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The days and weeks after the Trump administrations departure generated waves of think pieces from the right-of-center about what Donald Trumps election and tenure could mean for the future of the GOP.

Setting aside the obnoxious and hysterical bloviating about the end of democracy that dominated the mainstream press, pundits (myself included) opined about the opportunity for the GOP to make a pivot that embraced the working-class voters Trump brought into the party, to learn from his willingness to update the conservative platform to take on modern challenges, and to follow his fearlessness in the culture wars.

In this years approaching midterm elections, it appears congressional Republicans are poised to take back at least one congressional majority in the House of Representatives. The problem? Rep. Kevin McCarthy, the Republican leader and presumptive Republican speaker, appears to have forgotten that the Trump moment happened at all.

In an interview with Fox News, McCarthy outlined the top priorities for the GOP should they be given a congressional majority: stopping the flow of drugs and human trafficking on the border, making it easier to start and grow a business, re-establishing Americas energy independence, and passing a parents bill of rights.

If youre sensing shades of elections ranging from 1984 to 2012, youre not alone. Minus the aberration that was Trump, the Republican Party has been promising the exact same set of goals for my entire lifetime, regardless of what is actually happening in the country. One suspects that a nuclear winter could befall the entire North American continent and Republicans would struggle mightily through the fallout to declare they have the solution to the problem: the reauthorization of the Keystone Pipeline.

Its not that these policies are wrong or even misplaced. Theyre simply mis-prioritized. Yes, more enforcement at the border, making life better for small businesses, securing American energy independence, and enforcing parental choice are good and absolutely necessary policy goals. But they also represent the absolute baseline expectations that voters should have from an even marginally competent Republican party.

What McCarthy is espousing as top policy priorities are the rote, daily business Republicans should be engaging in when running the country, not the bold, visionary agenda of a party that understands and acknowledges the forces that now threaten its voters, and that is prepared to do battle on their behalf.

In other words, Republicans need to present an actually compelling policy vision one in which the party is prepared to deliver tangible policy relief to conservative voters who are beleaguered by a host of new threats, ranging from the large and impersonal forces of deindustrialization and globalization to the intensely local damage inflicted on families by the petty corporate tyranny of public health czars.

This detachment between Republican politicians and their voters isnt new in Republican politics. The divide between the GOP and its base has been growing for years, and even when acknowledged by D.C. politicians, often misunderstood.

Former Republican House Speaker John Boehner either completely ignored or misread the frustration that drove the emergence of the Tea Party movement in 2010 and beyond, while the partys donor class co-opted the energy into solely fiscal concerns, neglecting voters expressed frustration with the GOPs failures to address Obamacare and the countrys health-care system, and Republican efforts to pass massive amnesty for illegal immigrants.

The Tea Party wave election of 2010, which saw the defeat of big-spending Republican incumbents and a rejection of establishment-selected successors to certain Senate seats, was the first shot across the bow. When that failed to resonate with DCs Republican leadership, Republican voters responded in 2016 by launching a nuclear missile in the form of Donald J. Trump.

McCarthy appears poised to repeat the same mistakes of D.C.s Republican ruling class by looking directly past the concerns animating the partys voters. And it couldnt come at a worse time. Now, more than ever, working-class voters find themselves vulnerable in ways theyve never been before.

The dominant Covid response exacerbated an already growing wealth gap between rich and poor. As the billionaires grow wealthier, middle-class families are having fewer children and increasingly living on a financial knifes edge.

Republicans still find themselves without a viable health-care plan as states and hospitals (both of which receive generous federal subsidies) condition access to Covid treatments on racial preferencing. The Department of Justice and the FBI have been turned into a politicized, perpetually rights-violating surveillance arms of the Democratic Party, while the Department of Health and Human Services casually greenlights the sale of aborted fetal baby parts.

The China shock has left middle America hollowed out, its once industrious middle-class manufacturing base impoverished, unemployed, and ravaged by a largely unaddressed opioid crisis. Meanwhile, American mega-corporations happily replace non-college-educated American workers with cheap foreign laborers, exploiting our countrys legal immigration system with impunity. These same corporations happily bend the knee to China, helping Americas biggest geopolitical adversary develop technology and looking the other way as China marches its minorities into forced labor camps.

