Democrats could learn a lot from the O.J. Simpson murder trial

The courtroom of public opinion

Re-watching the 1995 O.J. Simpson murder trial is quite jarring. Perhaps most maddening is that the prosecution seemed to have a strong case, and blew it with a poor presentation. For example, co-lead prosecutor Marcia Clark‘s questioning of her own witness, Kato Kaelin, was seen as inept, often harsh, and repetitive. Indeed, the questioning of Kaelin was so bumbling that, a week after it began, Clark had to have Kaelin declared a hostile witness. Simpson’s defense attorneys, in contrast, were dynamic and persuasive, constantly outperforming the prosecutors. They spoke plainly (“if it does not fit, you must acquit.”) They did not lose their cool, in comparison to Clark’s frequent displays of frustration and even desperation. They also distracted jurors with conspiracy theories such as racist cops planting evidence. As we know, Simpson was found not guilty in his criminal murder trial.

The Democratic Party, including President Joe Biden, his White House staff and Cabinet officers, Democratic members of Congress and others, could learn from the O.J. Simpson murder trial. The Democrats have done many good things during Biden’s less than 11 months in office, that they should be shouting about from the rooftops. For example, the 2020 Donald Trump recession is over due to the American Rescue Plan. COVID vaccinations are up (and corresponding COVID cases and deaths are down), which has also boosted the economy. As a result, unemployment is down, and jobless claims are down to a pandemic-era low. Congress has passed the bipartisan Infrastructure bill as Biden promised, Biden provided leadership in the fight against climate change at the COP26 conference in Glasgow, and more.

But in perusing the mainstream media, one gets the impression that Biden and the Democrats are doing a lousy job, are facing numerous “crises,” and are in “disarray.” Republicans (amplified by the media) are talking about inflation, gasoline prices, Critical Race Theory, Afghanistan, and other subjects, real or imagined, where the Republicans think President Biden and the Democrats are vulnerable. This raises the question: Why is there such a disconnect between the reality and the impression for the Democrats, similar to what happened to the prosecution in the O.J. Simpson murder trial?

After Virginia elections, Democrats should treat Republicans like their crazy aunt

Democrats might treat Republicans this way

On Tuesday night, Glenn Youngkin defeated Terry McAuliffe to become the Virginia Governor-elect. While the race was very close (just over a two percent margin), by most accounts, McAuliffe ran a poor campaign. In particular, Youngkin raised right wing conspiracy theories regarding schools (so-called Critical Race Theory, imaginary Trans bathroom worries, etc.), and McAuliffe failed to bat them down or talk forcefully about his own agenda. Instead, McAuliffe focused on how he isn’t Donald Trump, someone who does not even hold elective office at this time, and that Youngkin is merely a Trump stand-in. It didn’t help McAuliffe that the mainstream media elevated Youngkin’s conspiracy theories as if they were serious subjects, which automatically turned them into meaningful political issues.

The Virginia Gubernatorial election is in many ways a precursor to the 2022 midterm elections and the 2024 presidential election. It’s virtually guaranteed that Republicans will continue to toss out false, nutty or obscure Culture War conspiracy theories, and that the media will lap them up. Remember the Caravan? Fast N Furious? How about flag burning? PizzaGate? Jewish space lasers? The list of these made-up Republican shiny object distractions is endless.

With the election loss in Virginia (including not just Governor but Lieutenant Governor, Attorney General and possibly the House of Delegates)Democrats have now received their wake-up call. The Democrats can no longer afford to laugh with each other over their wine or beer about those crazy Republicans and their loonie conspiracy theories.

The big question going forward is: how will Democrats deal with these conspiratorial, election-winning Republicans?

Final nail in the coffin for “Defund the Police” slogan?

Americans like their police functional, not defunded

“Defund the Police” was a horrible slogan from the get-go. First, after widespread negative reaction, many of the folks on the far left who originated and shared the slogan early in 2020 later backtracked, saying “it doesn’t really mean what it says.” If true, that of course demonstrates that this plain three-word slogan was a lousy one to begin with. Second, “Defund the Police” fed into a false, long-running Republican narrative that Democrats are somehow “soft on crime.” Feeding the other side’s negative narrative about you is something politicians, political parties and organizations should never want to do.

