Hi Eli, I mentioned those in Friday's Morning Shots, the original bit that this was a follow up for.
https://haitiansupportcenter.org/
https://springfieldg92.org/get-involved/
Thank you!
Just leaving the Braver Angels convention in Philadelphia. BA is a grass roots organization dedicated to healing the partisan divide. This is the pledge we signed onto:
“I pledge to be a Courageous Citizen: to choose curious listening over contempt; to build alongside those with different politics; and to embrace our shared duty to renew America’s civic culture.”
It was a hopeful weekend with 900 citizens, split between red and blue, dedicated to respectful dialogue.
I spent almost thirty years practicing medicine in nearby Dayton, Ohio and, in the dark humor of a level one trauma center, I used to say that Springfield’s chief export was gunshot wounds. There’s some truth to that but the other truth is that the Haitian influx into the area changed that balance, and dramatically. Sure, they still get the ballistic victims but the town now has a much elevated level of economic prosperity, owing to the drive of the Haitian community. Jobs were available in Springfield and the Haitians filled them. I can’t tell you why the locals didn’t. Maybe there weren’t enough people that wanted to live and work in a bombed out rust belt town but if you’re coming from Haiti it must have looked damned good. New businesses spun off of the migrants and existing ones got a shot in the arm. Now our distant leaders in D.C. would drive a stake into the heart of a midwestern town for their political jollies. They already got a sick, euphoric high over the pets. I fear that the area will become the next Minneapolis but lacking the resources, will and manpower to mount an effort like there was there. Even worse perhaps, I fear the gunshot wounds that go along with it.
Keep listening to BlackFork Radio. It’s a great way to unwind from all of this.
I have the sticker on my notebook right here! Great tunes!
I was there in Springfield, too, and had the same thought about the counterprotestors. Someone on the Strict Scrutiny podcast called Justice Alito a sore winner that day, and that’s all I could think. To be honest, I worry about this desperation. One of them was shouting “what about X” where X is the unhoused or veterans, etc., and it pains me that she is so close to understanding but would instead take out her vitriol on those who should be her compatriots in holding the powerful to account.
The vitriol saddens me, but also frightens me, to be honest. These folks would’ve become violent given the least provocation or permission, as evidenced by the several times people next to me were rushed at, called horrible names, and punched at (without contact) when I put down my phone with which I was recording them. We had to several times call the “community dialog” officers over to keep the counterprotestors from physically interacting with us, which might cause the question about what they were doing instead since there were about as many of them as the counterprotestors. It doesn’t take many to cause a great deal of harm, as we’re all learning from Belfast these days.
So they weren't just standing around looking sad?
I got the sense from Jim's piece that there was just a small group of these people, standing around looking dejected when they should have been celebrating their big win.
What you're describing is completely different.
I mean, it was both-and. We were there for a couple of hours. Most of the time the counterprotestors seemed dispirited, occasionally they mocked whoever was speaking, one got up on the dais and waved a “We the People” flag for a minute, but was removed without any real ruckus, and occasionally they didn’t like the look of one of the folks standing and facing them and got belligerent.
I don’t think any of that is surprising. They’re animated by discontent and have misidentified who is to blame. Springfield had been a dying town, and that hurts a lot of people. And this discontent has been inflamed for terrible purposes by the likes of the MAGA machine that has its way in rural Ohio—unchallenged and ongoing white nationalist nonsense lies come from politician and news media alike, often without so much as an objection by anyone at all.
Re: "...often without so much as an objection by anyone at all."
I hear that. Sometimes it's just easier to let them go.
There's that type of MAGA. That one guy. He radiates stupidity, but he gets his identity from whatever right wing nuttery he listens to. I think Rush Limbaugh was the guy who figured it out first. Hannity does it now. "We're closely monitoring the situation and we'll bring you all the new developments as soon as they come in." These guys made you feel like you were PART of something. Like listening to their shows three hours a day was a patriotic act, your civic duty. Limbaugh was really good at that. I used to genuinely enjoy listening to him in the early 90's. But, really, what I was doing was consuming ad content. I wasn't doing anything positive for the country. I was listening, passively, to a radio program.
