A compendium of the best reporting and commentary surrounding the pivotal 2024 elections in the United States. You won't find horse race coverage here, or the standard "both sides" BS that passes so often for political journalism. What you will find are links, with brief commentary, to work that I believe advances the conversation we should be having about America's – and the world's – future. Remember: Everything is at stake this year. (Unfortunately, some of the work I point to is behind paywalls.)
Many MAGA influencers have an apocalyptic story to tell about the country, the political divide, and where we’re all headed, and they’re already using it to lay the groundwork for crossing what has long been a red line: deploying the military for domestic law enforcement purposes. In this MAGA fever dream, everyone has their part to play. They believe that they’ll be caught up in it; you might be, too. It goes something like this: If Donald Trump wins in November, people will protest. Riots will break out. The left, they theorize, will go all-out to stoke organized violence around the country, clearing the way for a newly inaugurated Trump administration to step in and make unprecedented, widespread use of the U.S. military to restore law and order.
This is a deeply reported – and deeply disturbing – look at how the Trump cult is creating a self-fulfilling scenario to push our nation toward the dictatorship they crave. There is zero doubt that Trump himself will invoke the two-centuries-old Insurrection Act, and little doubt that the current right-wing super-majority on the Supreme Court will rubber stamp it. People aren't taking this seriously enough. We need to wake up, pronto. It can happen here.
The Republican attorney general of Texas sent armed police officers after Hispanic voters—some in their 80s—to intimidate, threaten, and destroy them financially by forcing them to hire lawyers to defend themselves, even though they are perfectly legal voters. It’s a manifestation of the new unofficial Republican slogan: “If you can’t win on the issues, cheat. And if cheating doesn’t get you over the top, intimidate!” ... Voter suppression is now a primary political tool for Republicans, which is why when Arizona’s Democratic Governor Katie Hobbs signed an executive order last week expanding locations across the state where people can vote, the Arizona Republican Party sued to prevent them from opening to voters. Republicans have come to genuinely believe that they cannot retain political power without resorting to morally criminal, nakedly unethical voter suppression tactics.
What's going on in Texas is egregious, but it's not unique. Voting laws designed to boost Republicans – and thwart Democrats – have been enacted in most Republican-controlled states. They are working as intended, because they give officials not just the means to suppress voting but also to abuse the justice system to intimidate the opposition. Voting rights lawyers have been working feverishly to reduce the blocking, intimidation, and mucking with voting systems, but they remain on the defensive. What they're fighting is the real election rigging, the real voter fraud. It may work, in part because it's spread so far and our horse-race-obsessed news media have paid only occasional attention.
In recent days, the Meta chief executive has made newsworthy public statements implicitly supporting right-wing “censorship” narratives and offered praise for Donald Trump as “badass” – even as he claimed he wanted to appear “neutral” and nonpartisan. ... Zuckerberg’s letter publicly played into the hands of Republicans, who have long falsely claimed that social media platforms colluded with liberal government officials to censor conservative voices.
Zuckerberg goes on bended knee before the Republican disinformation brigades. This would be merely another billionaire making nice with extremists, except that it's a signal he's decided to use his almost limitless power to help Republicans in the elections. This comes after he disbanded all efforts to root out extremism on his platforms. Zuckerberg is the epitome of bad faith, which is saying something given the targeted lies that have been emanating from the House Judiciary Committee, to which sent his pathetic apologies. A Zuckerberg-Trump alliance may be the most dangerous media event yet. (Related: It's time to break up all of the biggest tech companies – they have become a clear and present danger to democracy and, by extension, freedom of expression.)
[P]rinciples are sometimes burdensome things; that’s part of what makes them principles. The behavior of the anti-anti-Trumpers continues to be an inexcusable betrayal of the values they once claimed to hold. Many of them spoke, even passionately, against Trump—and then they shuffled into line. And for what? One more federal judge? A few billion more dollars in the account of a donor? It’s one thing to sell your soul cheaply. It’s another to keep taking out second and third mortgages on it until all that’s left is debt and shame.
As this commentary observes, there is no depth too low for Trump's self-degrading followers – especially the ones who once denounced him. The quote above reminds me of the best line from the great film, "A Man for All Seasons," in which Richard Rich is appointed to a political post in Wales in return for perjuring himself to help condemn Sir Thomas More. At his trial, More confronts Rich, with sadness in his voice: “Why, Richard, it profits a man nothing to give his soul for the whole world. But for Wales!” The thing is, the Trump cultists can't be shamed into acting with integrity, because they gave it up along the way. Calling out their hypocrisy is still important, but it feels mostly futile. And it's almost beside the point: the hypocrites' current kowtowing to enemies of democracy ensures they will gladly help, if the extreme right takes full power, to bring it all down. (Nichols' commentary was sparked by an op-ed in the New York Times, misleadingly headlined "Trump can win on character" – it turned out that the writer was advising Trump to relentlessly slime Harris, thereby making his own vile character irrelevant. If the Times still employs copy editors, it should discipline the one who wrote that headline.)
Voting is just part of democracy, but it's the essential place to start. Make sure you're registered. Doublecheck in the fall, well before Election Day, because in some states Republican officials are removing people, mostly those who tend to vote for Democrats, from voting rolls.
Please send your suggestions
I spend a lot of time looking for essential coverage, and hope you'll help me by letting me know about the good stuff you find. Let me know.
Thom Hartmann
Crystal Hill
Jon Passantino
Tom Nichols