Now comes further proof that the liberal “Defund the Police” slogan, which was rejected by presidential candidate Joe Biden and the mainstream Democratic Party before and after the 2020 elections, was wrong-headed: a new poll from the reputable Pew Research Center which shows that a growing number of Americans want more, not less (or no) spending for police. Some of Pew’s findings are:

–The share of adults who say spending on policing in their area should be increased is now 47%, up from 31% in June 2020. This includes 21% who say funding for their local police should be increased a lot, up from 11% who said this last summer.

–Support for reducing spending on police has fallen significantly: 15% of adults now say spending should be decreased, down from 25% in 2020. And only 6% now advocate decreasing spending a lot, down from 12% who said this last year.

–The share of Democrats who say funding for local police should be decreased has fallen markedly – from 41% in 2020 to 25% today. By comparison, the share of Republicans who prefer less spending – which was already quite low – has moved incrementally lower. Growing shares of Republicans and Democrats alike now say police funding should be increased in their area.

Donald Trump’s new social media platform can’t handle the Truth

When Trump was on Twitter

“If you can’t beat them, secede from them.” That seems to be the Republicans’ motto these days. On social media, for example, Republicans have attempted several times to establish their own conservative platform, essentially a bubble that would cancel truths and opposing views in favor of the monolithic GOP take. Do you remember Parler? How about GETTR, a name that sounds a lot like Donald Trump‘s and Jeffrey Epstein‘s former dating technique?

With that stellar track record to go by, now Trump, who was previously kicked off Facebook, Instagram and Twitter for instigating the January 6, 2021 domestic terrorist attack on the U.S. Capitol, says he is launching another new right wing social media platform, to be called, ironically, “TRUTH Social.” However, in this case, the TRUTH is not all what it seems.

In Florida, “freedom” means “free to be dumb”

Latest Florida postcard

Republicans have a strange and cynical view of “freedom,” that word they use so often. For them, it means opposing anything a Democratic official does, no matter how helpful. Case in point: the 2009 “Tea Party” protests against President Barack Obama‘s proposed Affordable Care Act, wherein Republican base voters, many of them who desperately needed but could not afford health insurance, took orders from rich insured Republicans and protested against something very beneficial to them.

One of the most vivid demonstrations of this Republican “free dumb” attitude today is the GOP-run state of Florida, where residents take many unnecessary risks and make many poor decisions, apparently in the name of “freedom.” This includes, for example, motorcycle riders wearing tank tops, shorts, flip-flops, and no helmet or protective gear, because such riders over the age of 21 can choose whether to wear or helmet or purchase insurance — they don’t need both. Similarly, Florida automobile drivers regularly can be seen pulling off roads into emergency lanes and grass medians to do casual things like make phone calls and send texts (don’t worry, they do that while driving too), wait for flights to land, or even go fishing by the side of the road. It is, sadly, no coincidence that the terms “Floriduh,” “Floridiot,” and bizarre news stories under the category “Florida Man” proliferate in the media.

But perhaps the best example of Florida “free dumb” is its response to the COVID pandemic. As we have noted previously, Florida Governor Ron DeSantis has taken the almost insane position of fighting against COVID protections, such as vaccination or mask mandates. DeSantis has even taken to fining counties, school districts and other entities for establishing such mandates. Not surprisingly, Florida has been at or near the top among U.S. states in COVID cases (total and per capita) and deaths for many months as a result. In one Florida school district alone (Polk County), 17 employees have died of Coronavirus just since the beginning of this school year.

Finally, a news article that blames COVID deaths on the unvaccinated

National Guard administering COVID vaccination in Arizona

One of the saddest elements of the Coronavirus pandemic in the United States is the elevation of false and erroneous information in the media, including but not limited to social media such as Facebook. Much of this “fake news” is critical of COVID vaccination and precautions such as mask wearing. Some of it is politically motivated, for example, by people who don’t trust any government, or by right wingers who want to hurt Democratic leaders such as President Joe Biden and various Democratic state governors, who are largely proactive in fighting the pandemic.

