"They call it run-off because they 'run off' with your money... "

There's a lot going on this week in politics, but there's one number I can't get out of my head:

$1.4 Billion.

That's how much money was spent on the two Georgia Senate seats in the 2020 and 2022 elections. 

Two Senate seats. Six elections, because Georgia's system, created so that white conservatives could stay in power, requires you to win NOT ONE BUT TWO elections if no one gets 50% of the vote. So they have run-off elections--that in Warnock's case produced the same results. (Warnock's original term was two years because he was replacing an appointed Senator, who had replaced a resigned blah blah blah.)

Warnock won in Nov., 2020. Then again in Jan., 2021. Then in Nov., 2022. Then again in Dec., 2022. 

All this time, money was pouring into these races. Democrats ended up spending a lot more, but that in part was because they could raise a lot more. People all over the country sent money to Warnock. I did, once. And my emailbox exploded with pleas for more money for not only Warnock but a bunch of other D's. 

It's a messed-up system. Nobody likes it. Everyone will agree there's too much money in politics. The problem is that politicians don't have much incentive to change it, and plenty of incentive to keep asking for more money. And I hate when people blame "the media" but... the media also profits, a lot, from this system. So we see relatively few questions there about whether this is a good way to spend our wealth. 

$1.4 billion. That's a lot of money. I can think of a few better places we could've spent it. 

Waiting for the red wave

A few days after the 2022 midterm elections, the consensus is that the consensus was wrong. The media, the polls, and many politicians were predicting that Republicans would have a huge day and take over the U.S. House of Representatives easily. The Senate was also in play, with the Democrats' slim majority in danger. In addition, Governor and state officer races were dominated on the Republican side with headline-grabbing election deniers who could wreak havoc with state election system if they were voted in. President Biden had a high disapproval rate. A Red Wave was coming.

Things look a lot different now. 

Despite the historical tendency for midterm elections to be bad for the party who holds the White House, the Democrats outperformed expectations by quite a bit. Three days after the election, we still don't know which party will control the House of Representatives. Same story with the Senate: votes are still being counted in some states, and Georgia will go to a runoff election. It seems very possible the Democrats will hold on to the Senate. And they also held off a lot of those election-deniers in state races. 

Here in Minnesota, Democrats have won re-election for Governor, Secretary of State, and Attorney General, ensuring that election-deniers will not meddle with our electoral system. Minnesotans also voted in a DFL majority in both the House and Senate, a development the Minneapolis Star Tribune called "a stunning upset." Previously, the Republicans had a slim majority in the Senate and were thought to be positioned to compete for control of the House. But Minnesota now has one party in control of state government. 

How did this happen? The reasons are complicated but I think one word sums up the biggest answer: hubris. 

Both political parties are guilty of living in their own bubbles at times, but in recent years Republicans seem to have had an especially strong tendency to create their own reality. There was even the infamous "alternate facts" expression from the previous presidential administration, and it seemed to fit: many top Republicans seemed to think they could just say something to make it so. 

Part of this was enabled by a media system that endlessly told Republican voters what they wanted to hear. Fox News was a nonstop Republican hype machine this year, and had their own favored pollsters--who always seem to have Republican candidates a little higher up in the numbers than other pollsters. 

In the end, not only Republicans but the political mainstream started to believe the hype--helped by the reasonable assumption that this midterm would follow historical trends. 

It didn't. 

Democratic and independent voters were unusually motivated by things like Supreme Court decision that overturned Roe v. Wade. Women, in particular, were outraged by the prospect of politicians taking away their liberty to make their own reproductive choices. Younger adults, who tend not to vote in large numbers in midterms, were also much more involved this year. Other issues, such as gun violence and protecting democracy, also have risen in importance for Americans--they aren't at the top of the polls, but they are polling significantly higher as important issues to voters. 

Yes, the polls showed the economy and inflation were top-of-mind for voters, but that did not translate into Republican support amongst a strong majority of voters. People can be concerned about more than one thing. And it seemed clear that a lot of voters simply did not see the Republicans as presenting good solutions and ideas about our current set of challenges. It's also possible that enough voters were paying attention that they knew Biden and the Democrats had taken several steps to help Americans with pocketbook issues.

