219 Comments
Sep 26Liked by Jay Kuo

"But when a sitting Congressman crosses an important line, we must call it out."

Truth. When you let someone cross the line without consequences, you have effectively moved the line. Until you hold fast, no line drawn will ever mean much.

This is why I am angry with the press. They keep letting the bad actors move the line without consequences. They almost encourage it.

Expand full comment

The corporate press, regardless of the other people they hire, is an institution of White Supremacy.

Expand full comment

And seemingly, the patriarchy.

Expand full comment

This is really the time 4 change, it has to stop, FOREVER, not the go back under the rocks kind of change temporarily, but permanant accountable change! ALL poc need to be treated with respect and the slave mentality has to b abolished!

Expand full comment

Rep. Higgins is running for re-election. We can support his Democratic opponent, Priscilla Gonzalez, with name recognition and donations:

https://prisforcongress.com/

Expand full comment

Thank you. I will from California. Makes me feel like crying. Not very constructive I know. So I’ll donate instead. It’s horrific ti know we’re at this juncture. I thought it was done after we elected Obama. Boy am I naive! I can’t wait til there’s so much interracial marriage that no one can tell the difference! And that is sad. Because difference is part of what makes us unique. But this guy needs to be stopped!

Expand full comment

Thanks. I've posted elsewhere to support her.

Expand full comment

I tried to donate through Actblue and it said the campaign was not taking donations! EVERY campaign wants donations . . .

Expand full comment

Priscilla Gonzalez uses Venmo, PayPal, and Cash App. Too bad she doesn’t use ActBlue which makes it easier. I emailed her that Substackers would like to donate through ActBlue. She replied right away:

On Thursday, September 26, 2024 at 02:22:14 PM PDT, Priscilla Gonzalez <prisforcongress@gmail.com> wrote:

"I just re-submitted my request to ActBlue so they can reinstate my account. Thank you so much! I just posted on Threads:" https://www.threads.net/@prisagonzalez_?hl=en

Expand full comment

Thank you

Expand full comment

Thank you for sharing this! I certainly hope Higgins is defeated. There should be no place in the Congress for these racist thugs.

Expand full comment

They *definitely* encourage it!!

Expand full comment
Sep 26Liked by Jay Kuo

From Scott Dworkin’s post today:📣

“Today we’ll be sharing this article with millions of people, using the hashtag #ExpelHiggins to make sure everyone sees our call to expel Higgins for his racist, hateful attack.”

https://open.substack.com/pub/dworkin/p/expel-clay-higgins-for-his-racist?r=fqsxl&utm_campaign=post&utm_medium=email

Expand full comment

People in this area of Louisiana talk like this all the time. Normal for these folks.

Expand full comment

That doesn't make it right--in fact, as was pointed out, it makes what should be abhorrent and disgusting into a "normal" way of speaking about anyone who isn't male, white, Christian cis-gendered into "the other". Higgins is a southern sheriff bullyboy. Take his big bad guns away and he'd be a cowardly lion, shivering and shaking in his shoes.

Expand full comment

Are you suggesting that makes it acceptable or that it does not need to be called out?

If so, shame on you!

Expand full comment

I hail from this part of the world and Joleen is simply stating fact. These folks are electing people who share their thoughts and opinions.

Expand full comment

But stating it that way sounds as if she's excusing it. "Oh, that's the way they talk. They don't mean anything by it." Just because everybody talks that way doesn't nake it right.

Expand full comment

😢😢😢

Expand full comment

Joleen is stating a fact. She didn't editorialize.

Expand full comment

I lived in the south for 35 years. I'm speaking from the place of observing and living there and yes, its abhorrent, but it is endemic to this south Louisiana culture. It is a part of the US too.

Expand full comment

I only lived in Jefferson Parish for 4 years and as I walked my neighborhood of smiling, delightful white people I would always wonder which half of them had voted for David Duke the previous year. I was astonished at what people would say to my face - assuming that I would agree with their remarks. I had moved from Los Angeles the year of the Rodney King riots and I was "reassured" that "we don't have trouble with our blacks." Yes, the possessive. Higgins, Johnson, Scalise...had to leave.

Expand full comment

It sounds more like Joleen knows about that area of Louisiana than making any kind of suggestion. Just my opinion.

Expand full comment

Which is NOT normal at all by any stretch.

Expand full comment
Sep 26Liked by Jay Kuo

Surprise, surprise, that this is buried way down on WAPO and invisible at NYT.

