Mark down June 25-26, 2013 … there’s today’s earth-shaking DOMA news, and then …
— We elected a genuine climate hero, and a genuine legislator to the United States Senate. Globe’s Jim O’Sullivan gets it right away, talking to the right people:
For the Malden Democrat, who has carved out a profile as a policy wonk during his 37 years in the House, there are opportunities and warning signs. In policy areas where major debate is expected in the coming years, such as telecommunications and energy, Markey has distinguished himself as a go-to member in the House, a role he could reprise in the Senate. Congress will probably grapple with how to distribute broadband spectrum and how to manage the nation’s burgeoning natural gas and clean energy industries.
“There may be some opportunities to legislate there and create supermajorities,” said Norman Ornstein, a congressional scholar at the American Enterprise Institute, who praised as “masterful” Markey’s work on House passage of cap-and-trade legislation.
“Senators know that he’s got a deep vein of expertise in legislating in those areas,” Ornstein said. “And unlike most freshmen, they’re going to listen to what he says. He’s going to be able to play a major role right away.”
It is not all that important to me that Markey become a political celebrity like Elizabeth Warren or Ted Kennedy. Kennedy, after all, was born a celebrity, but did some of his best work in the Senate after he gave up trying to live up to his celebrity, ie. after 1980.
I suspect that we’ll see Markey get to work right away, delivering where he can and blustering when he must. I strongly suspect that Massachusetts voters will see that he fits the job quite well, and he’ll be in an even stronger position next year, when he has to run again. (again, again)
I cannot feel any sympathy for columnists wishing for more tangy zip from the campaign; it’s their job to dig beneath the inevitable talking points and cliches, and tell us what’s really important in the race. There are hugely consequential issues coming to the Senate, and at least they might have looked at Markey’s long record (or their own papers’ informative articles) to inform the public how he might act. A 37-year history is bound to have some surprises.
Now, Scot Lehigh promises that he’ll tell us exactly what kind of orthodoxy-busting “iconoclasm” he wishes Ed Markey would bring to the Senate. I wait with bated breath. But for the moment, I don’t think it’s surprising that someone with popular positions won the race. And lest we forget, ideological commitments do not preclude bipartisanship: cf: Ted Kennedy and Ronald Reagan. That’s been Markey’s MO as well — as long as there was someone with whom to cut a deal on the other side. The question is whether such partners are still available when he arrives in the Senate, in this age of hair-trigger Tea Party primary challenges.
— The President gave a major climate address. Much of the speech was unsurprising — for instance, the assertion of the EPA’s power to regulate CO2 — but the emphasis he gives it is indeed game-changing. It was aimed most particularly at young people, a call for them to take matters into their own hands politically:
Understand this is not just a job for politicians. So I’m going to need all of you to educate your classmates, your colleagues, your parents, your friends. Tell them what’s at stake. Speak up at town halls, church groups, PTA meetings. Push back on misinformation. Speak up for the facts. Broaden the circle of those who are willing to stand up for our future. (Applause.)
Convince those in power to reduce our carbon pollution. Push your own communities to adopt smarter practices. Invest. Divest. (Applause.) Remind folks there’s no contradiction between a sound environment and strong economic growth. And remind everyone who represents you at every level of government that sheltering future generations against the ravages of climate change is a prerequisite for your vote. Make yourself heard on this issue. (Applause.)
And the President was unafraid to use mockery against the opponents of action: “We don’t have time for a meeting of the Flat Earth Society.” BOOM. This kind of line is a demonstration of political confidence, a calling of a bluff.
— The Supreme Court eviscerates the Voting Rights Act. David has covered this for us here. It’s amazing to me how we can make such head-snapping anti-progress. Southern states are already at work to prevent the “wrong element” (shhhh, black people) from voting. Racism is over, so now we can bring racism back.
Well, they’d better keep *all* of the African-Americans and other “undesirables” from voting. Because this will mark the swift death of any outreach effort for the GOP to move beyond angry white males. African-Americans, city folks, poor folks … they know that the GOP is coming for them. And not with a handshake. When you blow the racial dog-whistle, it isn’t just heard by your own dogs … the whole neighborhood hears it.
Trying to prevent certain populations from voting, as opposed to trying to earn their votes, is a transparent and ultimately doomed act of desperation. It will not stand. It will activate a core constituency on behalf of the Democratic Party. And the demographic death spiral of the GOP will continue.