As a result, the media information on COVID that many people access and then discuss with their friends, family and colleagues becomes “he said/she said,” featuring falsehoods on an even level with scientific evidence and truths. In such an environment, therefore, few things are more welcome than this news article from a few days ago (and since updated) in The Miami Herald:

Not just a number.’ COVID deaths pass 700,000 in U.S. amid vaccine refusal, delta variant

What distinguishes this article is that it’s an actual news article, not an opinion or editorial piece or comment, which places the blame for the recent 700,000 U.S. COVID death milestone squarely on the folks who refuse to get a COVID vaccine. After the jump are some choice excerpts and quotes from the article:

Gabby Petito disappearance, homicide becomes politicized

Awareness for missing Native American women and girls

It seems everything in America nowadays gets politicized, from the food we eat to the movies we watch to our responses to a worldwide pandemic. So perhaps it’s not too surprising that the case of formerly missing travel blogger Gabrielle Petito, whose body has been found in what the FBI calls a homicide, has become politicized too. Specifically, after weeks of intense media coverage, including frequent discussion and wild speculation in social media, about the blonde, blue-eyed 22 year old Petito, some folks began mentioning that there are a lot of people of color also missing, who are not receiving a modicum of media coverage in comparison. For example, here’s Joy Reid of MSNBC talking about this yesterday:

Other examples of this media phenomenon include the following:

https://twitter.com/hjelle_brian/status/1440381994475552781

Kasie Hunt begins CNN tenure with ludicrous take on California recall election

CNN, where reporting gives way to feelings

Just one week after arriving at CNN after her stint at MSNBC, “analyst” Kasie Hunt came out with an unbelievably bad take when California Governor Gavin Newsom won his recall election in a landslide on Tuesday night:

Hunt followed that up with:

And then, even though President Joe Biden had flown to California to help Newsom win impressively, Hunt couldn’t resist attacking Biden:

Leave it to the folks on Twitter, however, to set things straight. Here are a few of the many choice tweets that, to put it nicely, might make Kasie Hunt think twice about prioritizing “garbage takes” over solid reporting in the future:

Larry Elder California photo op goes horribly wrong

Venice Beach, CA, where fools and conservatives are not suffered gladly

As we mentioned several weeks ago, there’s a phony Republican effort to recall California Democratic Governor Gavin Newsom, that garnered enough signatures to become a real special election on September 14. One of the Republican candidates vying to unseat Gov. Newsom is conservative radio talk show host and conspiracy theorist Larry Elder, who, because of his celebrity (can you say Arnold Schwarzenegger?), is considered the front-runner among the Republican candidates. However, it seems that either Elder’s political instincts or his campaign staff were not ready for prime time on Wednesday, when Elder, who showed up for a staged photo op at a homeless encampment on Venice Beach to criticize Gov. Newsom,  instead quickly had to be hustled away from the scene, as the crowd yelled and cursed at him, and one person even threw an egg at Elder. Here is a tweet from ABC7 TV in Los Angeles, containing video footage of the incident:

Prominent right wingers being silenced by COVID

Anti-vaccine/anti-mask protester, August 2021

Three right wing radio hosts who railed against COVID vaccinations and masks have died of COVID just in the past month. They are Phil Valentine, Dick Farrel and Marc Bernier. They are joined by other prominent right wingers, including Caleb Wallace, a self-described anti-mask “freedom fighter” who treated himself with the livestock deworming medicine Ivermectin and died of COVID last Saturday at age 30, and H. Scott Apley, a Texas Republican Official who criticized and mocked COVID vaccinations, and who died of COVID in early August at age 45. It is unknown how many others these conservatives in the spotlight caused to die by influencing their followers not to get vaccinated and/or wear masks in public places.

Examples of the diatribes of these dead conservatives include Marc Bernier’s last tweet (his Twitter account has now been deleted), in which Bernier, referring to Democratic government officials who exhort Americans to get vaccinated, wrote:”Now the US Government is acting like Nazi’s” [sic]. Likewise, as to Phil Valentine, according to WTVF NewsChannel 5, Nashville, TN:

In December of 2020 he tweeted “I have a very low risk of A) Getting COVID and B) dying of it if I do. Why would I risk getting a heart attack or paralysis by getting the vaccine?”

He even recorded a parody song – Vaxman – mocking the vaccine.