Politics

The Birth of QAmom

Written by <a href="index.php?option=com_comprofiler&task=userProfile&user=51220">EJ Dickson, Rolling Stone</a>

Thursday, 03 September 2020 12:46

Dickson writes: "Both of these mantras are linked to QAnon, the far-right conspiracy theory positing that President Donald Trump is lying in wait to bust a left-wing Deep State cabal that, among other things, runs an underground pedophile ring."

A woman at a Trump rally in Pennsylvania in 2018, when the QAnon conspiracy theory began to gain traction. (photo: Rick Loomis/Getty)

The Birth of QAmom

By Ej Dickson, Rolling Stone

03 September 20

Parenting influencers have embraced sex-trafficking conspiracy theories ��and it�s taking QAnon from the internet into the streets

ith her bouncy, honey-streaked hair, tastefully pastel-and-beige-hued grid and effortless ability to wear such garments as shapeless khaki rompers, Ciara Chanel Self, a Dallas, Texas-based interior designer and parent of a toddler, appears on Instagram to be the prototypical mom influencer. She regularly posts aspirational photos of cream-colored nurseries, 2-year-olds� birthday parties, and apple-cheeked toddlers gallivanting by ocean sunsets. Only one highlight on her Instagram stories would seem to indicate otherwise: a tab labeled �woke,� where she has compiled conspiracy theories about Ghislaine Maxwell and the �global elite pedophile ring� afflicting our nation. �Child trafficking, torture, rape, and murder�we should be rioting in the streets you guys. Yet NO ONE is talking about this,� she writes, concluding with the hashtag #SaveTheChildren and the exhortation �dark to light.�

Both of these mantras are linked to QAnon, the far-right conspiracy theory positing that President Donald Trump is lying in wait to bust a left-wing Deep State cabal that, among other things, runs an underground pedophile ring. Self, who emphatically declined to comment for this story, is just one of many mom influencers who have leaned into the conspiracy theory, promoting it alongside nursery decorating tips, minimalist birthday cakes, and dimple-kneed baby photos in posts that garner thousands of likes. The #SaveTheChildren hashtag, and numerous #SaveTheChildren marches across the country, have played an outsized role in bringing lifestyle influencers in general into the conspiracy theorist fold, but particularly moms, many of whom are drawn to the child redemption narrative inherent in QAnon ideology.

Those who cover the parenting space (what is derisively referred to as the �mommy blogosophere�) are hyper-aware of this shift. �Over the past few weeks, we have seen an uptick in conspiracy theory posts across our channels,� says April Daniels Hussar, managing editor of the parenting website Romper, adding that she�d started noticing this increase at the beginning of the Covid-19 pandemic. �Mostly, we receive an influx of comments when we feature celebrities and political figures who are believed to be �child traffickers.'� She says these comments have primarily been showing up on Instagram and Facebook, with the hashtags #SaveTheChildren and #SaveOurChildren and �links to dubious websites about child trafficking and QAnon.�

Just as platforms like Facebook and Twitter have been cracking down on QAnon content, with Facebook removing hundreds of groups last week, influencers have been drawn into conspiracy theorists� orbit. Jalynn Schroeder, a prominent mom influencer with more than 50,000 followers, has been vocal about her �awakening� to the word of Q, as has influencer LuvBec, who has more than 121,000 followers. �I�m a mama of two, I have a lot of mamas following me, and this stuff has been very, very, very hard for me to digest,� Schroeder says in an IGTV video captioned �I�M AWAKE� and hashtagged �#truthwins,� �wwg1wga� (�where we go one, we go all�), and �#thegreatawakening,� her lavender hair pushed back with a leopard-print headband.

Reality TV stars have also reposted conspiracy theory content and QAnon-adjacent content. Lyndi Kennedy, a star of Bravo�s Below Deck franchise with more than 260,000 followers, recently attended the #SaveTheChildren march in Huntington Beach, California; in between sponsored posts for dry shampoo and selfies from Cabo San Lucas, she reposts content from QAnon influencers like gossip columnist-turned-conspiracy theorist Liz Crokin. Avery Warner, a star of the TLC�S 90-Day Fianc�: Before the 90 Days � who describes herself as a �proud patriot� on her Instagram and had one of her sponsorships revoked for claiming the Black Lives Matter movement was �terrorizing� white people � has been vocal about #SaveTheChildren, starting an organization called S.P.E.A.K., or, Stopping Predatory Enslavement and Kidnapping, which seems to consist so far of a private Facebook group.

The primary turning point in the evolution of the conspiracy theory has been the explosive popularity of #SaveTheChildren, an anti-child trafficking hashtag unwittingly used by many prominent lifestyle influencers that has been hijacked by the QAnon community. On Facebook alone, the hashtag has garnered more than three million interactions in the past month, according to Crowdtangle data, in part due to the proliferation of #SaveTheChildren rallies in cities across the country starting on World Trafficking Day on July 30th, many of which have prominently featured QAnon messaging on signs and fliers. (There is an anti-trafficking organization called Save the Children, which has distanced itself from the protests.)