But that one guy ... he's ready to engage. He WANTS to engage. He's been sitting there "doing his research" and he's ready for you. He wants it so bad.
And so they show up in Springfield at an event like this, ready to bathe in liberal tears. The best thing to do is just leave them alone, but part of me wants to engage them too, to hold up a mirror to them. To let their families know this is who they are. Doubt it would do any good, though. They're cooked, as the kids say now.
Yeah, we didn’t engage. I just stood there videoing to discourage any shenanigans. It felt important given that as soon as I’d stop filming, they would try to escalate. There were some smart things I felt like saying, of course, but I’m old enough to know better.
Sorry to have missed you!!
"Still, I couldn’t help but notice how small, and frankly dispirited, they seemed. Desperate, even, for engagement. They had just gotten exactly what they wanted, and yet there wasn’t much triumph to be found."
For years I have been saying that MAGA voters are drug addicts. Not "like" drug addicts, but real addicts, not to a "substance" (gambling addicts aren't) but to feel-good WORDS, not even actions, from their chosen cult leader. But for a decade, with every "fix" they get, they're more miserable than ever. Even if everyone they dislike, e.g. people of the wrong color, "gender," or anyone else in "the left" disappeared (as JVL claims they want) they would still be miserable. The irony is that we Never-Trumpers are the ones who really want to help them, i.e. give them "tough love" to cure their addiction and make them happier in the long run. Their cult leader and his countless shameless protectors just want to exploit them. A few have already learned the hard way. More will follow.
It's a hell of a drug.
The people who support this ruling remind me of the folks who turned in their Jewish neighbors during the Holocaust. We are sending these families into harm’s way and some find this funny. How low we have gone.
Different Bulwark writers bring different skills & gifts to increase our understanding. Swift, Cohn, & Carrasquillo are especially adept at connecting with individual people, telling us their individual stories, showing us across miles, social distances, & years of difference how close all of our hearts really are... even (maybe especially) when hearts are hurting
Jim, I love your newsletters and I love the Cincinnati vibe. On our road trips between Rochester, New York and New Orleans we loved crossing the bridge over from Kentucky into Cincinnati. I was just looking at some old photos from it the other day Columbus has really good energy also. I hate that this is happening there.
Linda - old Buckeye here, long gone from my native sod. Jim's writing here + his own Cinci-related Substack are love letters from home even when he's reporting on unlovable situations. Re: Columbus - we have an adult grandchild who made his way there for college & stayed, exactly because of the positivity found there (not around the statehouse of course, that's a different story) - so many great people lifting each other up there!
As an aussie, July 4th isn't one of our days, but I hope people in the US can still make it a day of celebration of all the things America really is, & just forget about the orange lunatic for a while 👍👍
I look forward to your Overtime every week. Thank you for all the what I missed this week. I especially appreciate the personal side of things. I'm all for fireflies, sparklers and a good BBQ on the 4th.
Will they vote? Will they help get out the vote in November? It is a nice symbol and it costs nothing. When it costs something will they show? The Haitians will be hunted by ICE and they will live in fear. Will any of the folks who attended put their life on the line for them?
Will they offset the billionaires funding the GOP and driving this policy? There is more money and the power of the federal government behind this policy than the people opposing it or simply showing up and displaying some solidarity.
I wish them all the best they can achieve. However I doubt the GOP is going to worry as they will pump money and negative advertising now until November and if they can keep promoting negative stories about Haitians they will make them a regular target as they have with the Somalis.
The deep brutal truth is America is a deeply racist nativist country and its veneer of being friendly and tolerant is thin. Trump has demonstrated that because he has won two elections and the Democrats are struggling.
Been voting 54 years (mix of Democrat, Republican and independent). Not one cent spent on advertising has ever affected my vote. I never listen to any sales pitches (I mute TV commercials, etc.) let alone from politicians, whose job is to lie. If everyone were like me no one would bother giving any money to candidates.
Thank you, Jim. I need all the rays of light I can find these days, and yours is one of the brightest. Happy Fourth of July to you and the family and all of America.