The unique perspective and provocative opinions of Joe O’Neill
Dem Notes
The White House recently (virtually) convened a 30-nation gathering to strategize and combat ransomware. One country was notably omitted: Russia. National Security Adviser Jake Sullivan called it “an integrated effort to disrupt the ransomware ecosystem.”
Another post-Trump, international box checked: The U.S. has now regained a seat on the 47-member, United Nations Human Rights Council. The previous administration dropped out in 2018. Under President Biden, American isolationism has been reversed as the U.S. is also back as a member of the World Health Organization, re-entered the Paris climate accord and restored funding to UN agencies that had been cut.
“People believed demography is destiny, but we actually have to go out and convince those people to vote.” That was Cristina Tzintzun-Ramirez, who leads NextGen America, which is targeting younger Texas voters—including 1.1 million between the ages of 18 and 30 who are registered but have not cast ballots consistently in recent elections. Speaking of demographics, people of color accounted for 95 percent of Texas’ growth in the past decade. White Texans now make up less than 40 percent of the state’s population.
Convincing likely like-minded voters to actually cast ballots is a familiar and necessary goal of political parties and their grass-roots priorities. It also a sobering reminder that the viability of America’s manifestly vulnerable democracy requires convincing lots of Americans that exercising their right to vote is flat-out necessary.
When it comes to doing everything possible and practicable to help avoid an existential climate-change disaster for America and the planet, “moderation” and “centrism” can no longer be countenanced on the Democratic side. The other side, the Trump-sycophant, science-skeptic, party-first crowd, is already a lost cause.
With the Senate out of session last week, some Dems were in Europe—fundraising. That included Arizona Sen. Krysten Sinema and Michigan Sen. Gary Peters, who chairs the Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee. While political parties and campaigns cannot raise money from foreign nationals, they can accept contributions from American citizens living abroad.
“The Biden Administration set out with hopes for bold change–‘transformational’ was the word in thewinter. But in the autumn, ‘disarray’ is ubiquitous.”—James M. Curry and Frances E. Lee, co-authors of “The Limits of Party: Congress and Lawmaking in a Polarized Era.”