Part of what has been so seductive about the #SaveTheChildren protests is that it starts from an irrefutable premise (who in their right mind would be opposed to saving trafficked children?) and gradually umbrellas into a wide-ranging, increasingly unhinged conspiracy theory (not only are children being trafficked, but they�re being trafficked by the Clintons and Chrissy Teigen). And this is intensely problematic, not because QAnon is a crackpot conspiracy theory, but precisely because it is far more than that: there is a bounty of evidence suggesting that it has pushed people to commit acts of violence, from a Nevada man blocking the Hoover Dam with an armored truck and ammunition in 2018, to the 2019 killing of a Staten Island mob boss, to a Seattle man accused of killing his brother with a sword. The threat posed by QAnon is so legitimate that it prompted the FBI to deem it a domestic terrorism threat, according to an unpublished bulletin that surfaced in May of last year.

#SaveTheChildren has succeeded in mainstreaming the QAnon movement by representing its most sanitized aspects, pushing its more unsavory facets to the back burner. �The mom aspect of QAnon has really blown up in the past few weeks with the on-the-fly rebranding Q is going through with the #SaveTheChildren movement,� says conspiracy theory researcher Mike Rothschild, author of the book The World�s Worst Conspiracies. �A lot of moms are freaked out about what might happen with their kids, and their kids not doing so great with the pandemic. They�re too worried, too online, and have a lot of time on their hands.�

With its emphasis on shareable aesthetics and its lush depictions of mom life, Instagram has been the primary focal point to share and promote such theories. That app is where #SaveTheChildren marches were initially organized, says Brian Friedberg, senior researcher at the Harvard Shorenstein�s Technology and Social Change Project. �The comments sections of Instagram influencers are a huge place where QAnon ideology is disseminated and made more palatable for mainstream audiences,� he says.

QAnon and QAnon-adjacent conspiracy theories have also been rapidly gaining ground among young moms on TikTok, which has publicly cracked down on hashtags like #WWG1WGA and #pizzagate but has nonetheless hosted a proliferation of such content. One TikTok featuring a mom creator with 42,000 followers features her waxing enthusiastic about Trump referring to QAnon during a news briefing; another TikTok with hundreds of likes shows a young mother triumphantly tossing her child�s Toy Story�bowl in the garbage (per QAnon lore, the star of Toy Story,�Tom Hanks, is believed to be enmeshed in the deep state pedophile cabal), with the hashtags #SaveTheChildren and #CancelHollywood and a pizza emoji (a reference to Pizzagate).

The pandemic has had a demonstrable effect on bringing new believers into the fold. There�s been particular overlap between QAnon and the anti-vaxxer communities, which have historically attracted predominantly mothers, says Zarine Khazarian, assistant editor at the Digital Forensic Research Lab. (Indeed, Plandemic, the wildly viral video featuring anti-vaxxer Judy Mikovits, was also widely shared on parenting Facebook pages.) �Once these communities converge, there�s increasingly cross-pollination,� says Khazarian.

The end result has been that, while people typically think of QAnon believers as either far-right, digitally unsavvy boomers, or mouth-breathing male message-board users, QAnon believers have started skewing much younger, more diverse, and more female. �The typical supporter has been white and 30- to 50-years old, but we�ve recently seen it become much broader,� says Khazarian. Rothschild also says that the majority of the attendees he�s spotted at #SaveTheChildren rallies in Los Angeles have been young women, some of whom have been accompanied by small children.

The primary turning point in the evolution of QAnon specifically was the explosive popularity of the #Wayfairgate conspiracy theory earlier this summer, or the unfounded belief that children were being smuggled in high-priced Wayfair industrial furniture. The theory was widely debunked, but thanks in part to amplification from various lifestyle influencers, #Wayfairgate trended on multiple platforms, arguably setting the stage for #SaveTheChildren to start trending a few weeks later.

Conspiracy theorists played a major role in promoting and amplifying #SaveTheChildren:�according to NBC News, while QAnon groups made up only about 18% of all Facebook posts using #SaveTheChildren, they accounted for nearly 70% of the engagements. But the hashtag really managed to cross into the mainstream thanks to its use by many prominent lifestyle and parenting influencers, most of whom were white and female, who were captivated by the narrative of participating in the rescue and redemption of small, defenseless children.

