Tom Cotton Declares His Candidacy for 2024
Republican Senator Tom Cotton of Arkansas launched his 2024 presidential campaign yesterday.
His op-ed in the New York Times has created a blizzard of protest both within the nation’s most elite liberal newspaper (for publishing it) and beyond (for what it says).
His op-ed in the New York Times has created a blizzard of protest both within the nation’s most elite liberal newspaper (for publishing it) and beyond (for what it says).
Both debates are valid.
However, his column is best understood as a marker: Cotton is laying down a stake on a future debate, not one in the present.
Titled “Send In the Troops,” the column does indeed say that “it’s past time to support local law enforcement with federal authority.”
Federal troops are necessary to crack down on the “anarchy” unleashed by “cadres of left-wing radicals,” Cotton writes.
(No, he doesn’t bother with the nuisance of proving such “cadres” exist.)
Only military force can smash the looters and rampaging criminals, who include “the thrill-seeking rich as well as other criminal elements.”
. . . .
In the op-ed, Cotton, a veteran Republican from Arkansas, calls on President Donald Trump to invoke the Insurrection Act and send the military into cities, writing, "One thing above all else will restore order to our streets: an overwhelming show of force to disperse, detain and ultimately deter lawbreakers."
The essay is a demagogic hash, as greasy as the bacon Senator Ted Cruz once cooked on the muzzle of an AR-15.
But if you’re a precocious right-wing senator with a strong attachment to personal advancement and a weak one to pluralistic democracy, then you might view Cotton’s piece as pretty smart.
If President Donald Trump is re-elected in November, or somehow manages to retain power without the benefit of election, Cotton’s hysterics will be completely forgotten.
No harm, no foul.
But if Trump is defeated, the battle for the 2024 nomination will begin immediately, and Cotton will have a message that resonates across the plains and valleys of racial and cultural resentment that define the Republican base: “Who lost Washington?”
But if you’re a precocious right-wing senator with a strong attachment to personal advancement and a weak one to pluralistic democracy, then you might view Cotton’s piece as pretty smart.
If President Donald Trump is re-elected in November, or somehow manages to retain power without the benefit of election, Cotton’s hysterics will be completely forgotten.
No harm, no foul.
But if Trump is defeated, the battle for the 2024 nomination will begin immediately, and Cotton will have a message that resonates across the plains and valleys of racial and cultural resentment that define the Republican base: “Who lost Washington?”
Has anybody explained why actual troops would do a better job than the thousands of trained police and NGs now on the streets all over the country?
Does he imagine armored personnel carriers machine-gunning the crowds?
Tanks reducing buildings in which protesters hide to rubble, like a battle-scene from a movie about WW2 in Europe?
Perhaps both he and the Duce - the current Republican Admired Leader - are both bluffing and sticking with the idea that their best move is to let this drag out in hopes it will hurt the Democrats more the longer it goes on.
But it may not play out that way as clearly or strongly as I feared in the earliest days.
Again, today, the daytime mass protests all over the country are overwhelmingly peaceful and racially mixed, and remind me at least as much of the female-led Resistance demonstrations of 2017 as the race riots of the mid-20th century.
The Floyd protesters are more often male, but nearly as often white and, during the daytime, nearly as uniformly peaceful.
And that makes a big difference.
Peaceful in DC last night and huge crowds peaceful now. Mostly white, now?
Have the crowds gotten whiter with the passing of the days, as more young whites were emboldened to join in?
NYC peaceful last night, too.
If anything, the crowds today in the major cities may be bigger.
Does he imagine armored personnel carriers machine-gunning the crowds?
Tanks reducing buildings in which protesters hide to rubble, like a battle-scene from a movie about WW2 in Europe?
Perhaps both he and the Duce - the current Republican Admired Leader - are both bluffing and sticking with the idea that their best move is to let this drag out in hopes it will hurt the Democrats more the longer it goes on.
But it may not play out that way as clearly or strongly as I feared in the earliest days.
Again, today, the daytime mass protests all over the country are overwhelmingly peaceful and racially mixed, and remind me at least as much of the female-led Resistance demonstrations of 2017 as the race riots of the mid-20th century.
The Floyd protesters are more often male, but nearly as often white and, during the daytime, nearly as uniformly peaceful.
And that makes a big difference.
Peaceful in DC last night and huge crowds peaceful now. Mostly white, now?
Have the crowds gotten whiter with the passing of the days, as more young whites were emboldened to join in?
NYC peaceful last night, too.
If anything, the crowds today in the major cities may be bigger.
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