Every day we aren't talking about Trump is wasted

Project 2025. The GOP platform. The Supreme Court. The threats couldn't be more clear.

Today we saw more great economic news. Inflation is down sharply again, and the federal reserve will likely cut interest rates.

And the Biden administration’s yearlong effort to crack down on rich tax cheats—a centerpiece of the Inflation Reduction Act—has yielded $1 billion, a milestone for the Treasury Department and for the American people.

The money will of course go to paying for the programs in the IRA that battle climate change and expand health care, among other important initiatives, as the law pays for itself—unlike the bills Republicans pass that deal with spending and the economy, (mostly tax cuts for the wealthy), which run up the debt.

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You probably didn't hear too much about that news, however, because the corporate media, with the help of some Democratic leaders, is still focused on President Biden’s debate performance. I thought it was over this week when the president said emphatically that he was not dropping out, and I said we needed to get focused on Trump.

But apparently not, even as the polls now appear to be stabilizing, showing no real change post-debate. I’m not going to get back into it. Frankly, as I said yesterday on my radio program, I’ll get 100% behind whatever we do, and if there’s a consensus that Vice President Harris be made the candidate, then do it. Otherwise, get behind President Biden. Just do something to end this ongoing story that is wasting precious time, as we need to be focused on the GOP four months out from an election.

The GOP platform for the Republican National Convention next week is a horror show, written like a Trump rally and mirroring Project 2025—which Trump has tried to distance himself from, even as a new video clip from 2022 surfaced today, showing Trump praising the Heritage Foundation, which spearheaded Project 2025, for laying “the groundwork and detail plans for exactly what our movement will do.”

And yet, much of the corporate media got hoodwinked into thinking the GOP platform softened language on abortion and same-sex marriage, which is absolutely false, as Jessica Valenti explains.

Claiming to send the issue of abortion back to the states—which Trump is desperately and ludicrously trying to position as the “compromise” stance—the platform at the same time actually invokes the 14th amendment of the Constitution, which is meant, as in past platforms, to commit the GOP to “constitutional personhood for fetuses... [and] takes the view that it is not a mere statute but rather the Constitution that bans abortion nationwide,” according to law professor Liz Sepper.

“Republicans will promote a culture that values the sanctity of marriage,” the platform states, which is not “softer” but rather still a direct attack on same-sex marriage, as laws that banned same-sex marriage literally used that language, including in their titles, which were taken directly from religious extremists condemning same-sex marriage.

The platform is a shortened version of Project 2025, and, as my colleague Dean Obeidallah notes, “the platform is what fascism looks like.”

Two U.S. senators, Sheldon Whitehouse and Ron Wyden, meanwhile, have asked for the Justice Department to investigate Clarence Thomas for violations of ethics and tax laws. And Representative Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez yesterday introduced articles of impeachment against Thomas and Samuel Alito.

All of this and more is what we should be talking about. And, after the Supreme Court’s abominable term, which ended with the extremists on the court giving Trump “absolute immunity” for past and present crimes as long as they are “official acts,” the radicalism of the court should be at the forefront of political discussion. As Jamison Foser writes at Finding Gravity, “the Republicans on the Supreme Court... are Trump’s real running mates,” and Democrats should make them a centerpiece of their campaign:

"[They are] essential participants in [Trump’s] campaign who will govern in lockstep with him, extending and amplifying his power and influence, and whose own deep unpopularity, ruinous agenda, and flamboyant corruption can be useful in demonstrating the threat Trump and Republican candidates up and down the ballot pose to Americans’ basic freedoms and wellbeing.

All of this and more is what the corporate media should be discussing right now. My hope is that this debate about Biden’s debate, whatever position you have on it, is over by the end of the week, so that we can get to the matter of saving democracy.