I think it's also likely that many independent voters have figured out that the Republicans--some of them, anyway--don't seem to care much about governing. The animating issues among the Fox News/MAGA crowd seem to be things like conspiracy theories and settling political scores. "Owning the libs" is a term we've heard a lot. 

I think a significant number of voters are tired of this type of politics. They want serious people representing them, who will work to find solutions for the many issues we face. It's not even a "bipartisan" hand-holding ideal that they want--they just don't want the endless chaos and bickering that the Trump wing seems to enjoy so much. They want adults in the room, and in the MAGA world, adults are always the exception, not the rule. 

I've had many political discussions with MAGA supporters in recent years, and it's always: "Just you wait." 

Just you wait, Trump will arrest Hillary and Obama. John Durham will come up with blockbuster charges against Mueller and other Trump enemies. It will turn out that Antifa was behind January 6. There's going to be a red wave. Just you wait. 

Delusion has its limits. If you build a house on sand, it will fall. Real facts, eventually, will beat alternative facts. That's the story of the 2022 midterm election. 

Meeting Alex Chilton

(I've been meaning to revisit an old article from Motion magazine, as part of promoting the upcoming "Big Star's #1 Record at 50" tribute. It took me quite a while to dig it up, but I finally found one copy. Being a pack rat does pay off, at times.)

Motion magazine was one of several great publications that Deone Jahnke helped create in the 80s and 90s, and not long after I moved to Milwaukee, I was bugging her to let me contribute as a writer. 

I *think* this article was the first piece that I wrote for Motion, and writing it was a complete stroke of luck. I was living in Milwaukee, but I traveled south one weekend to visit a friend in Bloomington Indiana, where I had gone to college for a year. 

We were considering things to do, and I saw that Alex Chilton was playing the famed Second Story. I had been introduced to Chilton’s band Big Star in Bloomington—at the tiny record store Gulcher Records, owned by Bob Richert, who became a bit of a mentor to me. Richert had recommended the “#1 Record/Radio City” double album re-release to me, and as the cliche goes, that record changed my life. 

I was eager to go to the show, and on an impulse, decided to call the club and ask if I could interview Chilton for Motion. It was by far the most productive use of the line, “I’m a music writer from Milwaukee” in my lifetime. The club asked Chilton, Chilton said yes, and I dashed over to meet with him in the club’s dressing room. 

 

Chilton’s cynical side is something he was known for, but I have met famous musicians with *far* more attitude than Alex Chilton. If anything, he was very polite and generous with his time. He answered my questions and seemed to enjoy talking about music. He mentioned The Replacements as one of his favorite bands at the moment. Well, more accurately, he said the Replacements were one of the few currently-popular bands that he could stand...

So, here is the article I wrote for Motion, based on that interview with Alex Chilton, in a bare-bones nightclub in Bloomington, Indiana. It was never digitized, so I’m just providing a photo file of it, with a favorite anecdote at the end. I have been sharing this story lately, and I realize that in my re-tellings, I have said Chilton played solo. The story says he had a trio--I wish I could remember who was playing with him that night. As with so many things, time has made those memories a little blurry. 

But man, am I glad I met him. 

(Blogger is not allowing me to recreate the article in a form that's very readable. Contact me directly (I suggest Facebook Messenger) if you want to see a jpg of the article.)

Don’t look back

Checking in with Fox News, Jan. 6, 2022:
A snapshot of coverage on the anniversary of the insurrection/riot at the Capitol

Time and station: Fox News, along with CNN and MSNBC, via Sirius satellite radio, from approximately 3 pm to 4 pm EST. 

Context: In Washington, D.C., several events commemorated the anniversary of the attack on the US Capitol by protestors on Jan. 6, 2021. The riot or insurrection led to the deaths of at least five people and is considered the worst attack on the U.S. Capitol since the War of 1812 and one of the worst cases of domestic terrorism in U.S. history, not the least because it took place as Congress was counting the electoral votes from the 2020 presidential election. The insurrection resulted in the historic second impeachment trial of President Trump and is the subject of ongoing investigations. 

And in other news:
Although other mainstream outlets carried extensive coverage of the events marking the anniversary of Jan. 6, Fox’ coverage was much more limited, and it cut away early to cover other stories such as a teacher’s strike in Chicago. It also spent a good deal of this time segment on editorial comments about how COVID-19 relief money was being spent. 