Such narratives, which are also reflected in the Satanic Panic of the 1970s and 1980s, are centuries-old, due to heterosexual women in patriarchal societies being tasked with �preserving family honor� and �protecting children from moral dangers,� says anthropologist Laura Agustin, who studies trafficking and the sex industry. �Whether these threats are called abuse, exploitation or trafficking, they are felt as an outsider that endangers family integrity. In doing her job of moral protection, the anti-trafficking woman thus works to keep patriarchy in place.�

In the QAnon movement specifically, women have long played a role, yet they�ve rarely been front-and-center, in part because the movement�s roots are in the 4chan community, which is notoriously hostile to women. The #SaveTheChildren rallies have created space for women in the movement and made them visible in a way that they haven�t been before, albeit within historically more conventional feminine roles. �The idea of women being the protectors of children in a sort of traditionalist understanding of family structure definitely plays a role here,� says Friedberg.

Though #SaveTheChildren was amplified and promoted by QAnon and far-right groups, ostensibly apolitical parenting blog and meme pages also played a huge role; Facebook pages like Loving Mommyhood (165,000 followers)�and Life as a mommy & wife (over 2 million followers), shared #SaveTheChildren memes between wine-mom posts and pumpkin-spice appreciation memes.

The past few weeks also saw various uproars in the parenting space, including controversy over a Hasbro Trolls�doll with what appeared to be a button on its crotch, which when pressed caused the doll to giggle. Though Hasbro issued a statement saying the button was, in fact, a motion sensor, and was not intended to be pushed, the doll prompted outcry among many parents who accused the toy company of using the product to groom children for abuse, leading to Hasbro yanking it from the shelves. A similar controversy ensued following the release of a lurid poster for Netflix�s film Cuties,�which was accused of sexualizing young children and led to #SaveTheChildren trending all over again.

Of course, not everyone who participated in the controversy over the Cuties poster or the Trolls doll was necessarily a conspiracy theorist; many were, undoubtedly, concerned parents outraged by what they perceived to be the systemic oversexualization of children. But QAnon adherents, as well as those who generally believe in the existence of a global pedophile cabal, caused both stories to trend, viewing them as confirmation of their preexisting views. �They helped reinforce the belief structures of these people, and perhaps recruited new members because of the commentary around it and the use of the specific slogans and hashtags in that general commentary,� says Friedberg.

Similarly, not everyone who participated in #SaveTheChildren rallies or used the hashtag on World Trafficking Day was necessarily aware of its roots in conspiracy theorist circles. But it undoubtedly also served as a gateway drug of sorts for well-intentioned users of the hashtag, in part due to the interconnectedness of conspiracy theories and social algorithms taking people further down the rabbit hole, says Whitney Phillips, assistant professor of communication and rhetorical studies at Syracuse University.

�If somebody is brought into the QAnon orbit for a good cause, and they think this is a worthy narrative and it has this positive element to it, it�s not a far stretch to think that someone might be then convinced by additional Covid disinformation, or the really vile and vicious elements of the QAnon narrative, such as the anti-Semitism, that have nothing to do with saving the children,� she says. �You have people entering into this world, thinking it�s about one thing, feeling good about connecting to it, and then it exposes them to all kinds of polluted information.�

The explosive popularity of #SaveTheChildren, combined with the recent success of congressional candidates like QAnon proponent Marjorie Taylor Greene, have led to much hand-wringing in the media about QAnon going mainstream. But Khazarian says that such concerns often overlook the fact that the core tenets of the conspiracy theory � that a shadowy cabal is exploiting vulnerable children � are already far more widely accepted than we�d like to acknowledge. �It�s been thought of as this fringe conspiracy theory that only people super into 8chan and are sort of internet-savvy adhere to, but really it has a much broader appeal,� she says. �And that is sort of the danger of it � it can be something that�s very attractive to a suburban soccer mom.�

What also makes child trafficking conspiracy theories so attractive to influencers, and so difficult to fight back against, is that, much like all other conspiracy theories, they are at least in part rooted in reality. Child trafficking is a legitimate and terrifying issue (albeit one rooted in statistics that are tenuous and arguably inflated); and there are extremely powerful people who have sexually abused children and not been held to account, as the Jeffrey Epstein case starkly demonstrated. �The tragedy is that these unfounded theories are damaging the actual cause,� says Daniels Hussar.

While there is a tremendous chasm between acknowledging this reality and, say, embracing the belief that the star of Forrest Gump is harvesting adrenochrome from babies, it�s easy to see how the gap between these ideas can seem much smaller during unstable and frightening times; trusted influencers like Self promoting them makes it seem even more miniscule. And for mothers of small children trying to navigate the pandemic era, endlessly scrolling through pastel-pink versions of other, more contented lives, �it�s not a question of why would people believe such a crazy thing,� says Phillips. �It�s, why wouldn�t they?�

36 comments

Donald Trump Would Like to Momentarily Pause This Campaign to Tell You How Good His Brain Is

Written by <a href="index.php?option=com_comprofiler&task=userProfile&user=56025">Asawin Suebsaeng and Scott Bixby, The Daily Beast</a>

Thursday, 03 September 2020 12:45

Excerpt: "Following a carefully manicured, four-day convention in which Donald Trump's chief lieutenants branded him as an avatar of stability and Joe Biden as the pied-piper of race riots, the president did what he always does: He casually disposed of his team's messaging in the service of nursing personal grudges."

