The Rock Hall, Danes, Fascists and More of Your Mail!
This week in PurpleAmerica
Ah Valentines Day. The bane of every elementary school student who has to give Valentines to everyone in class, even the members of the opposite sex they think are cute. A day of true dread and horror for many little tykes out there, and their parents who must decide between the Avengers Valentines, or the Moana Valentines.
So for this week, I’m not going to presage and make too many notations about what is going on in the world as we get to the rest of the weekly recap. I’m just going to offer two things.
First, to everyone out there reading this, “Will You Be My Valentine?”
Second, I’m holding a contest for anyone and everyone. Just create your own “PurpleAmerica Valentine.” Have your son or daughter do it. Scribble it in crayon. Make it look anyway you want. Send the result to “purpleamericanunity@gmail.com.” Winner will have their Valentine showcased in next week’s recap.
Have some fun with it! Happy Valentine’s Day.
PurpleAmerica’s People of the Past Week
The Good
Kudos to the Philadelphia Eagles on winning the Super Bowl. Now the hard part begins as every fan in the country starts putting together theire meaningless “Mock Drafts v.x” in anticipation for the draft, rendered meaningless by the fifth or sixth pick.
Danes, for signing a petition on renaming the Gulf of Mexico/America as “The Gulf of Denmark.” That’ll show ‘em.
PurpleAmerica Subscribers! You guys are AWESOME! The feedback I’ve received this week has been extremely inspiring, and I genuinely appreciate it. You’re the reason I do this and will continue doing it.
The Bad
Republican Senators. Tulsi Gabbard and RFK Jr are not qualified to run a banana stand, and you know it.
Renewable Energy. One of the worlds largest solar energy arrays is shuttering after only 11 years.
The Ugly
Perennial listee Donald Trump, this week for basically signaling to the world that Ukraine is on it’s own. I remember when the U.S. used to stand for standing up to tyranny, now Trump just assents so long as he gets something out of it.
Republican voters. They vote for Trump because of inflation and the price of eggs, even though Biden had the numbers going down. This week, inflation spikes, the price of eggs is TWICE what it was a year ago and…*crickets*? You guys suck.
Former NFL MVP Aaron Rodgers after being told that the NY Jets are moving on without him. You know, Minnesota may have an opening if Darnold leaves… TBD.
Have a nominee for us to consider? Send an email to purpleamericanunity@gmail.com!
PurpleAmerica Pop Culture Random Top Five
This week: The Top 5 likely to Get into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame.
Yes, it’s that time of year again. The time when the eponymous hall offers their nominees for enshrinement into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame. Normally, they do an awful job of it; ignoring whole genres and time periods and fixated only on the 70s and early 80s. This year they were…OK? So without further ado, the top five most likely to get in…
Chubby Checker. How is the guy who created “The Twist” not in yet? Rubber stamp him in immediately.
The Black Crowes. One of the best bands of the early 90s, whose blend of southern rock and blues set them apart. Shake Your Money Maker is one of the best albums of the period.
Joe Cocker. One of the most iconic voices of all time. Shocked he’s not already in.
The White Stripes. One of the biggest complaints about the RRHOF is that they are too chummy to producers who still make the record industry tons of money. Are there better bands more deserving than the White Stripes; undoubtedly. Does Jack White make these guys boatloads of cash? uh, yeah. He’s in.
Mariah Carey. One of the truly great voices of her era, she has the second highest grossing single of all time with “All I Want for Christmas.”1 You may think that is a reason both for and against her, but when you look at all the songs (most of which, sound roughly the same) and the sales records she broke, how do you keep her out (without mentioning her flop movie “Glitter”)?
But as a bonus, we have the four LEAST likely to get in as well!
Soundgarden. Don’t get me wrong, they SHOULD be in, and of all the bands this year, its the one I like the most. But I have zero faith in the RRHOF actually putting in any grunge band again. This is why the RRHOF sucks so bad.