Say what, now? 
A common feature of Fox News commentary and reporting is the insertion of questionable or outright false statements by pundits who breezily make these assertions as though they are accepted facts—and there is seldom pushback, correction, or fact checking from anyone at the network. 
 
In this case, Dan Henninger of the Wall Street Journal, while lambasting Democrats for politicizing the Jan. 6 insurrection, said the following (emphasis mine): “Democrats have decided their best weapon is associating Donald J. Trump with [the insurrection] …  That’s what they did with Russian collusion narrative that lasted for four years, John Durham finally said there was nothing to it, but I didn’t see too many Democrats apologizing for what they put the country through with that.”
 
Um, hold on. John Durham did not say that. And nothing in his ongoing investigation has cast serious doubt on the findings of the Mueller investigation—an effort that resulted in convictions, guilty pleas, and prison sentences for several top Trump aides. Durham is a special prosecutor looking at whether government agencies overstepped their bounds in the investigation—and so far, he has not found much wrongdoing—in fact that investigation has gone month after month with almost no developments. A couple of individuals have been accused of false statements, but it is simply incorrect to claim that Durham has found there was “nothing” to the Russia investigation. 

Found the pony!
Fox News personalities do sometimes tell the truth, but it can be startling when they do so. And it’s also deeply frustrating—I have felt like tearing my hair out during the pandemic at times, when one hour on Fox News features guests promoting vaccines and masking, and the next features a conservative downplaying or even denying the importance of vaccines and masking. This whiplash-inducing coverage on Fox is less common than it used to be, as more traditional and ethical journalists leave the station and are replaced by demagogues, but it still happens. 
 
For example, the same segment that included Henninger’s whopper also included the comments of Guy Benson, political editor at the very-conservative TownHall.com site. Benson offered up the usual talking points about how incredibly partisan Democrats were for talking about Jan. 6 on the anniversary of Jan. 6, but then, having gotten that out of the way, launched into an impassioned defense of recognizing the importance of Jan. 6: 

“Because it’s the anniversary, I think it’s important to speak and remember clearly what happened a year ago: we witnessed a national disgrace that can never be allowed to happen again,” Benson said. “We had an angry mob, that was too often violent, storm the US capitol and try to shut down and disrupt the counting of the electoral vote; the peaceful transition of power—that’s sacred in this country. And that mob, those rioters were inspired by a series of lies about the 2020 election. Lies that were told primarily by the former President, Donald Trump.
 
“He had an opportunity, with his team, to prove his claims about the election in court. They couldn’t, they couldn’t come close, but those claims persisted anyway, and some people took that very seriously. And the result is history, and it’s a history that we look back on and reflect on today. It’s very sad to think about, I was sickened at the time, I was sickened again thinking back on it, and I think we have to acknowledge what really happened that day and tell the truth, even when it’s painful. And this truth—it’s pretty damn painful.” 

Benson is right about all of that. And that kind of truth-telling is far too rare on Fox News. 
 
Fair and balanced—on another channel:
The constant repetition of the claim that Democrats were being partisan about Jan. 6 is ironic coming from Fox, which started decades ago as a conservative-leaning network and has gradually morphed into a blindly partisan propaganda channel. 

There were no Democrats or anyone from outside the usual suspects at Fox News commenting on the Jan. 6 anniversary during this time segment. Juan Williams, who not so long ago gave up his seat as a moderate punching bag on “The Five,” one of Fox’s most egregiously obnoxious programs, did pop up during this hour, but even he carried on with the party line of slamming Democrats for recognizing the seriousness of an attack on our democracy. Apparently, Williams decided to mute his recent strong criticism of Trump in this appearance. It’s not an uncommon occurrence with Republicans who know the cost if they fail to stick to the approved narrative. 

On the other hand, CNN featured the perspectives of two Republicans: Charlie Dent, former U.S. Congressman, and Stephanie Grisham, a former White House official who resigned on Jan. 6 in protest of President and Melania Trump’s unwillingness to speak out against the violence. On MSNBC, toward the end of the hour, former RNC Chairman Michael Steele talked about the irresponsible way Republican office holders have been downplaying the Jan. 6 insurrection. 

But on Fox News, they were back to complaining about mandates and lockdowns. For them, the insurrection was in the rearview mirror. At least, they hoped it was. 

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