Trump supporters. (photo: Gerald Herbert/AP)

Donald Trump Would Like to Momentarily Pause This Campaign to Tell You How Good His Brain Is

By Asawin Suebsaeng and Scott Bixby, The Daily Beast

03 September 20

The president can�t help trampling on his message, especially if his self-image is on the line.

ollowing a carefully manicured, four-day convention in which Donald Trump�s chief lieutenants branded him as an avatar of stability and Joe Biden as the pied-piper of race riots, the president did what he always does: He casually disposed of his team�s messaging in the service of nursing personal grudges.

This week, it was about how his brain isn�t dying.

�It never ends!� the president tweeted Tuesday, in denial of reporting and speculation that his stated reasoning for going to Walter Reed in November was a bogus cover for a much more serious procedure. �Now they are trying to say that your favorite President, me, went to Walter Reed Medical Center, having suffered a series of mini-strokes. Never happened to THIS candidate - FAKE NEWS.�

The pushback didn�t end there. Some of Trump�s top officials were soon enlisted to aid in the effort to assure the public that the president�s brain was, indeed, functioning incredibly well. Shortly after Trump�s tirade about �mini-strokes,� his re-election campaign called for CNN to fire an analyst who asked his Twitter followers whether the president was hiding a past stroke from the American public.

�CNN should fire Joe Lockhart, a lifetime failure who thought it was a great idea for fellow loser Michael Dukakis to put on that stupid helmet, for knowingly pushing a conspiracy theory about President Trump�s health,� an unsigned statement from the campaign read. �If another CNN employee said similar things about Barack Obama they�d be fired immediately, so the same standard should be applied here.�

Lockhart, who served as White House press secretary in the Clinton administration, denied that he was spreading information in a subsequent tweet, saying that the post was �just a question.�

Whether the president�s campaign brass went ahead and released the statement knowing it would please the boss or if Trump personally ordered it up himself wasn�t immediately clear. But it also was largely immaterial, too. Numerous current and former senior Trump aides say that officials will often start drafting these types of intemperate statements even absent an explicit directive from the president, because they all know that Trump will most likely demand such action anyway.

�When you sign up for a job in comms for [Trump], you sign on to play defense on any number of absurd things,� said a former senior administration official. �That includes pushing back aggressively on perceived or real attacks on his mental fitness, which he has [at times] said is an intolerable attack not just on him, but on his administration and his supporters.�

The entire episode was, at one level, another window into the doubts and insecurities that have fed the president�s rise through the business and political worlds. They also were just the latest example of why Democrats and many Republicans believe his campaign is stuck. Having tried to put his opponent on defense over rioting and looting in several cities, Trump decided to turn the conversation to a topic that no one seemed to be paying attention to; and one that was not particularly beneficial for his electoral prospects.�

Joe Biden�s presidential campaign was practically thrilled to play along, arguing that Trump�s focus on his own mental acuity was rooted in his failures on a more pressing health matter: the coronavirus pandemic that now has a U.S. body count of more than 185,000.

�Trump is flat out running on upheaval happening on his own watch,� said Andrew Bates, the Biden campaign�s director of rapid response. �The truth is, Donald Trump has failed our nation so abysmally that he is now the only president in American history for whom derailing his own self-damaging message with bizarre theories about ninjas and sudden rants about his own health are probably the closest thing he can get to a win.�

Even those merely reporting on Trump�s own denial about the �mini-strokes� were targeted by the president. When the Drudge Report�which had zeroed in on Hillary Clinton�s supposed health issues in 2016�led the site on Tuesday with Trump�s furious denial, Trump blew up again. �Drudge didn�t support me in 2016, and I hear he doesn�t support me now,� he tweeted. �Maybe that�s why he is doing poorly. His Fake News report on Mini-Strokes is incorrect. Possibly thinking about himself, or the other party�s �candidate.��

The president�s fixation on the brain he once dubbed �very good� comes at the expense of the messaging of the Republican National Convention that concluded just last week. While a recent tweet about �Joe Hiden,�� a new nickname that Trump appeared to be taking for a spin on Wednesday, highlighted the former vice president�s supposed desire to �obliterate� the American way of life, the RNC�s closing-night messaging�that Biden is a Trojan horse for radical leftist proposals like defunding the police and letting rioters loot America�s suburbs�has apparently taken a backseat for now to the president�s persistent need to avenge any slight, even one he pulled out of thin air.

Those close to Trump aren�t surprised at all by this turn, given how all-consuming his emphasis on defending his honor and lauding his own health has become. For years, his own physical and mental well-being have been extremely touchy subjects for this president, leading to him having various prolonged freakouts in public and behind closed doors.

