Bill Clark/CQ Roll Call via AP Images
Rep. Don Bacon (R-NE) speaks to reporters on the House steps, January 12, 2023, at the Capitol in Washington.
To begin, we find in this piece the perfect Altercation target. It’s too easy, in fact. AI would be bored addressing the intentional normalization of far-right politics in the name of Beltway blessed “moderation” in this moronic piece. The headline to this Semafor piece by Kadia Goba reads YOU WANNA BE ON TOP?—“America’s Next Top Moderate: Which House Republican Wants the Title?” We learn that compared to the House Freedom Caucus—that is, the crazy, fascist lunatics who operate on the basis of total and complete fealty to America’s criminal and insane ex-president—Republican “relative moderates … are making rumblings of their own.” What’s more: “The more centrist wing has its own rolling group chat of policy ideas, messaging strategy, and even some spicy memes on secret text chains.” What do these “pragmatic Republicans” have in mind? What do these members of this alleged “Mod Squad” think about their “conservative colleagues”?
Do these wonderful folks oppose destroying the full faith and credit of the United States under threat from their “conservative” colleagues? Well, not so much, but Rep. Don Bacon “urged Democrats to negotiate over spending cuts tied to the debt ceiling vote.” And Nancy Mace, who voted against Trump’s second impeachment after condemning his role in the Capitol riot, “made headlines by warning Republicans not to overreach on abortion by imposing bans without exceptions for rape or incest,” but ended up voting for them anyway. Yes, these are the brave folks we can totally depend on to save American democracy …
Semafor’s willingness to go along with, even to empower, the etymological hijacking of the word “moderate”—as well as the word “conservative”—to accommodate a party that, as the actual moderate and sometimes conservative Tom Edsall notes, “has been transformed from a generally staid institution representing the allure of low taxes, conservative social cultural policies and laissez-faire capitalism into a party of blatant chaos and disruption” is a powerful illustration of the willingness of even the savviest members of our media ecosystem to debase the English language—and thereby enable actual American fascism—in pursuit of political relevance and source-greasing.
The new January 6th report is every bit as much a disappointment as the committee’s hearings were a triumph. As Jill Lepore noted in The New Yorker, “In the January 6th Report, Donald Trump acted alone and came out of nowhere. He has no past. Neither does the nation. The rest of the country doesn’t even exist.”
Thanks to a decision made, apparently, by Nancy Pelosi, the committee deferred in every instance to Liz Cheney’s desire to turn the report into a Never Trump–dominated document and thereby give a pass to the MAGA-dominated Republican Party and conservative media structure that supported and enabled his (so far) unsuccessful attempt to destroy American democracy and install a lawless, fascistic regime in its place.
The Washington Post had warned us that this was likely in this piece back in November. It explained that “[p]otentially left on the cutting room floor, or relegated to an appendix” was the information relating to “the law enforcement and intelligence community’s failure to assess the looming threat and prepare for the well-forecast attack on the Capitol.” It would also likely drop the investigations of the “financing for the Jan. 6 attack,” as well as that of the role of “militia groups and extremism.” The reason? Cheney “is said by multiple staffers to want the report to focus on Trump, and has pushed for the hearings to focus extensively on his conduct—and not what she views as other sideshows.”
A lengthy New York Times Magazine account confirmed that this is exactly what happened. It noted, “Far more controversial internally was Cheney’s adamant position that the committee’s final report focus primarily on Trump’s misconduct, while marginalizing the roles of violent domestic actors, their financial organizers and their sympathizers in law enforcement.” The problem, according to Cheney’s spokesperson, was that “some of the staff members submitting draft material for the report were promoting a viewpoint ‘that suggests Republicans are inherently racist.’” To me, the problem is that Cheney, as valuable as she has been, wants to run for president (and even as an independent, she’ll still need Republican votes) and Democrats have no guts and no self-confidence.
