“The same kinds of things they did in the 1870s to deny votes to African Americans is what they’re trying to do today.”

“We have got to start concentrating on what we can do to stop this deterioration taking place in our society, and stop arguing about how old or how young somebody is. It’s just a little bit silly to me.”

Said Representative James E. Clyburn, quoted in “Some Voters Say Congress Is Too Old. These Black Democrats Aren’t Leaving/As older members of Congress head for the exits amid growing pressure for fresh faces in the Democratic Party, some of the most seasoned Black lawmakers are resisting retirement” (NYT).

Should a politician hold a campaign rally in a church?

Here's "Charities, Churches and Politics" at the IRS website.

I'm not going to give a tax law lecture. I just want to say politicians using churches usually attempt to be somewhat subtle. Is this some kind of joke:

Here's the article, "Biden Tries to Rally Disaffected Black Voters in Fiery Condemnation of Trump."

President Biden sought to rally disaffected Black supporters on Monday with a fiery condemnation of former President Donald J. Trump, linking his predecessor’s efforts to overturn the 2020 election to the nation’s history of white supremacy in what he called “the old ghost in new garments.”

Ghost?! If Trump used the idea of a ghost to scare black people, he'd be accused of trading on the old racist trope. 

"For an effective anti-Trump move to take place... the G.O.P. would have to display the sort of coördination that the moderate wing of the Democratic Party showed in 2020..."

"... after Bernie Sanders finished first in the New Hampshire primary. On that occasion, Congressman James Clyburn threw his support behind Joe Biden in South Carolina, and two of the moderate candidates—Pete Buttigieg and Amy Klobuchar—dropped out and endorsed Biden. Ayres didn’t go so far as to say that a Republican Party still dominated by Trump could engineer a similar feat...."

Writes John Cassidy in "Can Anybody Stop Donald Trump in the 2024 Republican Primary? Even as the former President has a commanding poll lead in a splintered field, one veteran G.O.P. consultant argues that it’s too early to coronate him" (The New Yorker).

Ayres = Whit Ayres, a consultant and pollster who isn't advising anyone at the moment but who has, in the past, has advised Marco Rubio, Lindsey Graham, and Ron DeSantis.

Exactly how did "the moderate wing of the Democratic Party" "engineer" that "feat"? They just had to stop Bernie.

"It’s like asking New York to move the Statue of Liberty from New York to Florida. I mean, that’s not going to happen. And it’s not going to happen that we’re going to change state law."

Said  John Lynch, the former governor of New Hampshire, quoted in "Democrats Overhaul Party’s Primary Calendar, Upending a Political Tradition/The proposal radically reshapes the way the party picks its presidential nominees, putting more racially diverse states at the front of the line" (NYT).

The headline says the Democrats have already done the upending, overhauling, and radical reshaping, but isn't it merely an offer that the states may accept or decline? Is it an offer-they-can't-refuse type of offer? 

I'm seeing shaming of New Hampshire. One D.N.C. member scoffed at that idea that New Hampshire has a "divine right of privilege" to go first.  What matters is "what the party says it wants in its process." Yes, but they want the state to run a primary. Do they think they have a "divine right of privilege" to tell the states when to schedule votes?

The new first state would be South Carolina — a state that hasn't gone blue in a presidential election since 1976 — chosen because it's Joe Biden's preference. It was the state that saved his candidacy in 2020. Its legislature is solidly dominated by Republicans. 

"I don’t believe in ultimatums. I don’t want nobody giving me one, and I’m not going to give anybody else one."

"I may be disappointed for the rest of my life, but I’m not going to give an ultimatum." 

Said Jim Clyburn, who is 81, quoted in "Jim Clyburn saved Biden’s candidacy — and now has the president’s ear on Supreme Court picks/The South Carolina lawmaker has tremendous influence in the White House, and he has made clear he wants the president to nominate U.S. District Judge J. Michelle Childs to the Supreme Court" (WaPo).

"Left splits over Supreme Court pick pushed by top Biden ally/Rep. Jim Clyburn is stumping for judge Michelle Childs to get the president's nod. While labor interests are skeptical, not every progressive senator is."