Trump has privately groused to friends, family, and aides that New York Times reporter Maggie Haberman accused him of having Parkinson�s disease this summer, according to two people with direct knowledge of the matter. Those sources say that the president has been stewing about this for nearly three months, and he still hasn�t let it go, bringing it up in the West Wing as recently as last week, one of these sources said.

Haberman, however, hasn�t accused Trump of having Parkinson�s. In June, she wrote a Times story about how �President Trump faced new questions about his health� after videos emerged of him gingerly walking down a ramp at the U.S. Military Academy at West Point and having trouble bringing a glass of water to his mouth during a speech there.� The word �Parkinson�s� does not appear in the article, but in Trump�s mind, that has somehow translated to Haberman tagging him with the degenerative disorder.

The president�s intense focus on these matters during the final stretch of the 2020 presidential race�and at a time when the coronavirus pandemic is still raging, the U.S. economy is still gutted, and racial and civil unrest continue to swell around the country�has mystified some longtime Republican operatives, even as many of Trump�s own top advisers have given up on attempting to rein in their candidate�s excesses.

�It�s not a wise use of time, no,� said Doug Heye, a veteran GOP strategist and a former top official at the Republican National Committee who has publicly noted his antipathy for the president. �But I think we�ve seen several years ago that Donald Trump is not going to pivot� We said all these things wouldn�t work for Trump, but he won. Proving that negative is hard to do a second time around. His answer to everything is, �You said I shouldn�t do these things and I wouldn�t win if I did these things, and I won.��

Still, some of Trump�s own senior staffers seem ready to turn the page on the president�s recent tantrums. Reached for comment on this story Wednesday night, the Trump campaign�s communications director Tim Murtaugh sent along a 122-word comment. However, none of it addressed the mental-health-related nature of the inquiry, and instead stayed on what was supposed to be Trump�s message this week: mainly, blasting the 2020 Democratic presidential nominee for being �too weak� in the face of �riots staged by left-wing criminals in Democrat-run cities� and �the radicals who are in charge of his party and his campaign.�

2 comments

FOCUS: The Director of National Intelligence Is Providing Cover for Putin

Written by <a href="index.php?option=com_comprofiler&task=userProfile&user=27423">Editorial Board, The Washington Post</a>

Thursday, 03 September 2020 10:54

Excerpt: "After the intelligence community briefed members of Congress in late July about threats to the upcoming election, Democrats expressed alarm about what they had learned - and about the fact that the information had not been shared with the American public."

Russian president Vladimir Putin. (photo: Mikhail Klimentyev/AP)

The Director of National Intelligence Is Providing Cover for Putin

By Editorial Board, The Washington Post

03 September 20

fter the intelligence community briefed members of Congress in late July about threats to the upcoming election, Democrats expressed alarm about what they had learned � and about the fact that the information had not been shared with the American public. �The warning lights are flashing red. America�s elections are under attack,� wrote Sen. Richard Blumenthal (D-Conn.) in a Post op-ed, without disclosing any specifics.

The Democrats� pressure resulted in the issuance of a carefully worded Aug. 7 statement by William Evanina, the director of the National Counterintelligence and Security Center, saying that Russia was once again seeking to interfere in a presidential election, using �a range of measures� to �undermine former Vice President Biden�s candidacy and the Democratic Party.�

Mr. Blumenthal said that statement �only hints at the threats,� which, he added, �are chilling.� He and other Democrats called for the Office of the Director of National Intelligence to declassify what is known about Russia�s activities so voters can be aware of them. Instead, over the weekend the blind loyalist whom Mr. Trump installed this year as director of national intelligence, former Republican congressman John Ratcliffe, dispatched a letter to Congress announcing his intention to curtail briefings between now and the election.

Mr. Ratcliffe said that �to ensure clarity and consistency,� ODNI would meet its legal obligation to report to Congress �through written finished intelligence products� rather than live briefings, which allow legislators to ask follow-up questions. While he later told Fox News that congressional intelligence committees would still be briefed, House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) and Intelligence Committee Chairman Rep. Adam B. Schiff said the ODNI had canceled live briefings it had planned for mid-September.

Mr. Ratcliffe and White House Chief of Staff Mark Meadows said the change in policy was a reaction to leaks by members of Congress. But the only �leak� was the simple fact that the administration was withholding critical information about Russia�s interference � which, of course, is intended to help President Trump win reelection.

In effect, Mr. Ratcliffe is providing cover for Vladimir Putin�s influence operation. If Americans are not aware of precisely what Moscow is doing to sow misinformation, they are more likely to be swayed by it. Congress could subpoena Mr. Ratcliffe to publicly testify about the ongoing operation, and it should. But the Trump administration demonstrated during the impeachment proceedings that it will defy subpoenas. Mr. Trump, who has spoken to Mr. Putin frequently by phone this year � including at least three times since May � showed in 2016 that he will do whatever he can to facilitate and exploit Russia�s interference. Some might call that collusion.

