Essential Politics: From insurrection to impeachment, America's governing crisis - Los Angeles Times | Canada News Media
Connect with us

Politics

Essential Politics: From insurrection to impeachment, America's governing crisis – Los Angeles Times

Published

 on


The eyes of the nation are focused on the crisis playing out in Washington, and rightly so — in the span of less than a week, the capital was shaken by a violent attack on the nation’s legislative branch of government and is now braced for a likely second impeachment of the sitting president in his waning hours in the White House.

But let’s take a step back and examine this crisis moment in American democracy through snapshots here in California, from a few geographic and historical points far away from the U.S. Capitol building.

What you’ll find raises the question: How will this deeply divided country put itself back together?

From Shasta and Schwarzenegger

My colleague Hailey Branson-Potts is perhaps the most thoughtful and eloquent of staff writers at The Times when it comes to chronicling California’s rural communities. Her latest dispatch, from Shasta County, offers a glimpse of the lengths some Californians seem prepared to go to in order to reclaim what they feel they’ve lost.

“We have to make politicians scared again,” said Carlos Zapata, a resident who attended a tense meeting of county supervisors last week. “If politicians do not fear the people they govern, that relationship is broken.”

Others with whom Branson-Potts spoke echoed those thoughts and more — her story provides an important window into the anger and the call for action among those who seem to see the pandemic and the election through the same political lens.

“This is by far the worst it’s been,” Supervisor Leonard Moty said. “They politicized the virus. The pandemic. You saw a culmination of it by a president who incited a whole group of people to march to the Capitol and do bad things. I think we have a number of people in this county who follow his voice. Who knows what they will do?”

A different but no less dire warning was issued Sunday by the last Republican governor of California, Arnold Schwarzenegger. While he has hardly been silent about his opposition to President Trump, the video he posted on social media was deeply personal, including a harrowing tale of his father and other Austrian men who became members of the Nazi Party. Schwarzenegger likened the violent mob that attacked the Capitol last week to the horrific events of Kristallnacht, the murderous rampage by Nazis over two nights in November 1938.

“I grew up in the ruins of a country that suffered the loss of its democracy,” Schwarzenegger said. “Growing up, I was surrounded by broken men drinking away their guilt over their participation in the most evil regime in history. Not all of them were rabid anti-Semites or Nazis. Many just went along, step by step, down the road.”

The former GOP governor, whose second term in office was dominated by a steadily growing gap with his party’s sharply conservative base, said he did not believe America was on the same path. Yet.

“President Trump sought to overturn the results of an election and of a fair election. He sought a coup by misleading people with lies. My father and our neighbors were misled also with lies, and I know where such lies lead.”

A second impeachment

There are no hard and fast rules about what constitutes an impeachable offense under the U.S. Constitution. The Republican leader of the House in 1970, Gerald Ford, famously put it this way: “An impeachable offense is whatever a majority of the House of Representatives considers it to be at a given moment in history.”

All signs indicate that the House will consider an article of impeachment against Trump as soon as this week for what Democrats and a smattering of Republicans believe is his role in sparking the violent mob that attacked Congress.

“Next we will proceed with bringing impeachment legislation to the floor,” House Speaker Nancy Pelosi said in a letter to her colleagues, giving Vice President Mike Pence 24 hours to respond. “In protecting our Constitution and our democracy, we will act with urgency, because this president represents an imminent threat to both.”

Sen. Patrick J. Toomey (R-Pa.) said Saturday that he believes the president committed an impeachable offense but didn’t say whether the Senate should convict Trump and remove him from office before President-elect Joe Biden takes the oath Jan. 20.

Biden sidestepped the issue when asked about it by a reporter last week, choosing instead to reaffirm his belief that Trump is “unfit” for the job. So, too, did many former top U.S. security officials when asked by The Times whether the president is a threat to the nation’s security.

“What would this president do over the next days if it happens again — if a domestic or foreign enemy attacks any element of this country?” asked Tom Bossert, Trump’s former homeland security advisor, who left in 2018. “I don’t get the impression he would do a damn thing, and I find that to be alarming.”