Expand full comment

No way!! I'm shocked. Shocked that you would find this to be the case.

Expand full comment

I can't "like" this even though I agree 100%.

Expand full comment

This is man and others like him are a relic. In the next few decades their opinions will be irrelevant. The American mosaic will continue to grow.

The six religious zealots on the Supreme Court recognize this and are issuing rulings (voter suppression-Shelby County, women’s bodily autonomy-Dobbs, corporations equal free speech therefore unlimited campaign funding money-Citizens United, etc) to keep the white supremacy in power. Keep women and minorities in their place.

I do hope I live long enough to witness the destruction of the GOP and all it represents.

I’m the meantime…vote out every republican.

Expand full comment
author

I fear he’s not a relic but rather the face of the modern MAGA movement.

Expand full comment

Oh he is. For now.

I think the worm will turn, albeit slowly.

Expand full comment

"Speaker Mike Johnson called Higgins a “dear friend” who had “prayed about” his statement before deleting it. “We believe in redemption around here,” Johnson said."

And there you have the go-to "justification" of conduct that embraces slander, racism, misogyny, rape, etc., "We believe in redemption around here." Christian nationalist exemption carve-out...oh, of course POS Higgins "prayed about" the propriety of his naked racism, before public outrage forced a deletion.

These people are 100% bereft of shame.

Expand full comment

The problem with the redemption narrative is that they always forget about the part where redemption has to be earned. "Redemption" just for the sake of not holding transgressors accountable is enablement at best, encouragement at worst.

Expand full comment

"Redemption" is their code-word for *zero accountability*.

Expand full comment

Higgins prayed about it, deleted it, and then said it again. Not sure what god he was praying to.

Expand full comment

A god of his own making, one who let’s him commit, then make his conscience feel better and then recommit the injustice time and again. That is not deep prayer nor deep forgiveness as it brings no change. It is just Johnson and Higgins and Scalese and company saying it’s okay and now their followers can now feel good about them with a “wink-wink” and continue on their merry way dancing around their big, orange cow of a god.

Expand full comment

His "personal Jesus", as Johnny Cash would have it.

Expand full comment

Personally, I think little Mikey Mouse and that antediluvian relic who has "become the face of the modern MAGA movement" need a few good swift kicks where it would do the most good and then dragged in for some cult de-programming.

Actually, that would apply to the whole dingbat Klan of them in the House of Representatives....

Expand full comment

He is not a relic, and this hateful relic is, and has been, the norm in the US since its inception. If we want it to end, we have to work to make that happen. It won't happen without a concerted effort by all of us who find it vile.

Expand full comment
Sep 26Liked by Jay Kuo

The question isn’t just how this racist man is enabled by the GOP, but HOW IN HELL HE GOT ELECTED??

Expand full comment

I would guess the answer is, by constituents who are exactly like him.

Expand full comment

Gerrymandering, voter suppression, apathy, and jim crow 2.0

Expand full comment

Cajun country is, statistically speaking, the most conservative part of the US. I'm not kidding. That's how he got elected.

Expand full comment

Yes I know but not my point. Conservative is one thing. Voting for THIS guy is another.

As I tell my GOP friends: if you can’t bring yourself to vote for Kamala, you can leave it blank.

Expand full comment

I don't know if you've read "Strangers in Their Own Land," by Arlie Hochsheider (sp?). She literally went and studied why conservatives vote the way they do by living among and interviewing the people of Cajun country. The bottom line is that the stories people tell themselves are more important to them than verifiable facts. They don't care that Higgins is a Klukker, because "He's one of us."

Sure, this is mind-blowing. Those of us who employ critical thinking on a regular basis can't understand it at all. One friend says it's like watching the kind of magical glamor you see in fantasy novels in action: they're under a spell ... until the glamor wears off, and then they can never get that feeling back again. Critical thinking makes the glamor impossible to accept.

Expand full comment

Thanks for the reminder. Read it when it came out and was stunned by the energy expended by these small town folks in obsessing about how others (read POC, immigrants, etc.) were getting gov't benefits that they weren't and "weren't entitled to". Walz's Golden Rule - Mind your own damn business - clearly hadn't made it as far as the bayou.

Expand full comment
Sep 26·edited Sep 26

“Tribal” bullshit, basically.

Expand full comment

Pretty much..

Expand full comment

GOP and Corporate Media are White Supremacists.