Bad Company. 10 from 6 is a necessity for any record collection, but they just seem a little more mediocre to the era they are from, with more worthy bands already in. I’d vote for them, but I don’t think most voters will.
Phish. Hippie Jam Band with limited appeal. Still, I thought the same about Dave Matthews, and they got in.
Mana. Who?
PurpleAmerica’s Best Articles of the Week
Some really great thoughtful posts this week.
Charlie Sykes had the always watchable Tom Nichols on his new podcast over at “On the Contrary” (subscribe to this NOW).
Sarah Longwell over at the Bulwark had a GREAT conversation with Democratic Elections Specialist, Adam Jentleson. It’s must listening if you want to understand their current predicament.
Lastly, with so much heated rhetoric out there, I thought it would be good to reflect on the impacts of that. Here is a Salon piece from April, 2004 titled “Who’s a Fascist?” Back then, you may remember it was incredibly easy to level the term at George W. Bush and Dick Cheney. People were genuinely scared with changes occuring in our country following 9/11 and the insane power grabs that were occuring. The result? Bush WON re-election, in part because people didn’t buy into that rhetoric. Something that progressives need to consider when they so casually make such remarks.
PurpleAmerica’s Subscriber Mail
When we here at PurpleAmerica Respond to the Teeming Millions (well, we’re still working on that first million)
People are still having an issue with my “Not a coup” article from last week (Now my most widely read article twice over). Some of the better responses offered support and thoughful comments (even when some who disagreed were polite about it—those I can understand and appreciated their reply). To those people I want to say “thank you, you are the reason I do this.” However, the bulk of these comments are all “*Grunt* Trump/Elon Bad; You Bad For Defending Them! Me Not Like You!” Again, if you read the article, that’s not what I did. I just said it wasn’t a coup (yet). It’s important, because when you make these broad, categorical slurs and statements over and over and over again, it has the effect of numbing the audience, particularly when it’s wrong or more metaphorical. But that didn’t stop people, nope.
Kyle Reeves: Fuck off. How dare you lecture people about the careful use of words while you twist and wind your way into legitimizing what is happening. Which is the clear and subversive buy out of democratic institutions by billionaires. Don't be fucking stupid. Don't lecture people on how careful they should be with their words while they're terrified that the very bedrock of this nation crumbles. Pick something to actually believe in and say it with your fucking chest. God this is so spinless.
You seem nice. You may want to consider getting out of that silo you are in. Maybe turn off MSNBC and you know, get out into the world a little.
In the meantime, here’s a link to Orwell’s “Politics and the English Language.” If you don’t think how we talk about politics is important, perhaps the guy who gave us “1984” and “Animal Farm” can persuade you.
Erek Tinkler: Musk wasn't confirmed by Congress. You're not arguing it isn't a coup. You're arguing that you're a supporter of the coup.
Not everyone has to be confirmed by Congress. For instance, the Chief of Staff and various policy czars don’t. This is how Larry Summers became an “Economic Advisor to the President” during Obama’s early years when he didn’t get confirmed.
Anyone who reads my substack regularly knows this isn’t true. You can get the gist here, here, here, here, here, here….oh wait, sorry, that last one was about the evil of jumping to conclusions.
Not sure if you realize this or not, but it’s your kind of rhetoric that turns swing voters away from your position. You’re looking to just get high fives from others already voting Democratic and dissuading everyone to the right of AOC that Democrats want to listen to their point of view. That’s a recipe for losing elections. I highly recommend the forementioned Sarah Longwell podcast above on how that works.
Barbara Calchera: Fascist rhetoric doesn’t work. FYI.
I see someone needs a lesson on what “Fascism” is, particularly when 1) I’m not a Fascist, actually Center-Left who voted Harris, and 2) the rhetoric I used had nothing to do with fascism, you just didn’t like hearing it. Here’s a great article from Salon (left leaning publication) from 2004 on whether George W. Bush was a Fascist. Yes, many of the barbs leveled at Trump were leveled at W back then, and in that case, there was probably MORE evidence as such, what with GITMO, the Patriot Act, Abu Ghraib, etc. How does it open?