Women as a unique and celebrated biological class are slowly being erased as their accomplishments in the classroom and on the athletic field are overtaken by men. Americans, including elected officials, are cut off without recourse from the digital public square.

Employees at Americas flagship corporations are punished if they dont submit to corporate race flogging from HR, while public institutions teach Americas kids that their worth is defined by skin color. Americans are now routinely fired, with the encouragement of the federal government, for refusing vaccines that have been widely available for less than a year.

In the face of all of this, congressional Republicans must do more than simply shrug. A party that cannot even acknowledge the emergence of these threats, much less commit to specific, novel ways of addressing them, is assigning itself to irrelevance.

A coherent Republican agenda has to tangibly deliver for its voters not simply through appeals to broad, free-market concepts, but by directly addressing the hurdles thrown down by the corporate, government, and geoeconomic forces that seek to do them harm.

Trump doesnt remain the most popular Republican in the party due to some coercion or bullying or mind control. He remains popular with the Republican base because of his willingness as president to speak directly to what was threatening people every day. Ron DeSantis, governor of Florida, has exploded in popularity for the exact same reason.

Republicans would be wrong to think that voters are flocking to them in 2022 because theyve presented a clear and compelling vision for the future. Even political neophytes can see that Republicans are winning not on their own merits, but because Democrats are massively imploding in a spectacle of tone-deaf, racist woke-splaining overreach, unabated COVID power grabs, and legislative incompetence.

But as this Democratic majority has shown, its one thing to win power, its another to maintain it. The Republican party may have voters turning to them now in desperation, but theyre still waiting for a tangible reason to stay.

Rachel Bovard is The Federalist's senior tech columnist and the senior director of policy at the Conservative Partnership Institute. She has more than a decade of policy experience in Washington and has served in both the House and Senate in various roles, including as a legislative director and policy director for the Senate Steering Committee under the successive chairmanships of Sen. Pat Toomey and Sen. Mike Lee. She also served as director of policy services for The Heritage Foundation.

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If The Republican Party Refuses To Learn, Winning In 2022 Means Nothing - The Federalist

How do you feel when you look at the image of moldy fruit at the top of this post? Are you disgusted?

How does disgust feel in your body? Is it a queasiness or nausea? Is it the sensation of creepy crawlies? What expression does your face make when you see something disgusting like that photograph?

In How Disgust Explains Everything, Molly Young writes about the science of revulsion:

Once you are attuned to disgust, it is everywhere. On your morning commute, you may observe a tragic smear of roadkill on the highway or shudder at the sight of a rat browsing garbage on the subway tracks. At work, you glance with suspicion at the person who neglects to wash his filthy hands after a trip to the toilet. At home, you change your childs diaper, unclog the shower drain, empty your cats litter box, pop a zit, throw out the fuzzy leftovers in the fridge. If you manage to complete a single day without experiencing any form of disgust, you are either a baby or in a coma.

Disgust shapes our behavior, our technology, our relationships. It is the reason we wear deodorant, use the bathroom in private and wield forks instead of eating with our bare hands. I floss my teeth as an adult because a dentist once told me as a teenager that Brushing your teeth without flossing is like taking a shower without removing your shoes. (Do they teach that line in dentistry school, or did he come up with it on his own? Either way, 14 words accomplished what a decade of parental nagging hadnt.) Unpeel most etiquette guidelines, and youll find a web of disgust-avoidance techniques. Rules governing the emotion have existed in every culture at every time in history. And although the input of disgust that is, what exactly is considered disgusting varies from place to place, its output is narrow, with a characteristic facial expression (called the gape face) that includes a lowered jaw and often an extended tongue; sometimes its a wrinkled nose and a retraction of the upper lip (Jerry does it about once per episode of Seinfeld). The gape face is often accompanied by nausea and a desire to run away or otherwise gain distance from the offensive thing, as well as the urge to clean oneself.

The more you read about the history of the emotion, the more convinced you might be that disgust is the energy powering a whole host of seemingly unrelated phenomena, from our never-ending culture wars to the existence of kosher laws to 4chan to mermaids. Disgust is a bodily experience that creeps into every corner of our social lives, a piece of evolutionary hardware designed to protect our stomachs that expanded into a system for protecting our souls.

