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Exchange of the Day

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Oliver Darcy interviewed Wired editor Katie Drummond for his Status newsletter:

DARCY: Stepping back, what do you think it means for American democracy and for the tech sector when Silicon Valley leaders are openly bowing before Donald Trump? And, in an attempt to end on a positive note: Where, if anywhere, do you find reasons for optimism?

DRUMMOND: We’re witnessing, in real-time, a profound consolidation of power and collusion among political and tech elites—the ruling class of this country, and the world – wherein the tools and technologies that this industry has built, and continues to build, can now be deployed in service of an authoritarian regime…

Don’t think for a second that these companies and their executives won’t get in line. They’re already in the Oval Office with a custom glass and 24-karat-gold statuette, for god’s sake.

What gives me optimism? People in tech doing novel, subversive, transformational things—grassroots or otherwise. That, and my second passport.

America Tips Into Fascism

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Garrett Graff: “The United States, just months before its 250th birthday as the world’s leading democracy, has tipped over the edge into authoritarianism and fascism. In the end, faster than I imagined possible, it did happen here. The precise moment when and where in recent weeks America crossed that invisible line from democracy into authoritarianism can and will be debated by future historians, but it’s clear that the line itself has been crossed.”

“I think many Americans wrongly believe there would be one clear unambiguous moment where we go from ‘democracy’ to ‘authoritarianism.’ Instead, this is exactly how it happens — a blurring here, a norm destroyed there, a presidential diktat unchallenged. Then you wake up one morning and our country is different.”


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Electoral College Could Tilt Further From Democrats

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New York Times: “The year is 2032. Studying the Electoral College map, a Democratic presidential candidate can no longer plan to sweep New Hampshire, Minnesota and the ‘blue wall’ battlegrounds of Michigan, Pennsylvania and Wisconsin and win the White House. A victory in the swing state of Nevada would not help, either.”

“That is the nightmare scenario many Democratic Party insiders see playing out if current U.S. population projections hold.”

Trump Wants ABC and NBC to Lose Broadcast Licenses

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President Trump attacked ABC and NBC’s news coverage of his administration—claiming it was “97%” negative—and said he supports the idea of the two networks having their broadcast licenses revoked, Forbes reports.

In a follow-up post, the president reiterated the license revocation threat, before suggesting that “at a minimum,” they should be forced to “pay up BIG” for their licensed broadcast spectrum.

Government Will Take Stakes in More Companies

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“The U.S. government is likely to take ownership stakes in more companies — just as it did with Intel — toward the goal of building a sovereign wealth fund, National Economic Council director Kevin Hassett said Monday,” Axios reports.

“It’s a new paradigm for the U.S. government’s relationship with the private sector, and raises fresh questions about how much authority the administration intends to exert over corporate America.”

CNBC: Trump says government will make deals like Intel stake “all day long.”

Pilot of Last Flight Out of Afghanistan Runs for Congress

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“Alex Pelbath, the Air Force pilot who flew the last U.S. aircraft out of Kabul when America ended its 20-year war in Afghanistan, is now running for Congress in South Carolina’s 1st Congressional District, calling himself a ‘Trump conservative’ and pledging to be the political reinforcement the president needs,” the Charleston Post & Courier reports.

Said Pelbath: “Combat leaders understand that mission is everything. My mission is clear. Provide President Trump the reinforcements he needs, deliver common sense leadership that will make the Lowcountry proud and bring an outsider’s perspective to Washington. I was the last one out. But the mission’s not over.”

Barrasso PAC Launches New Ads in Ohio and Florida

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“A PAC aligned with Senate Majority Whip John Barrasso (R-WY) is going up with new ads Monday bolstering GOP senators in Ohio and Florida,” Axios reports.

“The group will spend half a million dollars between the two states. It’s another sign of Republican leaders moving early to try to sway voters ahead of next year’s midterm elections.”

Making a Federal Case Out of Low-Level Arrests

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Washington Post: “The stream of defendants who shuffled through a federal courtroom on Thursday afternoon illustrated the new ways in which laws are being enforced in the nation’s capital after the president’s takeover of the city’s police. They were appearing before a magistrate judge on charges that would typically be handled at the local court level, if they were filed at all.”

“One man had been arrested over an open container of alcohol. Another had been charged with threatening the president after delivering a drunken outburst following his arrest on vandalism. And one defendant’s gun case so alarmed prosecutors that they intend to drop the case.”

Freedom Caucus Exodus Could Reshape Congress 

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NOTUS: “The House Freedom Caucus, as Washington knows it, will look fundamentally different next year. Some staffers — particularly delighted Democrats — are speculating that with so many ideological leaders of the caucus looking for the exits, the group might functionally cease to exist, or, at least, cease to be a serious thorn in leadership’s side.”

Trump May Not Have the Votes for the Nobel Peace Prize

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“President Donald Trump has long quested after a Nobel Peace Prize, a distinction that would put him in a vaunted and exclusive club. But unlike a U.S. presidential campaign, winning a Nobel Peace Prize depends on an electorate of five — and Trump may not have a majority,” the Washington Post reports.

“Trump’s desire for a Nobel has been a through-current of both of his terms, but his effort has escalated in recent months. He has mused aloud that the peace deal in Ukraine that he worked on in recent weeks might be one key to the prize. But at least three of the five Norwegian deciders have criticized Trump publicly, making his path to winning their votes far from clear.”

Economic Elite Find Themselves in the Wilderness

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Axios: “Bedrock concepts that economists hold dear — of central bank independence, reliable data collection, and technocratic decision-making — are under threat in ways that have left the global central banking community discombobulated.”

“In formal proceedings at the Kansas City Fed’s annual economic symposium this weekend, there were only the subtlest of references to the Trump administration’s actions that throw Federal Reserve independence and government economic data into doubt.”

“But in whispered private conversations against the stunning backdrop of the Grand Tetons, there was melancholy — a fear that the war for empiricism and independence may already be lost.”

About Political Wire

goddard-bw-snapshotTaegan Goddard is the founder of Political Wire, one of the earliest and most influential political web sites. He also runs Political Job Hunt, Electoral Vote Map and the Political Dictionary.

Goddard spent more than a decade as managing director and chief operating officer of a prominent investment firm in New York City. Previously, he was a policy adviser to a U.S. Senator and Governor.

Goddard is also co-author of You Won - Now What? (Scribner, 1998), a political management book hailed by prominent journalists and politicians from both parties. In addition, Goddard's essays on politics and public policy have appeared in dozens of newspapers across the country.

Goddard earned degrees from Vassar College and Harvard University. He lives in New York with his wife and three sons.

Goddard is the owner of Goddard Media LLC.

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