17 comments

Here's Who I'll Be Supporting for President, and Why.

Written by <a href="index.php?option=com_comprofiler&task=userProfile&user=55997">Jeff Flake, Medium</a>

Wednesday, 02 September 2020 12:34

Flake writes: "We need a president who summons our better angels, not a president who appeals to our baser instincts. That's why we need Joe Biden."

Former Sen. Jeff Flake. (photo: Getty)

Here's Who I'll Be Supporting for President, and Why.

By Jeff Flake, Medium

02 September 20

�m pleased to be here today to discuss who I�ll be supporting for president, and why.

It was the honor of my life to represent my state, Arizona � my family�s home � in the United States House and Senate for eighteen years. I am a conservative. I�ve always felt that my conservative beliefs and values were best expressed in the Republican Party. I was a Republican long before the president ever called himself one, and I will be a Republican long after identifying as such is no longer useful to him. Principle does not go in and out of fashion, does not chase ratings, or play to the base, or care too much about polls. And principle is the provenance of no one party. That is one of the things I am here to talk about today.

The other thing I am here to talk about is the future � both of my party, but more importantly, the future of our country.

I was raised on a cattle ranch in Northern Arizona. Goldwater country. When I was a kid, the Republican Party under President Reagan was brimming with ideas, full of purpose and principle. It was coherent, and inspiring, and idealistic. So much so that it awakened the imagination of a kid from the town of Snowflake, and a whole generation of other kids just like him. Made us think big thoughts, and of our place in the world, and of what it meant to be an American in America, the shining city on a hill.

With Reagan, a conservative�s vision of America as the indispensable nation was benevolent and big-hearted, a beacon to the striver and to the subjugated and those locked behind an ideological wall that divided the world into free and oppressed. It was morning in Reagan�s America. It wasn�t perfect, but it was always getting better. We were the sum of our goodness, not our gripes � of our resolve, not our resentments.

I got into public service believing that for our politics to be healthy, the American government needed people who believed as I do, but also people who believed differently from me. This has become somewhat of a novel idea. But it is the genius of our founders that the Constitution forces compromise. Governing is hard. Democracy is hard. Decency shouldn�t be that hard, but apparently it is. You know what�s easy? Name calling. Demagoguery. The politics of vengeance is easy. Dehumanization requires very little talent.

By raging at each other, our minds vacant of reason and reeling with ill-will and tinfoil hat conspiracy theories, we have given in to the horrible tribal impulse to first mistake our opponents for our enemies� then become seized with the conviction that we must destroy that enemy� seemingly oblivious to the fact that not only are we not enemies, we are each vital organs in the same body.

It�s as if in order to save itself, your brain decided to destroy your heart. That�s about the level of care we are currently bringing to the proceedings. There is a sickness in our system, and we have infected the whole country with it.

We�re all old enough to remember when we elected presidents who spoke to our highest ideals and aspirations as a nation, not to our darkest dystopian fears. I can remember when, once an election was settled, a new president would reach out a hand to those who had opposed him, and pledge to do right by all Americans, not just those who were loyal to him.

That�s the way presidents once sought to lead and govern. In fact, it is the way every other president in the modern era, Republican or Democrat, tried to conduct himself in office. Each possessed a keen awareness that a president�s principal role is to serve not himself or his interests or the interests of his clan, but the people of the United States. That was once the American way.

Those of us of a certain age in this country have also had the rare good fortune of growing up and into adulthood not having to think too much about the consequences of our votes � or even whether we vote at all in a given election.

For our entire lives, through some very fractious political periods, we have taken steady self-governance for granted, and that is a luxury that so many of our fellow human beings living in other countries have never had for a single day of their lives.

But the story of the past 3 � years is the story of the power that we vest in the presidency, and the consequences when a president does not use that power well. And these times prove the folly of taking anything for granted.

In 2016, one candidate running for the Republican nomination described our current President as a �chaos candidate� and if elected he would be a �chaos president.� Can anyone now seriously argue against this proposition?

Of course, in 2016 the President was a private citizen, and thus was unaccountable for the chaos he caused. And these traits of the man who would become the standard bearer of my party were bad enough when exhibited by a mere candidate for president.

In 2016, it was bad enough when for months in advance of the election, the Republican nominee for president claimed falsely that the coming election would be rigged. Now, as president of the United States, he has said, and I quote: �The only way we�re going to lose this election is if the election is rigged.� What kind of president talks like that? What kind of American leader undermines confidence in elections in his own country, as part of his strategy to hold power? This is extraordinarily dangerous to a free society and it stands to inflict lasting damage to our democracy.