Enjoying this newsletter? Consider subscribing to the Los Angeles Times

Your support helps us deliver the news that matters most. Become a subscriber.

The social media shutdown

For a presidency largely conducted through social media platforms, the last few days have been … quiet. Not that President Trump doesn’t have ways to communicate with the nation — press releases, press conferences, media interviews come to mind — but he has chosen to use none of those options in the days since Twitter permanently suspended his account and wiped out its reach to some 88 million followers.

Silicon Valley has ended the Twitter presidency,” is how Times staff writers Eli Stokols, Andrea Chang and Suhauna Hussain put it in their story Friday afternoon.

The Facebook banishment has been described as “indefinite” by the company’s leadership. Other social media companies have taken similar actions to limit Trump’s use of their services. Whether the president waits out his suspension or seeks to embrace some conservative-leaning platforms remains to be seen.

In the meantime, archives of the president’s prodigious Twitter habit are a popular online item. The Times took a look at the history of his tweets about California.

National lightning round

— Despite ample warnings, the U.S. Capitol Police did not bolster staffing Wednesday and made no preparations for the possibility that the planned protests could escalate into violent riots, according to several people briefed on law enforcement’s response.

— Congressional leaders wanting answers about the actions of the U.S. Capitol Police in last week’s melee might want to remember that they are the ones who have ensured that the agency’s procedures and actions were kept under wraps for decades.

— A Republican state legislator from West Virginia faces federal charges after he livestreamed himself entering the U.S. Capitol with rioters.

— In the final days of his presidency, Trump may have exposed himself to criminal prosecution after he leaves the White House.

— The president left a lot of clues over the years that he wouldn’t go quietly when his time in office came to an end.

— House lawmakers may have been exposed to someone who tested positive for the coronavirus while they sheltered at an undisclosed location during the Capitol siege.

— GOP members of Congress who voted against certifying Biden’s victory, even after a mob broke into the Capitol, are rebuked in their districts.

— Before they take office, elected officials swear to uphold the U.S. Constitution. But what happens when they are accused of doing the opposite?

— American diplomats have drafted cables condemning Trump’s incitement of the Capitol riot and calling for administration officials to support invoking the 25th Amendment.

Newsom to Legislature: Act fast on schools, stimulus

There were two separate California budget efforts unveiled last week by Gov. Gavin Newsom: one that lays out his proposals for state spending in the fiscal year that begins in July and one for immediate action by the Legislature this month.

Let’s take the most pressing issues first. Newsom wants legislators to sign off on $5 billion in immediate actions: $2 billion for elementary schools that put together campus reopening plans once COVID-19 conditions allow (and those that have remained open) and a $3-billion plan for direct relief to Californians and businesses — most of which would be spent in the form of $600 checks for about 4 million of the state’s lowest-income residents.

That would be followed by action in the spring on another $6.5 billion in pandemic response efforts. Education programs make up the bulk of the proposal ($4.6 billion) and focus on students who have fallen behind as the result of remote learning. Job assistance and workforce training are also included in the package; so, too, are dollars to continue the purchase of hotels for homeless housing and a boost for zero-emission vehicle incentives for those who can’t otherwise afford them.

Newsom’s budget for the coming year, a $227.2-billion spending plan that he submitted Friday, is a testament to the remarkable staying power of professional, upper-income jobs during the pandemic. Last year’s budget assumed a historic collapse of tax revenue that largely didn’t come to pass, especially for the higher-income earners on which California relies to fund its government services.

“We’ve got a lot of work to do to help small, medium-size businesses, but folks at the top [are] doing pretty damn well,” Newsom told reporters on Friday.

Today’s essential California politics

— Newsom said the state will vaccinate 1 million more residents by Jan. 17, a goal announced amid the lagging vaccination rollout and surging cases of COVID-19.

— State Senate Minority Leader Shannon Grove (R-Bakersfield) posted, then quickly deleted, a tweet Wednesday accusing the mob that overran the U.S. Capitol of being led by the leftist, anti-fascist movement known as antifa and not by supporters of President Trump.