The article goes on to discuss two important research papers on disgust from the Hungarian researchers Aurel Kolnai, whose paper came out in 1929, and Andras Angyal, whose work was published in 1941:

Nonetheless, Kolnai was the first to arrive at a number of insights that are now commonly accepted in the field. He pointed to the paradox that disgusting things often hold a curious enticement think of the Q-tip you inspect after withdrawing it from a waxy ear canal, or the existence of reality-TV shows about plastic surgery, or Fear Factor. He identified the senses of smell, taste, sight and touch as the primary sites of entry and pointed out that hearing isnt a strong vector for disgust. One would search in vain for any even approximately equivalent parallel in the aural sphere to something like a putrid smell, the feel of a flabby body or of a belly ripped open.

For Kolnai, the exemplary disgust object was the decomposing corpse, which illustrated to him that disgust originated not in the fact of decay but the process of it. Think of the difference between a corpse and a skeleton. Although both present evidence that death has occurred, a corpse is disgusting where a skeleton is, at worst, highly spooky. (Hamlet wouldnt pick up a jesters rotting head and talk to it.) Kolnai argued that the difference had to do with the dynamic nature of a decomposing corpse: the fact that it changed color and form, produced a shifting array of odors and in other ways suggested the presence of life within death.

Angyal argued that disgust wasnt strictly sensory. We might experience colors and sounds and tastes and odors as unpleasant, but they could never be disgusting on their own. As an illustration, he related a story about walking through a field and passing a shack from which a pungent smell, which he took for that of a decaying animal, pierced his nostrils. His first reaction was intense disgust. In the next moment, he discovered that he had made a mistake, and the smell was actually glue. The feeling of disgust immediately disappeared, and the odor now seemed quite agreeable, he wrote, probably because of some rather pleasant associations with carpentry. Of course, glue back then probably did come from dead animals, but the affront had been neutralized by nothing more than Angyals shifting mental associations.

Disgust, Angyal contended, wasnt merely smelling a bad smell; it was a visceral fear of being soiled by the smell. The closer the contact, the stronger the reaction.

Students, read the entire article, or at least the first two sections of it (until I first met), then tell us:

What is your reaction to the article? Did you feel disgust while reading any parts of it? Did any of the theories about disgust resonate with you?

In your experience, what makes something disgusting? Is it the taste, texture, smell or sight of it, as Kolnai argued? Is it the mental associations with it or the fear of being contaminated as, Angyal suggested? Or is it something else?

Describe in detail something that really disgusts you. Use vivid and descriptive language to bring your revulsion to life. Then, explain why you think this thing is so repulsive to you. (Please keep in mind that your comment should remain appropriate for our site. We wont approve comments that include obscenity, vulgarity or profanity.)

Later on in the article, the author suggests that disgust can also apply to a persons politics, beliefs or activities, such as what a person with conservative politics might feel for someone with liberal politics (and vice versa), or what someone might feel about things like racism, brutality or hypocrisy. Do you agree? Do you ever feel disgust, and use that word, to describe such ideas? Is it the same feeling you might feel for moldy food or garbage? Or is the sensation and meaning different to you?

The author describes the feeling of disgust as the energy powering a whole host of seemingly unrelated phenomena a piece of evolutionary hardware designed to protect our stomachs that expanded into a system for protecting our souls. What role do you see disgust playing in our society? How has it influenced your own life, if at all?

Want more writing prompts? You can find all of our questions in our Student Opinion column. Teachers, check out this guide to learn how you can incorporate them into your classroom.

Students 13 and older in the United States and Britain, and 16 and older elsewhere, are invited to comment. All comments are moderated by the Learning Network staff, but please keep in mind that once your comment is accepted, it will be made public.

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What Disgusts You? - The New York Times

Grace Zokovitch St. Louis Post-Dispatch

JEFFERSON CITY The first wave of education bills this legislative session was met Tuesday with a record-topping heap of testimony at a House committee hearing.

Parents, educators, students and advocates packed a House hearing room to restart an emotional conversation on education policy, revisiting well-worn arguments about critical race theory, parents and teachers rights and the state of classroom culture wars.

The two bills that drew the bulk of the crowd were House Bill 1995, sponsored by Rep. Doug Richey, R-Excelsior Springs, and House Bill 1474, sponsored by Rep. Nick Schroer, R-OFallon, which are set to be combined into a Parents Bill of Rights with a section restricting the teaching of critical race theory and related subjects.