 Politico reports. 

Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.) declined to talk about Childs at all: “I’m not going to comment. Nope.”

Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.)... offered a subtle warning.... “You want somebody who is going to be reflective of the needs of working families and understands that we are moving towards an oligarchy in this country"...

"The Clyburn-led veterans [of the Congressional Black Caucus] have hugged close to Ms. Pelosi to rise through the ranks, and believe younger members should follow their example."

"They have taken a zero-tolerance stance toward primary challengers to Democratic incumbents. They have recently pushed for a pared-down approach to voting rights legislation, attacking proposals for public financing of campaigns and independent redistricting committees, which have support from many Democrats in Congress but could change the makeup of some Black members’ congressional districts. And when younger members of Congress press Ms. Pelosi to elevate new blood and overlook seniority, this more traditional group points to Representatives Maxine Waters of California and Bennie Thompson of Mississippi — committee chairs who waited years for their gavels.... Mr. Clyburn makes no secret of his disdain for progressive activists who support defunding the police. In the interview, he likened the idea to 'Burn, baby, burn,' the slogan associated with the 1965 Watts riots in California. '"Burn, baby, burn" destroyed the movement John Lewis and I helped found back in 1960,' he said. 'Now we have defunding the police.' [Rep. Gregory] Meeks, the political point man for the caucus, said he expected its endorsements to go where they have always gone: to Black incumbents and their allies."

From "The Congressional Black Caucus: Powerful, Diverse and Newly Complicated/The group, which includes most Black members of Congress, remains publicly united. But in private, an influx of new members who think differently about its purpose are making a play for the future" (NYT).

"Mr. Biden’s team has developed a raft of decrees that he can issue on his own authority after the inauguration on Wednesday..."

"... to begin reversing some of President Trump’s most hotly disputed policies. Advisers hope the flurry of action, without waiting for Congress, will establish a sense of momentum for the new president even as the Senate puts his predecessor on trial. On his first day in office alone, Mr. Biden intends a flurry of executive orders that will be partly substantive and partly symbolic. They include rescinding the travel ban on several predominantly Muslim countries, rejoining the Paris climate change accord, extending pandemic-related limits on evictions and student loan payments, issuing a mask mandate for federal property and interstate travel and ordering agencies to figure out how to reunite children separated from families after crossing the border, according to a memo circulated on Saturday by Ron Klain, his incoming White House chief of staff, and obtained by The New York Times. The blueprint of executive action comes after Mr. Biden announced that he will push Congress to pass a $1.9 trillion package of economic stimulus and pandemic relief, signaling a willingness to be aggressive on policy issues and confronting Republicans from the start to take their lead from him. He also plans to send sweeping immigration legislation on his first day in office providing a pathway to citizenship for 11 million people in the country illegally."

The NYT reports.

Aggressive and confrontational... that's the tone they want to set. 

I say "they" because it's "Mr. Biden's team" putting these things together. What part of this is the actual man, Joe Biden, choosing and acting? 

Here's a sentence that's about Biden personally: 

After a lifetime in Washington, the restless, gabby man of consuming ambition who always had something to say and something to prove seems to have given way to a more self-assured 78-year-old who finally achieved his life’s dream.

A man got what he wanted. He was "restless" when he didn't have it yet, and now that he's achieved his dream — getting the position — he's "self-assured." The struggle is over, I guess, and he can relax.

“He is much calmer,” said Representative James E. Clyburn, Democrat of South Carolina and a close ally. “The anxiety of running and the pressure of a campaign, all that’s behind him now. Even after the campaign was over, the election was over, all the foolishness coming from the Trump camp, you don’t know how all this stuff is going to play out. You may know how it’s going to end, but you’re anxious about how it plays out. So all that’s behind him now.”

"'Just nonsense': Kamala Harris calls narrative that black voters are homophobic a trope/Her comments come after Rep. Jim Clyburn said Pete Buttigieg's sexuality could hurt his popularity."

Politico reports.

The headline puts "just nonsense" in quotes and not "trope," but "trope" is also Harris's word.