— Ten months into a COVID-19 pandemic that has put many out of work, the state unemployment agency has suspended payments on 1.4 million benefit claims, angering jobless Californians as it attempts to rein in rampant fraud.

— The former chair of the Federal Election Commission filed a complaint against a major contributor to the campaign to recall Newsom, alleging that a “shell company” was being used to hide the identities of its donors.

Stay in touch

Keep up with breaking news on our Politics page. And are you following us on Twitter at @latimespolitics?

Did someone forward you this? Sign up here to get Essential Politics in your inbox.

Until next time, send your comments, suggestions and news tips to politics@latimes.com.

Let’s block ads! (Why?)



Source link

Politics

NDP and B.C. Conservatives locked in tight battle after rain-drenched election day

Published

 on

 

VANCOUVER – Predictions of a close election were holding true in British Columbia on Saturday, with early returns showing the New Democrats and the B.C. Conservatives locked in a tight battle.

Both NDP Leader David Eby and Conservative Leader John Rustad retained their seats, while Green Leader Sonia Furstenau lost to the NDP’s Grace Lore after switching ridings to Victoria-Beacon Hill.

However, the Greens retained their place in the legislature after Rob Botterell won in Saanich North and the Islands, previously occupied by party colleague Adam Olsen, who did not seek re-election.

It was a rain-drenched election day in much of the province.

Voters braved high winds and torrential downpours brought by an atmospheric river weather system that forced closures of several polling stations due to power outages.

Residents faced a choice for the next government that would have seemed unthinkable just a few months ago, between the incumbent New Democrats led by Eby and Rustad’s B.C. Conservatives, who received less than two per cent of the vote last election

Among the winners were the NDP’s Housing Minister Ravi Kahlon in Delta North and Attorney General Niki Sharma in Vancouver-Hastings, as well as the Conservatives Bruce Banman in Abbotsford South and Brent Chapman in Surrey South.

Chapman had been heavily criticized during the campaign for an old social media post that called Palestinian children “inbred” and “time bombs.”

Results came in quickly, as promised by Elections BC, with electronic vote tabulation being used provincewide for the first time.

The election authority expected the count would be “substantially complete” by 9 p.m., one hour after the close of polls.

Six new seats have been added since the last provincial election, and to win a majority, a party must secure 47 seats in the 93-seat legislature.

There had already been a big turnout before election day on Saturday, with more than a million advance votes cast, representing more than 28 per cent of valid voters and smashing the previous record for early polling.

The wild weather on election day was appropriate for such a tumultuous campaign.

Once considered a fringe player in provincial politics, the B.C. Conservatives stand on the brink of forming government or becoming the official Opposition.

Rustad’s unlikely rise came after he was thrown out of the Opposition, then known as the BC Liberals, joined the Conservatives as leader, and steered them to a level of popularity that led to the collapse of his old party, now called BC United — all in just two years.

Rustad shared a photo on social media Saturday showing himself smiling and walking with his wife at a voting station, with a message saying, “This is the first time Kim and I have voted for the Conservative Party of BC!”

Eby, who voted earlier in the week, posted a message on social media Saturday telling voters to “grab an umbrella and stay safe.”

Two voting sites in Cariboo-Chilcotin in the B.C. Interior and one in Maple Ridge in the Lower Mainland were closed due to power cuts, Elections BC said, while several sites in Kamloops, Langley and Port Moody, as well as on Hornby, Denman and Mayne islands, were temporarily shut but reopened by mid-afternoon.

Some former BC United MLAs running as Independents were defeated, with Karin Kirkpatrick, Dan Davies, Coralee Oakes and Tom Shypitka all losing to Conservatives.

Kirkpatrick had said in a statement before the results came in that her campaign had been in touch with Elections BC about the risk of weather-related disruptions, and was told that voting tabulation machines have battery power for four hours in the event of an outage.

