286 Merrick Garland Responds to (Us) Whingers
July 27, 2022
It’s our party and we’ll whinge if we want to.
Imani Gandy-aka Angry Black Lady-was talking about an experience I have a lot of experience with the other day on her-blockbuster-interview of Elie Mystal.
FN: Any show featuring those two on one show is blockbuster…
She and Elie were talking about how if you as a Democrat or Democrat leaning voter criticize the Democrats you’re basically cursed out and scolded to VOTE HARDER.
FN: She didn’t put it quite like that I’m paraphrasing…
This is very frustrating for really a lot of reasons-first of all for making some fairly presumptious assumptions. Imani for her part pointed out that she’s been voting since 1992.
FN: Her mention of that date reminds me of the fact that her and I are from the same generation-Elie too-the Gen Xers, which is tough in itself. In my mind Gen Xers are kind of an ignored generation-almost like the “silent generation” they talked about regarding the generation just prior to the Baby Boomers. We are sandwiched between the absurdly self absorbed and self righteous Baby Boomers and the absurdly self absorbed and self righteous Millennials so that our reasonableness and wisdom never get heard… But I digress.
I have too… Ok I didn’t vote in 1992 which is a misnomer. I was-still am-a big fan of the Clintons-both of them but especially Hillary-and I couldn’t have been more excited about Bill’s candidacy in 1992 but I was 21 and hadn’t even considered that: I actually was now eligible to vote… Oops. But I have in every election since…
But that’s neither here to the point that these folks are lecturing anyone who dares offer any-constructive-criticism of the Democrats to Vote Harder and many of us have been voting-and donating-very hard for years.
It definitely seems that I personally have alienated a decent number of my-former?-friends on Twitter with how much constructive criticism I’ve been offering over the last 16 months…
It’s just that IMO they’ve been blowing it-and blowing it is not an option. But no doubt many think that all this “constructive criticism” isn’t constructive; indeed many of the Vote Blue No Matter Who folks seem to think any criticism of anyone Blue isn’t constructive.
But what’s really frustrating about this Vote Harder canard is that these folks seem to have a Blue Wall around their cranium as they simply won’t even listen. As I explained in pretty great detail in Chapter Garry Wills, voting is-certainly IMO-essential but is far from sufficient.
Again we have been voting very hard for many years. And what have we got to show for it? I mean after Bush v. Gore, after Bernie or Bust-which lead in a straight line to three Trump Justices who with the two Bush v. Gore Justices overturned Roe and took away rights millions of women had for 50 years many of us are struggling for an answer.
But back to Emptywheel, Merrick Garland, and who Emptywheel calls “whingers”-no doubt I’m a charter member of these folks. First of all, before we start let’s be clear that when you’re talking about Marcy Wheeler, Imani Gandi, or Elie Mystal, I’m a big fan of all of them
To be clear I’m a big fan of Marcy Wheeler. And this is a moment of (possible) vindication for her. As noted above, I’m also a big fan of both Imani and Mystal. Emptywheel hasn’t herself said Vote Harder but it seems kind of adjacent to it-she’s very critical of those of us critical of the job Merrick Garland is-or isn’t-doing in the J6 investigation.
Wheeler may not herself by Vote Harder but her castigation of what she calls whingers-those of us criticizing Garland on J6-is directed at many of the same folks who are more generally told-by other folks than Ms.Wheeler-to Vote Harder.