It was bad enough when as a candidate he attacked a federal judge because of his heritage, saying that Judge Gonzalo Curiel couldn�t preside fairly over a certain case because Curiel�s parents were from Mexico. As President, he has only intensified his attack on judges. He has interfered in cases involving his friends and threatened jail for his opponents, demonstrating how little he knows or appreciates about the independent administration of justice in America.

In 2016, it was bad enough for a mere candidate for president to sweet talk the Russian dictator, calling Vladimir Putin a �strong leader for his people,� as if �his people� had a say in the matter. Watching that man as president stand with Putin at Helsinki and take the dictator�s side, defying his own intelligence community and denying the ongoing Russian attacks on our elections � was shocking and appalling. In that moment, and in so many other inexplicable moments of deference to dictators, a president of the United States degraded his office and diminished America�s role as leader of the free world.

It was bad enough in 2016 when as a candidate he resorted to calling his opponents childish names. That behavior in a president � which has only gotten worse, is an embarrassment to the office. Do any of us want our children to emulate this behavior?

I could go on, but the litany is all too familiar. It is apparent by now that the president�s behavior has not and will not change, whatever hopes we Republicans might have entertained about the office changing the man.

Some of my conservative friends will say, yes, we don�t like his behavior, but he governs as a conservative. Here, today, I will say to my fellow conservatives: Whatever else you might call the behavior I have just described, it is most assuredly not conservative. Indifference to the truth or to the careful stewardship of the institutions of American liberty is not conservative. Disregard for the separation of powers � the centerpiece of our constitutional system � is not conservative. Governing by tweet is not conservative. It�s not even governing.

And to the refrain � Well, it�s all about the Supreme Court, I say: To fall back on Supreme Court appointments as the last remnant by which we define a once vibrant conservative movement should offer little solace to conservatives.

Three conservative principles have defined and animated the Republican Party over the past several decades. A belief in limited government, a commitment to free trade, and a recognition that strong American leadership around the globe makes America a more secure nation and the world a better place.

So, how are we doing with these principles?

Well, we were running trillion-dollar deficits even before the coronavirus hit us. We have destroyed foreign markets for our goods and services. We have threatened security agreements that have kept the peace for nearly three quarters of a century. We have offended allies who we will desperately need to face China and other long-term threats to our security and prosperity. For no good reason.

Can any of us stand here today and claim that our party has remained faithful to conservative principles during the President�s time in office? No, we cannot.

If we are honest, there is less of a conservative case to be made for reelecting the President than there is a blatant appeal for more rank tribalism. And further division. And more willful amnesia in the face of more outlandish presidential behavior.

I cannot and will not be a part of that. There simply is no future in it. To my fellow Republicans who, like me, believe in the power of conservative ideas � ask yourself: Will we be in a better position to make a conservative case for governing after four more years of this administration? I think we all know the answer.

So here we are today. During the 2016 election, given what I had already seen during the campaign, I knew I could not vote for the President. Like many of my colleagues, I chose to vote for a third-party candidate. Today, given what we have experienced over the past four years, it is not enough to just to register our disapproval of the President. We need to elect someone else in his place, someone who will stop the chaos and reverse the damage.

Putting country over party has a noble history here in Arizona. In 1992, Mr. Republican, Barry Goldwater, endorsed a Democrat running for Congress over the Republican he felt would not represent the party well. Goldwater hadn�t traded in his conservative credentials. Far from it. He simply believed, in that case, that the conservative cause would be better served over the long term if the Democrat prevailed.

And that is what I believe today, in this election. And that is what a growing number of Republicans believe and are declaring today as well.

I have never before voted for a Democrat for president. But I�ve been asked many times over the past four years if I, as a conservative, could vote for a Democrat for President. �Sure,� has been my ready answer, �if he or she were a Joe Biden-kinda-Democrat.

Well, the Democratic Party just nominated a Joe Biden-kinda-Democrat, whom I am confident will approach his constitutional role with the reverence and dignity it deserves. I know that he will reach across the aisle, because that�s what he�s done his entire career.

After the turmoil of the past four years, we need a president who unifies rather than divides.

We need a president who prefers teamwork to tribalism.

We need a president who summons our better angels, not a president who appeals to our baser instincts.

That�s why we need Joe Biden.

If we have learned anything over the past four years, it is that character matters. Decency matters. Civility never goes out of style. And we should expect our president to exhibit these virtues.

I have known Vice President Biden for two decades now. I served with him in Congress for much of that time. He is a good and decent man. I haven�t always agreed with him, and there will be many policies on which we will disagree in the future, and that�s okay. The steadiness of leadership, and the health and survival of our democracy � those things far supersede any policy issues on which we might disagree.

And this much I know: With Joe Biden as president, we will be able to preserve the civic space wherein Republicans and Democrats can go back to merely disagreeing about issues of policy, without fear of revenge or reprisal.

That day cannot come soon enough.

And so, it is because of my conservatism, and because of my belief in the Constitution, and in the separation of power, and because I am gravely concerned about the conduct and behavior of our current president that I stand here today � proudly and wholeheartedly � to endorse Joe Biden to be our next president of the United States of America.