— With files from Brenna Owen

This report by The Canadian Press was first published Oct. 19, 2024.

The Canadian Press. All rights reserved.

Source link

Continue Reading

Politics

Breakingnews: B.C. Conservative Leader John Rustad elected in his riding

Published

 on

 

VANDERHOOF, B.C. – British Columbia Conservative Leader John Rustad has been re-elected in his riding of Nechako Lakes.

Rustad was kicked out of the Opposition BC United Party for his support on social media of an outspoken climate change critic in 2022, and last year was acclaimed as the B.C. Conservative leader.

Buoyed by the BC United party suspending its campaign, and the popularity of Pierre Poilievre’s federal Conservatives, Rustad led his party into contention in the provincial election.

The Canadian Press. All rights reserved.

Source link

Continue Reading

Politics

Early tally neck and neck in rain-drenched British Columbia election

Published

 on

 

VANCOUVER – Predictions of a close election were holding true in British Columbia on Saturday, with early returns showing the New Democrats and the B.C. Conservatives neck and neck.

Conservative Leader John Rustad was elected in Nechako Lakes, and 20 minutes after polls closed, his party was elected or leading in 46 ridings, with the NDP elected or leading in 45.

Among the early winners were the NDP’s Ravi Kahlon in Delta North and Niki Sharma in Vancouver-Hastings, as well as the Conservatives’ Bruce Banman in Abbotsford South.

It was a rain-drenched election day in much of the province.

Voters braved high winds and torrential downpours brought by an atmospheric river weather system that forced closures of several polling stations due to power outages.

Residents faced a choice for the next government that would have seemed unthinkable just a few months ago, between the incumbent New Democrats led by David Eby and Rustad’s B.C. Conservatives, who received less than two per cent of the vote last election

Green Leader Sonia Furstenau has acknowledged her party won’t win, but she’s hoping to retain a presence in the legislature, where the party currently has two members.

Elections BC has said results are expected quickly, with electronic vote tabulation being used provincewide for the first time.

The election authority expected most votes to be counted by about 8:30 p.m., and that the count would be “substantially complete” within another half-hour.

Six new seats have been added since the last provincial election, and to win a majority, a party must secure 47 seats in the 93-seat legislature.

There had already been a big turnout before election day on Saturday, with more than a million advance votes cast, representing more than 28 per cent of valid voters and smashing the previous record for early polling.

The wild weather on election day was appropriate for such a tumultuous campaign.

Once considered a fringe player in provincial politics, the B.C. Conservatives stand on the brink of forming government or becoming the official Opposition.

Rustad’s unlikely rise came after he was thrown out of the Opposition, then known as the BC Liberals, joined the Conservatives as leader, and steered them to a level of popularity that led to the collapse of his old party, now called BC United — all in just two years.

Rustad shared a photo on social media Saturday showing himself smiling and walking with his wife at a voting station, with a message saying, “This is the first time Kim and I have voted for the Conservative Party of BC!”

Eby, who voted earlier in the week, posted a message on social media Saturday telling voters to “grab an umbrella and stay safe.”

Two voting sites in Cariboo-Chilcotin in the B.C. Interior and one in Maple Ridge in the Lower Mainland were closed due to power cuts, Elections BC said, while several sites in Kamloops, Langley and Port Moody, as well as on Hornby, Denman and Mayne islands, were temporarily shut but reopened by mid-afternoon.

Karin Kirkpatrick, who is running for re-election as an Independent in West Vancouver-Capilano, said in a statement that her campaign had been in touch with Elections BC about the risk of weather-related disruptions, and was told that voting tabulation machines have battery power for four hours in the event of an outage.

West Vancouver was one of the hardest hit areas for flooding, and Kirkpatrick later said on social media that her campaign had been told that voters who couldn’t get to a location to cast their ballot because of the extreme weather could vote through Elections BC by phone.

— With files from Brenna Owen

This report by The Canadian Press was first published Oct. 19, 2024.

The Canadian Press. All rights reserved.

Source link

Continue Reading

Trending

Exit mobile version