Chicagoland Pro-Israel Political Update

Calling balls and strikes for the pro-Israel community since 2006



May 2, 2021

If you remember nothing else, remember this:

  • Republicans spread false stories about John Kerry disclosing classified information about Israel to Iran. Kerry denies the conversation took place and the information was public, there is no evidence Israel was harmed, and the source of the allegation is hardly credible.
  • The good news is that most Americans don't believe these lies. The bad news is that Republicans can win without a majority.
  • American democracy needs structural reform: Passing voting rights legislation, DC and Puerto Rico statehood, expanding the Supreme Court, abolishing the filibuster, and at the state level, adopting the Interstate Compact, which will ensure that the presidential candidate who wins the popular vote will win the Electoral College.
  • Read to the end for upcoming events and fun stuff.

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Friends,

Last week, Republican politicians touted false claims that the Biden administration was giving copies of Vice President Kamala Harris's picture book to migrant kids, that Biden was going to ban hamburgers, and that Virginia was going to eliminate high level math classes.

GOP policies are designed to reward GOP donors, but the dryopithecine GOP base eats up these nothing burgers. That's why even after the reporter who wrote the piece about Harris's book said that the story was false, Republican politicians refused to remove their tweets about it.

Biden is not banning burgers, but the biggest whopper the GOP told last week was about John Kerry. Republicans falsely claimed that Kerry gave classified information to Iran based on a claim by Iran’s Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif in a leaked three-hour taped private conversation. Ron Kampeas reported that Zarif, apparently describing a discussion Zarif had with military figures, recalled saying “You can’t tell me how many [Iranians] were killed in Syria, but Kerry informed me that Israel attacked you 200 times in Syria!” Zarif claimed in the interview that he did not previously know about that figure.

Kerry denied that the conversation with Zarif ever took place. The fact that Israel conducted 200 airstrikes against Syria was widely reported. There is no evidence that if Kerry did say this, it would have harmed Israel or that at the time Zarif alleges Kerry said it, the information was classified. Zarif seems to have been using this as an example of how he was kept out of the loop by the Iran Revolutionary Guard Corps, but the Israeli attacks were not a secret.

None of that stopped Republicans from demanding Kerry's resignation. As Sen. Chris Murphy (D-CT) put it, Republicans believe that "Iranian leaders are dangerous lying thieves who cannot ever be trusted...unless they are making accusations about John Kerry when of course they are telling the 100% truth."

The same Republicans who never said a word when Trump disclosed Israeli secrets about ISIS to Russia, who never called for Trump’s removal, are feigning outrage over an unsubstantiated allegation about Kerry that even if true would be a non-story. And I’ve wasted four paragraphs of your time and mine explaining it. Mission accomplished, Republicans! 

But it's not just the little lies. As Max Boot documents, Republicans believe the Big Lies too: "Far too many Republicans believe that Trump won the election (78 percent) and that Minneapolis police officer Derek Chauvin is innocent (46 percent). Far too few Republicans believe that global warming will pose a serious threat in our lifetimes (only 11 percent).

Our democracy needs structural change. The good news is that most Americans don't believe these lies. The bad news is that thanks to vote suppression and the structural flaws in our democracy, Republicans don't need to convince a majority of Americans to win elections.

Protecting voting rights is essential but not sufficient. We should grant D.C. and Puerto Rico (if it wants it) statehood, which would provide voting representation in Congress to more Americans (yes, Puerto Ricans are citizens). Puerto Rico' population is greater than 20 current states, and D.C. is home to 700,000 Americans, more than Vermont and Wyoming.
 
We should expand the Supreme Court from nine to 13, which "would restore balance to the nation’s highest court after four years of norm-breaking actions by Republicans led to its current composition."

None of this can happen without abolishing the filibuster. The short term result would be enactment of legislation necessary to preserve our democracy (voting rights, campaign finance reform, statehood for D.C. and Puerto Rico, expansion of the Supreme Court) and our lives (gun control, police reform), and the long term result would be a Senate that functions as intended--by majority rule. 
 
The filibuster is a historical accident that has been abused for decades. The Senate is inherently anti-majoritarian because each state has the same number of senators regardless of population. The 50 Republican senators represent 40 million fewer Americans than the 50 Democratic senators. The ideal solution would be to abolish the Senate and elect members of the House to four-year terms, with half the House up for reelection every two years. But that would require a constitutional amendment. Filibuster reform is the most realistic Senate reform available.

For that reason, 97 House Democrats sent a letter to Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-NY) urging the elimination of the filibuster. The filibuster does not foster compromise, debate, or bipartisanship and it was not envisioned by the framers of the Constitution (not that bipartisanship is a good we should strive for).
 
E.J. Dione wrote that the alternative to filibuster reform "is for Republicans to become a more moderate, less monolithic party and to work constructively with Biden on major legislation. The fact that you just chuckled dismissively at that sentence is why filibuster reform is inevitable." Republicans will oppose filibuster reform, but some Democrats are not on board yet. See where your Senators stand and let them know what you think.

Finally, since abolishing the Electoral College would require a constitutional amendment, states should join the National Popular Vote Interstate Compact, which would ensure that a majority of Electoral College votes go to the presidential candidate who wins the majority of the popular vote. Jurisdictions totaling 196 electoral votes have thus far joined the compact. Michael Tarnoff, the founder of Make Every Vote Matter, wrote this explainer and can be reached by email for more information.

These democratic reforms will force both parties to adopt policies that Americans support to win elections instead of attempting to suppress votes or rely on anti-democratic flaws in our system to remain in power. The result will be a healthy two-party system, and we all win under such a system. 
 

ICYMI.


Tweet of the Week. Bob Sampson.

Twitter Thread of the Week. Rep. Don Beyer (D-VA).

Video Clip of the Week. Star Trek spinoff.

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