Critical race theory, which offers a framework for examining the effects of race and racism on the nations institutions, has drawn the ire of conservatives, who say it promotes division and undermines patriotism.

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The bills, Richey and Schroer said, are intended to build trust between educators and parents.

Richeys bill would allow parents and guardians to censor class materials provided to their children based on such parents beliefs regarding morality, sexuality, religion, or other issues related to the well-being, education, and upbringing of such parents child. Parents and guardians could sue schools for violations of their parental rights and be awarded as much as $5,000 if they win in court. It also allows the Missouri attorney general to sue for as much as $10,000.

These rights that are listed are fairly benign, Richey said. There is nothing in here that is controversial.

Under Schroers proposal, schools would be banned from using any curriculum that identifies people or groups of people, entities, or institutions in the United States as inherently, immutably, or systemically sexist, racist, biased, privileged, or oppressed.

Schroer insisted his bill isnt an attempt to stop kids from thinking.

Its trying to prevent educators (and) prevent institutions from flooding kids with a certain train of thought (and) teaching them this is the only way to think about these situations, he said.

Many people who testified and several lawmakers sharply disagreed with the two sponsors.

Rep. Ian Mackey, D-St. Louis, called the bills a Trojan horse to destroy quality education.

Committee members of both parties questioned the implications of the bills a chilling effect on the attraction and retention of teachers, the open-endedness of the vague language and scarce definitions, as well as the potential of lawsuits.

When we put some of these pieces in place, we are just setting up people to be in court, said Rep. Paula Brown, D-Hazelwood, warning of the potential to set up a lawyers dream bill in failing to define standards like divisive and controversial.

Rep. Shamed Dogan, R-Ballwin, questioned the decision to combine the bills, pointing out that Senate Minority Leader John Rizzo, D-Independence, has also sponsored parents bill of rights legislation.

I think thats something that we could get behind as a committee and as a body, Dogan said. Whereas this discussion over critical race theory, at least the way its presented here in this bill, is not something that unites people.

Among the people who testified was Heather Fleming, who founded the Missouri Equity Education Partnership last year in response to legislation that proposed similar curriculum restrictions.

Fleming questioned which parents rights would be protected by the proposed legislation, expressing concern that the bills would give other parents the right to censor what her child learns.

By the end of the hearing, 1,600 people had filed testimony, easily surmounting the previous record.

A third bill debated Tuesday was House Bill 1747 sponsored by Rep. Chuck Basye, R-Rocheport, which would institute a procedure to recall school board members. The bill requires 10% of the constituents in the district to petition to recall a board member.

A handful of parents shared experiences struggling to get information or communicate at meetings with school board members in their districts, with one noting the lack of qualifications required to obtain the job.

Opponents expressed concern about subjecting school board members to a constant election cycle and adding difficulty to attracting candidates to the increasingly unpopular volunteer position.

One campaign manager for a recently elected school board member noted that in the position the woman had already been sued twice, followed in her car, escorted by police and received a death threat, asking Who wants that job?

I want the school board members to be able to really make a decision that are for the kids and not for politics, said Jamie Johnson, vice chair of the Platte County Democratic Central Committee.

The bills are expected to come up for a committee vote in the House Committee on Elementary and Secondary Education.

The Associated Presscontributed to this report.

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Continued here:
Hearing on bills to ban critical race theory, adopt parents' bill of rights draws record response - Daily Journal Online

And Just Like That did not have the smoothest of landings. The Sex and the City sequel found itself draped in controversy from the moment its return was announced. There would be no Samantha Jones, with the core group reduced to a trio, after Kim Cattrall did not return to the franchise. (Was she invited? Did she decline? I look forward to an inevitable Ryan Murphy dramatisation of events Feud: Cosmos and Cupcakes.) The films had been middling, then terrible, then a third thankfully ditched before it got too far. Could a series that was built on being so brassy and brash survive in the tetchy 2020s?

Then it finally arrived, and the drama rolled on. The big twist, or the Big twist, at the end of episode one was briefly a moment, controversial largely for the fact that instead of weeping and hugging her still-conscious husband as he had a heart attack, Carrie might have considered calling an ambulance instead. To think that the reputation of Peloton was the main topic of conversation. Shortly after it aired, allegations of sexual assault were made against Chris Noth by multiple women. He issued a denial, but his co-stars published a message of support for his accusers, and a rumoured cameo at the end of the season was reportedly scrapped.