America�s best days are ahead. Go Joe.

Thank you very much.

22 comments

I Speak With a Computerized Voice. Republicans Used It to Put Words in My Mouth.

Written by <a href="index.php?option=com_comprofiler&task=userProfile&user=55995">Ady Barkan, The Washington Post</a>

Wednesday, 02 September 2020 12:34

Barkan writes: "I speak with a computerized voice - think Stephen Hawking. It's a result of ALS, the neurological disease I've had since 2016. And of all the painful parts of this entire ordeal, which has now almost completely paralyzed me, one of the worst is the way the disease has robbed me of my natural voice. Last week, House Minority Whip Steve Scalise tried to use my computer-assisted voice to rob me of my agency, too."

Ady Barkan addresses the Democratic National Convention on Aug. 18. (photo: Michael Nigro/Zuma)

I Speak With a Computerized Voice. Republicans Used It to Put Words in My Mouth.

By Ady Barkan, The Washington Post

02 September 20

speak with a computerized voice � think Stephen Hawking. It�s a result of ALS, the neurological disease I�ve had since 2016. And of all the painful parts of this entire ordeal, which has now almost completely paralyzed me, one of the worst is the way the disease has robbed me of my natural voice.

Last week, House Minority Whip Steve Scalise tried to use my computer-assisted voice to rob me of my agency, too. In a video aimed at Democratic presidential nominee Joe Biden, Scalise, a Republican from Louisiana, shared his team�s manipulated footage of an interview I conducted with Biden to make it appear I had said words that I never uttered, in an effort to distort Biden�s views and harm his electoral prospects.

Scalise eventually scrubbed the video from his Twitter feed after being criticized for the manipulation, but the ominous lessons of the episode remain: the ability to use technology not only for good but to mislead and manipulate; the willingness of those with political agendas to resort to such disinformation and propaganda; and the way in which America has cleaved into two separate information universes, with a conservative media ecosystem amplifying falsehoods that then take root.

The entirety of the Scalise video painted a bleak picture of the country, with cleverly spliced scenes designed to make major cities look like places of anarchy and violent chaos. That�s already disingenuous; protesters demanding an end to centuries of racial violence have largely been peaceful. But what made it so remarkable wasn�t just that Scalise twisted the truth about Black Lives Matter. His video went a step further, altering a question I had asked Biden about law enforcement to make it sound as though Biden had agreed to defund the police. I�m in favor of defunding the police, so I wish that were the case. But Biden has been clear that isn�t his position.

Now, I am of course grateful I can still speak, even if very slowly, using eye-gaze technology: A camera tracks the movements of my eyes on a screen-based keyboard, and then the resulting text is converted into speech by a synthetic voice generator. But because of my Hawking-esque voice, it�s particularly easy for others to manipulate what I say. Scalise�s team just went the extra mile in seeming to find the exact voice generator I use when they whipped up the extra words meant to damn Biden.

Scalise has since conceded the video �shouldn�t have been edited� in an interview on Fox News � even as he attempted to claim there was an underlying truthfulness to the message. That isn�t the same as an apology to me, or, more important, the more than 2 million people in this country who communicate using assistive technology like I do.

It�s specifically insulting to witness actors with the worst intentions hijack the technology that has allowed me to speak to try to speak for me, but this duplicity also exposes the broader information crisis in our society. When President Trump claimed, as he did in the run-up to the 2018 election, that a �migrant caravan� threatened the safety of the United States, he was bolstered by a vast conservative media that runs coverage amplifying his claims from morning to midnight. The inauguration crowd size, the repeated lies about voter fraud, claims about wiretapping, all of it is part of an attempt to shear one half of America away from the other by creating an alternate reality for Trump�s supporters.

That reality isn�t based on facts, but on polarized partisanship. Trump, like many other leaders around the world with authoritarian aspirations, understands that shaping reality is the most powerful tool at an autocrat�s disposal. His goal is a society in which it doesn�t matter whether what you say is true as long as your side loves it.

In that context, �deepfakes� such as the one Scalise posted aren�t missteps. They�re disinformation test balloons that should put every single one of us on alert. If they can without consequence make it seem as though I said something I didn�t, what else can they do? What else will they do? What fearmongering words can they put in Biden�s mouth in a video doctored to tip the election?

I�m not sure I know how to solve this problem. The collective outrage that got the video stricken from Twitter is a good place to start; that must not let up. Another might be looking at the polarizing effects of Facebook, where the video remains, gathering views.

That�s just the beginning, though. We need far more aggressive action across the board to identify and stop the spread of false information, because more is coming. But I can�t do that on my own. Every letter I�m typing here is difficult, each sentence its own hurdle, and my words aren�t enough. What we desperately need is others ready to speak their own � not speak false ones for me.

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