Politics

Normalcy 2.0 Normalcy, as casual observers of the 2020 election will know, is a popular proposition. A new poll reaffirms the American people’s hunger for getting back to they way things were. According to a Monmouth survey published Monday, 70 percent of Americans agree that “it’s time to accept that Covid is here to stay and we just need to get on with our lives.” Among Republicans, 89 percent agree with the statement. Among independents, the figure is 71 percent. And among Democrats, it is 47 percent. On one level, the Biden administration appears to sense which way the wind is blowing. Omicron was met with panicked resignation in the White House.

The Covid-19 pandemic has affected every part of society, and the country’s economic wellbeing has been no exception. The time since March 2020 has provided a sort of natural experiment as to how various untested policy ideas play out in real life. Initially, most politicians on both sides of the ideological spectrum agreed on the need for a robust federal response to the virus. These actions took many forms: universal relief checks, enhanced unemployment benefits, and historic funding of vaccine research and distribution — just to name a few. For well over a year, the federal government was a source of seemingly unlimited spending. Although many of those policies have since fallen by the wayside or are at least becoming less relevant, some remain part of a fierce public discussion.

Another battle in the West’s sanctions war against Russia is set to begin. The US and its NATO allies have put together what they’re calling a strong package of economic restrictions on Russia in response to its military buildup near Ukraine’s border. What’s in the package remains a secret but it appears to focus on Russia’s energy sector. A State Department spokesperson told NPR on Thursday that the Nord Stream 2 pipeline from Russia to Germany would remain inoperable if an invasion happened. The Financial Times suggested that other new Russian gas developments are also on the sanctions list. The UK wants Russia booted from SWIFT, the Belgian financial messenger services company, while the West also floated the idea of sanctioning Russian President Vladimir Putin.

The latest improbable Democratic champion, Representative Liz Cheney, just about said the quiet part out loud: her January 6 Committee has the singular goal of pre-defeating Trump ahead of any voting in 2024. As it becomes clearer that the Committee is failing in its propaganda campaign to get Republican power brokers to dump Trump, and as it is near crystalline that the Committee will not find evidence leading to formal prosecution of Trump for sedition, treason, or insurrection, they are getting desperate. The latest? Purposefully misinterpreting an obscure phrase from a post-Civil War constitutional amendment.

The retirement of Stephen Breyer is a rare piece of good news for Joe Biden. With the president and his team busy deciding which black woman they will pick to replace the court’s oldest justice and the senior member of its liberal wing, it’s not hard to see where the story ends. This may be the first time a president has had to get a Supreme Court nomination through a 50-50 Senate, but surely even this White House will manage to get the job done. But the politics of the nomination process are less predictable than its outcome. It’s not hard to see the political upside for the president. A disunited party might rally around Biden’s pick while the nomination process could remind them who the real enemy is.

No, Kamala Harris will not be Joe Biden’s nominee to replace Justice Steven Breyer when he retires from the Supreme Court later this year. “Imminent Supreme Court retirement?” ejaculated CNN legal analyst Jeffrey Toobin earlier this month. “Longshot: VP Kamala Harris,” he suggested. NBC scooped on Wednesday that Breyer would step down at the end of this term — and more cranks joined the Kamala chorus. “Kamala Harris for the Supreme Court. #KHive She cannot win election with these numbers (yes it’s unfair, but Kamala is a pragmatist) she’s young, she’d be a great justice — and she’d spend a lifetime on the bench,” tweeted Louise Mensch. “@amyklobuchar for Vice President.” “Straightforward from here,” wrote Bill Kristol.

Long live the gerontocracy: Nancy Pelosi will seek reelection in 2022. The House speaker, who turns eighty-two in March, announced her move in a Twitter video. “While we have made progress much more needs to be done to improve people’s lives,” Pelosi said. “Our democracy is at his because of assaults on the truth, the assault on the US Capitol and the state-by-state assault on voting rights.” “This election is crucial: nothing less is at stake than our democracy,” the speaker continued. “But as we say: we don’t agonize, we organize! And that is why I am running for re-election to Congress and respectfully seek your support.

The music blares, sparks fly from the pyrotechnics show, and the star walks out, pumping his fist and soaking in the cheers of the adoring crowd. A WWE wrestling event? No, it’s Congressman Matt Gaetz at AMERICAFEST, a Turning Point USA conference in December in Phoenix, Arizona. Gaetz was not there to deliver a substantive policy speech, educate the crowd about the dangers of inflationary spending or warn about Russia’s geopolitical machinations in Ukraine. Instead, the thirty-nine-year-old MAGA firebrand delivered the goods his audience expected.