- Via The Atlantic: Being a ‘Childless’ President Was Once Seen as a Virtue.
Another key figure had no direct descendants: James Madison. The nation’s fourth president and the author of the Constitution had, like Washington, married a widow, and the couple never had children. (A Black family’s oral history claims Madison as their ancestor, but neither documentary nor DNA evidence have proved a link.) Biographies of Madison in newspapers when he ran for president didn’t mention his now-famous wife, Dolley, much less the fact that he had never fathered a child. When Andrew Jackson ran for president in the 1820s, the controversy over his campaign had to do with thetiming of his marriage to his wife (she had not yet been officially divorced from her first husband when she married Jackson), not his lack of progeny. Lack of children was similarly a nonissue for James K. Polk in the 1840s and James Buchanan in the 1850s. Buchanan was not even married, although his supporters turned that into a positive trait by claiming that he was “wedded to the Constitution of his country.” It was not until the mid-20th century that our vision of a president, a first lady, and their children solidified into what we now refer to as the “first family.”
- Via the Independent: Stricter Covid mask rules could’ve saved hundreds of thousands of lives, new study finds.
“If all states had imposed restrictions similar to those used in the 10 most restrictive states, excess deaths would have been an estimated 10% to 21% lower than the 1.18 million that actually occurred during the 2-year analysis period,” according to the study.
“Conversely, the estimates suggest counterfactual increases of 13% to 17% if all states had restrictions similar to those in the 10 least-restrictive states.”
Governance matters. Who you elect matters.
- Via NOTUS: JD Vance Says Trump’s Comments About Kamala Harris’ Racial Identity Were ‘Hysterical’. It just feels like yet another example of the Rush Limbaughfication of the GOP.
- Via The Bulwark: Trump Allies Believe Kellyanne Conway Is Badmouthing JD Vance. Who isn’t?
- Via The New Yorker: Trump’s Racist Attack on Kamala Harris Was No Accident.
The Harris attacks represent a textbook example of his approach to politics, combining his belief in the strategic power of race-baiting to mobilize his base and his favorite tactic for disrupting a bad news cycle: changing the subject to something even more outrageous. Every minute spent debating Harris’s race—or his own folly in raising it—is a minute not spent on Trump’s own failings: on his advanced age and manifest unfitness for the Presidency; on his legal liabilities and criminal conviction; on his kooky Vice-Presidential nominee and his party’s extreme right-wing agenda.
I take the point and do not entirely disagree. But I also think it is important to note that the core of this story is Trump’s own failings.
- Via WaPo: Trump suggests Harris would struggle with world leaders based on her appearance.
- One last bit: what is wrong with these people?
