The Tribune

With CHARLIE HARPER

The old friends sat together on a comfortable bench whose careful contours well suited their ageing frames. Shaded from a brilliant hot summer sun under a large oak tree, two men who had known each other for nearly 40 years talked together about the events of the day.

Herb, older by six months and with wisps of grey hair that blew whimsically in the light breeze, remarked on the efforts of the new American House of Representatives inquiry into the January 6 riots at the US Capitol.

“This whole inquiry is going to be a wrenching experience for the entire country,” he said. “We’re going to be assaulted with images that will scare us and shake our confidence in institutions and beliefs that have sustained us for our entire lives. I wish we didn’t have to go through this.”

His friend Arnold disagreed. “The inquiry will surely make us all uncomfortable. It will shine a light on behaviour that is totally reprehensible. We’ll have to relive outrageous disregard for things we value. And don’t forget that so many Republicans are still promoting nonsensical lies about those riots.

“But we absolutely have to do this. We have to suffer. Because not to pursue this investigation wherever it leads, however long it takes and how much discord it continues to encourage, is to forfeit the ability to establish the truth about that awful day.”

Arnold continued, idly stroking his reddish-grey beard. “Just think about what would happen if Congress gave up and abandoned the investigation: many millions of people would soon forget about the horrifying details of that day. Republican deniers and liars pushing an obviously illicit and erroneous narrative would prevail.

“We have to go through this trauma all over again so the record can remain clear and the hundreds of images and video recordings of that riot are not forgotten and will not be repeated.”

Herb protested. “But what’s the point? Democrats and liberals don’t need reminding about what happened. And on the right, the polls tell us that the GOP drumbeat of denial continues to resonate with Republican rank and file voters. They cannot be convinced, no matter how persuasive is the evidence of a shameful riot incited by a sitting American President.”

“It’s the middle,” Arnold said. “That’s the key. I agree with you that most committed Democrats and Republicans won’t change their mind about this. But there are the millions of voters who still stand in the political middle. They are able to pick and choose policies they like and dislike from both parties. They still decide many elections.

“The millions in the middle have to be reminded about January 6, and they have to be sufficiently shocked by those events that they make and retain the connection between the former President, his devoted followers and what happened on January 6.

“If that happens, Joe Biden and the Democrats will have a fighting chance to retain and maybe increase their slim margins in both the House and the Senate.”

“What about inflation? Rising crime?” Herb asked.

“Those are issues that are going to be hard for Biden & Co to deal with no matter what,” his friend replied. “Maybe inflation will subside like many economists seem to think. Maybe the furore over police murders will diminish as the weather turns cooler in the fall and winter. That would help Biden both on the right and on the left.

“But the best protection against politically adverse developments in those areas and on the Mexican border and elsewhere in the world is a full accounting of January 6. If a majority of voters can be convinced not to forget that day, Biden and the Democrats should be able to hang on until 2024.”

Reading the signs

On Tuesday in Ohio there were two primary elections for House seats. It seems likely both of these contests have broader significance for the national Republican and Democratic parties.

Ohio’s 15th Congressional district is a typical, jerrymandered hodge-podge. Stretching from carefully selected neighbourhoods of the state’s largest city of Columbus to the Appalachian southeast of the state and across nearly to Cincinnati in the west, it’s been constructed to guarantee Republican electoral success.

The seat was open for a newcomer, and that’s who won. Mike Carey, an attorney, political novice and lobbyist for the fading but still influential American coal industry, won the GOP primary (and certain election in November) with more than three times the vote of the nearest of his several opponents.

The significance of Carey’s win was that he had the early, very clear and audible support from former President Donald Trump. After Trump’s endorsement failed to secure a primary election victory in Texas last month, doubters about his continuing influence over the Republican Party had raised their voices.

Does this result mean Trump still rules the GOP? It’s tough to say. But it was unquestionably a good sign for the former President and his hopes to stay nationally relevant.

In Ohio’s industrial northeast, the 11th Congressional district is just as clearly delineated to ensure Democratic success as was the 15th for Republicans. That’s just the way of American politics in this era.

Including virtually all of Cleveland east of downtown and snaking down to encompass parts of Akron to the south, this district is deep blue.

Squaring off for the vacant seat in Tuesday’s Democratic primary were party establishment candidate Shontel Brown and insurgent Nina Turner. Both women are black and sought to replace Marcia Fudge, also black, who resigned from the House to become Secretary of Housing and Urban Development in President Biden’s cabinet.

Brown had the support of the powerful Congressional Black Caucus and of kingmaker and No. 3 House Democratic leader James Clyburn. Turner had co-chaired Senator Bernie Sanders’ 2020 presidential campaign and was supported by progressives such as Rep. Alexandria Cortez-Ocasio of New York City.

Brown won by about six percent, a result that bolsters the ascendancy of a more centrist-leaning national Democratic Party that is closely aligned with the policies and inclinations of the current President.

This result also suggests Democratic voters are still focused primarily on candidates who can win general elections and keep the wolf – Donald Trump – securely from the door.

Time’s up, Cuomo

The political vultures were hungrily circling Democratic New York Governor Andrew Cuomo yesterday, and he may be gone by the time you open your paper this morning.

President Biden, both New York senators, the mayors of New York City and Buffalo, and numerous other party leaders and officials have all called for his resignation after an official investigation implicated Cuomo for numerous sexual harassment offences and crimes.

It looks like Cuomo is done.