The whitewashing of the Republican role was matched by the report’s similar willingness to ignore that of social media for empowering the violent extremism that led to the attack itself. In another article in the Post, we learn, “The Jan. 6 committee spent months gathering stunning new details on how social media companies failed to address the online extremism and calls for violence that preceded the Capitol riot.” They compiled the evidence in a 122-page memo, but the committee apparently feared exposing “the roots of domestic extremism taking hold in the Republican Party beyond former president Donald Trump and [were] concerned about the risks of a public battle with powerful tech companies, according to three people familiar with the matter who spoke on the condition of anonymity to discuss the panel’s sensitive deliberations.” What’s more: “Confronting that evidence would have forced the committee to examine how conservative commentators helped amplify the Trump messaging that ultimately contributed to the Capitol attack, the people said—a course that some committee members considered both politically risky and inviting opposition from some of the world’s most powerful tech companies, two of the people said.” Here’s the irony part: The evidence indicates that Twitter may have given Trump preferential treatment, undercutting claims Elon Musk has amplified in Matt Taibbi’s so-called “Twitter files” series about alleged anti-conservative bias behind the scenes of the platform: “Twitter was terrified of the backlash they would get if they followed their own rules and applied them to Donald Trump,” a former staffer testified.
Got all that? The committee allowed itself to be used to protect insurrectionist-supporting MAGA Republicans and social media sites—including especially Twitter—and our mainstream media has bought into a narrative that says MAGA Republicans are no longer in charge of anything (except, of course, the House), and Twitter and the rest of social media are dominated by extremist liberals who have nothing but contempt for the free speech of honest conservatives. I doubt even George Orwell would have risked such a ridiculous scenario; then again, as Philip Roth never tired of pointing out: “You can’t write good satirical fiction in America because reality will quickly outdo anything you might invent.”
In We Are Not One: A History of America’s Fight Over Israel news, The Forward was nice enough to publish this interview by deputy opinion editor Nora Berman with me this week. I am grateful for that and to The New Yorker for adding the book to the magazine’s list of the “Best of 2022” because it was published after the list was first made. But so far, no daily U.S. newspaper or national news magazine has published a review. Not The New York Times; not The Washington Post. Not The Wall Street Journal, etc., all of whose respective roles in the debate are discussed at length, but especially that of the Times. (The British Guardian did, and so did Germany’s Süddeutsche Zeitung, and so thanks to them.) Also, weirdly, Amazon removed, after it first published, an extremely thoughtful review on the page from M.J. Rosenberg, a longtime veteran in the issues described in the book. My publisher has been trying without success to get a reason for this. Anyone at Amazon reading Altercation? Thanks …
I saw two really fun shows this week. First, I went back to Birdland for the first of five shows by the 12-piece (plus vocalists) Delfeayo Marsalis & the Uptown Jazz Orchestra. Yes, Ellis had another son and Wynton, Bradford, and Jason another brother, this one with eight albums to his credit. He plays the kind of orthodox New Orleans funk-inspired jazz (and vice versa) that just challenges you not to be in a good mood no matter how lousy your life may seem when you first sit down to listen (or, in another setting, get up to dance). For me, the highlights were the extended Fats Domino cuts (and also the surprisingly excellent Birdland burgers). Here is a complete Delfeayo gig from 2018.
Later in the week, I caught a really special show at the chichi (but also quite beautiful) 54 Below by the cabaret chanteuse Ann Hampton Callaway. In tandem with her new CD celebrating the legacy of Miss Peggy Lee (in which she is supported by, among others, Altercation friend John Pizzarelli), the show I saw alternated between Lee songs and stories—and a really lovely “Fever” that included Callaway’s verses about Lee’s own, rather tragic life—and ’70s sing-along songs that even my partner, Laura, who only knows everyone’s greatest hits, could sing along to. Callaway was joined by her sister, another chanteuse, Liz Callaway, for a version of “You’ve Got a Friend” that would have given a Springsteen rendition of “Hungry Heart” a run for its money in the audience participation department.
Callaway has a devoted following and immediately established a warm rapport with the audience. I appreciated the way she introduced each song so as to improve our appreciation of what we were seeing and hearing, whether it was historical context or her own personal reasons for making the choices she did. Also absolutely amazing was the rapport she established with another Altercation favorite, Billy Stritch on piano, given the fact that, in what must have been an incredibly panicked moment, he stepped into the lineup at 2:30 on the afternoon of the show itself. For more on Ann’s remarkable career, go here. Finally, here she is singing “The Folks Who Live on the Hill” at Birdland.