Critics of the show itself were not kind, and the first two episodes were certainly unsteady. It seemed clunky, grasping at what it felt was the zeitgeist with all the grace of a drunken goat. A couple of its storylines proved fuel for the dreaded culture wars, which some viewers managed to interpret as the writers hatred for its three leading women. It introduced a non-binary queer character, Che (Sara Ramirez), and Carrie, Miranda and Charlotte, now in their 50s, struggled to navigate this terribly modern world, as I struggled to navigate the idea that a podcast could represent the height of baffling modernity. Subtlety was not its strong point. Carrie seemed never to have heard of Diwali. The less said about kitchen sex, the better. Dont make me relive Rambo.

But the truth is that I am hedging my bets, acknowledging that I see its flaws and can understand many, though not all, of the criticisms. I note that these criticisms are rarely aimed at the first two episodes, however, and are about scenes that happen in episodes three, four and five (Mirandas cheating, Carries dodgy hip). So, I got to thinking, are the people who claim to hate this, watching it anyway? I suspect the answer is yes. Obviously, its return has been bumpy. (Mirandas an alcoholic! Oh no she isnt! Oh yes she is!) Yet every week, I wait for the day a new episode appears, then I stop what Im doing to watch it, as soon as time and decency allow. I have heard others quietly admitting to the same.

It is ironic that And Just Like That has struggled with technology from Carries coy and then freewheeling contributions to the podcast, to her inability to switch off a beeping device in her new apartment because this show both fits into and resists the digital era. It fits into it because, on the accounts I follow, at least, which I admit are of a certain, camp bias, it is a talking point every week. It seems to have become that much-coveted thing, water-cooler television. And it resists it, because there is something free and old-fashioned about the way in which it feels so thrown together and blase. Some viewers have interpreted its tone as tiptoeing around the issues, whatever they may be, but the characters occasional blundering about identity, for example, seems pretty loose and open to me.

To enjoy the series and I realised, three or four episodes in, that I really am enjoying it requires holding two contradictory notions in mind. One is that it can be incredibly clumsy and has many moments that seem ill-judged. The other is that it is pleasurable and very entertaining, and still has many of its charms, if not quite the same ones that it had in its heyday. One recent episode saw Carrie contemplating having a few cosmetic tweaks to her face, which turned into a thoughtful exploration of the value of lived experience. I wouldnt have seen it coming after the first two episodes, but dare I whisper that And Just Like That has started to settle into its own skin.

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Dare I whisper it? I'm really enjoying And Just Like That - The Guardian

Letter writers| Fort Myers News-Press

Shade trees offer a number of advantages over palms for residential use. They are much better at storing carbon and therefore reducing atmospheric CO2. They also provide shade which lowers the ambient temperature. Temperatures are rising and trees are one of the most obvious ways for cities to counter this phenomenon. The state has recommended that palms should make up less than 30 percentof the trees in Florida cities.

The Naples city arborist seems hooked on planting palm trees around Palm Circle. This circle is in dire need of shade trees for walkers and bikers. It is too hot to walk that route. This current plan needs to be re-examined. Parts of Crayton Road also need to be examined.

Judy Hushon, Naples

Such good news to read that Republican Sen.Joe Gruters is promoting a bill to ban smoking on Floridas beaches.The benefits are many!It will eliminate secondhand smoke, decrease beach litter and protect birds, turtles and the waters of the Gulf.Wethe public should no longer have to walk in smokers ashtrays.

Dorothy S. Kuzneski, Naples

The 2022-2023 Florida legislative session is beginning. DeSantislegislative wish list begins with attacks on issues that dont exist.

After praising Floridas elections in 2020 and suggesting it be a model for other states, he now wants a new Office of Election Crime and Security to investigate fraud. It would cost Florida taxpayers $5.7 million and employ a staff larger than most police departments have to solve murders.

What in the world are 52 investigators going to do all year long? Wait for the phone to ring? said Andrew Warren, Hillsborough Countys state attorney.