What did it find about W?—
The clear point is hurling an epithet like that (and by the way, it includes when Republicans slander Dems as “socialist” and “communist”) doesn’t make it so, and in fact, cheapens the use of the term. Thanks for playing.
Changing the topic to more recent writings, longtime subscriber MLisa commented on my Wes Moore piece: “Wes Moore is just JD Vance with a "D" as his party. His book, like Vance's, has numerous lies and embellishments. But hey, they both made it to Oprah's show (or book club?)! Maybe he's talking the good talk right now, but as a Governor, Wes Moore is pretty.....meh (I'm a MD resident). He's being groomed for the WH.”
I think he’s a little better than JD Vance with a D (Vance sets that bar, REALLY low), but the rest of it is a point well taken. Yeah, he’s being groomed for the WH, but compared to what else is out there for Dems, that’s not entirely bad. Thanks for your thoughtful comment! (Believe me, from what I’ve had to read through, most seriously thoughtful comments have been few and far between recently).
Thank you ML for being a Substack follower and PA Subscriber. What I loved about your comment is that you disagreed, but were still respectful, polite and genuine about it. This is the way people should air their dissents. We need more of that online.
Have a question you want us to answer? Email us at purpleamericanunity@gmail.com
PurpleAmerica’s Historical Note from This Week
On this date in 1990, Voyager I turned around from it’s location 3.7 billion miles away and took the famous “Pale Blue Dot” photo. In the actual photo, the size of Earth is a single pixel.
In his 1994 book, “Pale Blue Dot,” Carl Sagan reflected on the image, which I think is more than relevant today:
From this distant vantage point, the Earth might not seem of any particular interest. But for us, it's different. Consider again that dot. That's here. That's home. That's us. On it everyone you love, everyone you know, everyone you ever heard of, every human being who ever was, lived out their lives. The aggregate of our joy and suffering, thousands of confident religions, ideologies, and economic doctrines, every hunter and forager, every hero and coward, every creator and destroyer of civilization, every king and peasant, every young couple in love, every mother and father, hopeful child, inventor and explorer, every teacher of morals, every corrupt politician, every "superstar," every "supreme leader," every saint and sinner in the history of our species lived there – on a mote of dust suspended in a sunbeam. The Earth is a very small stage in a vast cosmic arena. Think of the rivers of blood spilled by all those generals and emperors so that, in glory and triumph, they could become the momentary masters of a fraction of a dot. Think of the endless cruelties visited by the inhabitants of one corner of this pixel on the scarcely distinguishable inhabitants of some other corner, how frequent their misunderstandings, how eager they are to kill one another, how fervent their hatreds. Our posturings, our imagined self-importance, the delusion that we have some privileged position in the Universe, are challenged by this point of pale light. Our planet is a lonely speck in the great enveloping cosmic dark. In our obscurity, in all this vastness, there is no hint that help will come from elsewhere to save us from ourselves. The Earth is the only world known so far to harbor life. There is nowhere else, at least in the near future, to which our species could migrate. Visit, yes. Settle, not yet. Like it or not, for the moment the Earth is where we make our stand. It has been said that astronomy is a humbling and character-building experience. There is perhaps no better demonstration of the folly of human conceits than this distant image of our tiny world. To me, it underscores our responsibility to deal more kindly with one another, and to preserve and cherish the pale blue dot, the only home we've ever known.
PurpleAmerica’s Dad/Uncle/Cheesy Joke of the Week
And with that…
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Footnotes and Fun Stuff
#1 is “White Christmas” by Bing Crosby. Every year she gets closer and closer to it, and the song holds another record for being the longest time from release to obtaining #1 on the record chart; the song now goes to #1 every year now sometime between Thanksgiving and Christmas.