"Trope" is kind of a vogue word, isn't it? Google says yes:


Clyburn, the House Majority Whip (third-highest-ranking Democrat in the House), is black and 79 years old, so one would think he knows what he's talking about on this issue, though it may be indelicate to say:

On Sunday, South Carolina Rep. Jim Clyburn told CNN that there was “no question” Buttigieg’s sexuality could hurt his popularity among older black voters, calling it a “generational” issue.

"I know of a lot of people my age that feel that way," Clyburn said. "I'm not going to sit here and tell you otherwise. I think everybody knows that's an issue."

Harris is taking the position that a candidate probably should take — denying the stereotyping generalization. Here's video. I think she could say this with more weight and assurance. There's something so jittery about her presentation. She knew what to say, so why say it like this, like it's making her very nervous?

Kamala Harris responds to Jim Clyburn's comments: I'm never going to buy into that trope...that African Americans are homophobic...to label one community in particular as being burdened by this bias as compared to others is misinformed, is misdirected, and it's just simply wrong. pic.twitter.com/JVfcMTMJUc

— Blake Jones (@BlakeJones___) November 5, 2019

"If we consider this to be a civil right, and I do, I don’t think civil rights ought to be left up to a state-by-state approach."

"I think we should have a national policy on this."

Here comes the pull from the left on same-sex marriage. That's James Clyburn, who ranks 3rd among Democrats in the House.

Marriage is actually unusually hard to handle at the state level — which was why Congress passed the Defense of Marriage Act. If any state permits same-sex marriage, couples who want to marry can travel to that state. Are you going to allow individual states to decide whether to recognize that marriage? DOMA was a decision to say yes, but Obama has said he believes DOMA to be unconstitutional, and he withdrew from defending it in court. Presumably, in appointing federal judges, he hopes to find individuals who share that legal opinion. And the federal government uses marriage status for many purposes. It must either accept the same-sex marriages from the states or not.

So the federalism solution really doesn't work. I know I said — just this morning — that "Leave it to the states is a fine — truly excellent — way to package the issue and set it to the side." It's not as though I'm not aware of the legal problem. I teach the topic in law school classes frequently. It's only that I think the issue can be politically packaged that way. But I must acknowledge that a truly probing questioner would succeed in opening that package back up, and Clyburn is encouraging that inquiry.

"The Obama White House is too white"... so it keeps "tripping over race rather than inspiring on race."

Says Maureen Dowd:

The West Wing white guys who pushed to ditch Shirley Sherrod before Glenn Beck could pounce not only didn’t bother to Google, they weren’t familiar enough with civil rights history to recognize the name Sherrod. And they didn’t return the calls and e-mail of prominent blacks who tried to alert them that something was wrong....

The president appears completely comfortable in his own skin, but it seems he feels that he and Michelle are such a huge change for the nation to absorb that he can be overly cautious about pushing for other societal changes for blacks and gays. 

(Gays! Where did that come from?)

His closest advisers — some of the same ones who urged him not to make the race speech after the Rev. Jeremiah Wright issue exploded — are so terrified that Fox and the Tea Party will paint Obama as doing more for blacks that they tiptoe around and do less. “Who knew that the first black president would make it even harder on black people?” asked a top black Democratic official....

“The president’s getting hurt real bad,” [Congressman James Clyburn of South Carolina,] told me. “He needs some black people around him.” He said Obama’s inner circle keeps “screwing up” on race: “Some people over there are not sensitive at all about race. They really feel that the extent to which he allows himself to talk about race would tend to pigeonhole him or cost him support, when a lot of people saw his election as a way to get the issue behind us. I don’t think people elected him to disengage on race. Just the opposite.”

Dowd ends by recommending that Obama hire Shirley Sherrod for a newly created position called "Director of Black Outreach."

"I can tell you right now, if we don't pass this bill, I don't care who you are; if you have a D behind your name and this bill has not been passed, you are in tremendous peril next year."

House Majority Whip Jim Clyburn sounds the alarm, but perhaps not the alarm he thinks he's sounding. It focuses the minds in the House, but does it incline them to vote for the bill or against it?