Another focus is keeping critical race theory out of schools and workplaces. Attacking CRT israther a stroke of genius for the GOP. They took a 40-year-old law school course, turned it into a bogeyman, and told voters to be afraid of it. Now DeSantis wants to empower parents to sue if they detect critical race theory in schools although few can even define what it is.

DeSantis also wants to allow employees to be able to sue employers who use critical race theory as part of their training. Many employers -- and also church organizations, charities, and nonprofits -- conduct racial sensitivity training. Employees would be empowered to sue if they perceive this training to suggest that racism is systematic in our social institutions.

There is plenty of reality that DeSantis could be addressing instead of chalking up political points fighting false culture wars. Florida has poorly funded schools (ranked 46th), a struggling health care system (ranked 41st), unmanaged COVIDspreading out of control, and rampant environmental issues.

Florida needs serious legislators to address serious issues.

Susan McGuire, Bokeelia

Beth Petrunoff will hit the Naples City Council floor running and deserves your vote to make it happen!

Beth understands the complex issues facing future city councils to maintain a residential quality of life in Naples. She believes a most important agenda item is a pending update to the Naples Comprehensive Plan, a blueprint shaping the feel of the city for years to come. Beth believes it should be Values-Driven reflecting the Vision Plan approved in 2020.

She also supports Neighborhood Action Plans and believes they should be reinstated into the Comprehensive Plan.Beth advocates for a five-year Capital Improvement Plan with measurable goals, a mantra from her days as a GE executive. In addition, she supports a three-point plan to solve police staffing: raise pay to market standard, increase retention bonuses to reward loyalty and repeal union rule that mandates only entry-level rookie pay for experienced applicants.

The management skills she demonstrated as a successful executive vice president at GE will no doubt aid in our selection process to find an outstanding new Naples city manager which Beth calls out as one of her first priorities.

Beth Petrunoff deserves your vote!

Robert Patten Burns,Naples

First: I have attended many Naples City Council meetings and workshops in the past year. I have the utmost respect for the hard work and dedication of our current City Council members. I fully support the incumbents running for office, Ray Christman and Terry Hutchison. They spend countless hours preparing for the meetings and studying the issues. They support the vision clearly expressed by the residents.

Second: Beth Petrunoff has my support. She shares that same vision and has the same dedication that Ray Christman and Terry Hutchison have shown. She understands the issues facing Naples which must be addressed to maintain our residential and environmental quality of life. She has the knowledge, the qualifications and the energy to join our hard-working City Council.

Third: I urge all Naples residents to vote for these threecandidates who I believe will work together to make Naples the city the residents want it to be.

Diane Ladley, Naples

As a registered Republican I am embarrassed and offended by the extremely negative and partisan campaign being run by The Collier County Citizens Values PAC in support of John Dugan. They have even gone so far as to suggest Naples residents do not exercise their right to vote for threecandidates and only vote for John Dugan, leaving others to decide the full make up of our council. We do not need this divisiveness on our council.

Susan Anderson, Naples

As a resident of Florida since 1962, a homeowner that has been insured all these years, never made a claim. My new insurance premium rose by 30percent for this year.

Also my automobile insurance has risen even though my driving record is impeccable. I'm guessing it's due to my age.

I'm being penalized for being a senior citizen.

I read in this morning's Daily News that FPL has been granted anincrease.Where does it stop?

Frank Setera, Naples

Ms. Pierson claims that the popes comments on the necessity of having children rather than dogs and cats is simplistic.However, her endorsement of being a pet parent over a kid parent because it is easier and less expensivebetrays the selfishness that the pope was trying to address. Pierson is of course correct that parenting children is not easy, but the infinite worth of human beings and the propagation of the species makes it worthwhile.

Reverend Michael P. Orsi, Naples

Nine Florida counties voted over 80 percentfor Trump:Baker, Calhoun, Dixie, Gilchrist, Holmes. Lafayette, Liberty, Union, Washington. The average rate of vaccinations in these counties is 41percent. The sixcounties (Alachua, Broward, Gadsden. Leon, Orange, Osceola, Palm Beach) thatvoted over 55 percentfor Biden have a vaccination rate of 70.6 percent.

In the ninepro-Trump counties the deaths averaged 2,556 per million. In the pro-Biden counties it was 1,446.

Food for thought!

Philip Wyckoff, Fort Myers

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Letters to the editor for Wednesday, January 12, 2022 - News-Press