Expand full comment

Rep. Higgins is running for re-election. Amplify his Democratic opponent, Priscilla Gonzalez:

https://prisforcongress.com/

Expand full comment

Black people thinking they are “sophisticated “. That’s a dog-whistle for “uppity”. The U.S. must complete Reconstruction.

Expand full comment

Yes, we will “complete Reconstruction” and confound the “it’s too close to call” pollsters in 40 days and 40 nights when we vote for Harris-Walz in a landslide of Biblical proportions.

Expand full comment

I hope you're right. I fear for our future.

Expand full comment
Sep 26Liked by Jay Kuo

Clay Higgins should be nowhere near Congress or any government office. He is a to-the-bone white supremacist who thinks he is justified and right. I pity his family. He is the scum on the bottom of society's shoe.

Expand full comment

Jay writes, "If we fail to stop Trump now, the world of Clay Higgins will be our new reality baseline, and the American experiment and dream of a multiracial society, one based on the rule of law and constitutional rights and guarantees, will be imperiled in ways not seen in some 150 years."

If we fail to decisively reject the orange felon and extremist racist wanna-be autocrats like Higgins in the upcoming elections all across our country, our law-based system won't simply be imperiled. It will be over. The white supremacist fascists will have won and will entrench themselves in power for decades.

It is imperative that every one of us work to elect Dems up and down the ballot. Register voters. Knock on doors. Write and send postcards. Do phone banking. Volunteer as a poll worker or observer. Talk to young adults about the importance of their participation and the huge differences between the two parties. Do whatever is within your capabilities and resources. But _don't_ _do_ _nothing_.

Expand full comment

Truth 🙏🙏🙏

Expand full comment

We spell our name the same way.

Expand full comment
Sep 26Liked by Jay Kuo

Pretty sure I've seen this show before, but it was the Catholic church who covered up for their pedophile flock by choosing to put the church's reputation ahead of the safety and care of children. (Speaking as someone who no longer goes to church because I personally knew 5 of the priests who were later exposed and could not live with the betrayal or support such a hypocritical organization.)

Expand full comment

I think you may have generalized a bit. It was a minority of the Catholic hierarchy that failed to communicate and act upon the actions of a minority of its clergy. The Catholic Church is ALL of its members, clergy and lay folks alike. Having been taught by Catholic clergy for 16 years of my life, I never experienced pedophile activity and was not aware of it until well into adulthood. I do not paint any organization with the broad brush of condemnation over the actions of a minority of its members. No organization is perfect. All are flawed.

Expand full comment

When an organization chooses not to hold its leaders accountable, the whole organization is complicit.

Expand full comment

That's nonsense. To condemn an entire organization over the actions of a very small minority of its members is not rational. Catholics do not "vote out" or even fire members of their clergy. They do what many have done - report nefarious deeds from personal experience or first hand knowledge and if no action is taken, they just quit and move on.

Expand full comment

Can you please clarify? It sounds like you're saying that if the organization does nothing about members of its leadership who prey on less powerful group members, the logical course of action is to shrug it off. I'm assuming that's not actually what you meant?

Expand full comment

Sorry about that. The Catholic Church is not like a business, agency or non-denominational churches that hire their clergy where miscreants can be fired or voted out. The only way left open to Catholics is to report criminal activity to civil authority, communicate nefarious deeds to higher clergy, sue, protest or just leave. That's what many folks have done.

Expand full comment

OK, so I probably should have clarified my initial statement; I do not mean that every, single, member of an organization is complicit (though in most situations, most are, and more than they - as humans being humans - are likely to own). But leadership - anyone with any power at all within an organization is complicit if they do not leverage whatever power and privilege they have to insist on an organizational structure and culture that prioritizes each individual being held accountable for any abuse of their power, especially when such abuses victimize less powerful people. To simply hold oneself accountable is not enough, because there will inevitably be, in any organization (and especially those with significant power dynamics at play), those who choose not to hold themselves accountable. Anyone who benefits in any way from the existence of the organization, therefore has the responsibility of participating fully in upholding the integrity and equity that the organization claims to embody.

Expand full comment

Justification, dude justification I know so many people who were raped by their priests so many!

Expand full comment

In my 70 years of life as a Catholic, I experienced none and have not heard of any.

Expand full comment

You were lucky i guess

Expand full comment
Sep 26Liked by Jay Kuo

Thanks for keeping this in the spotlight. The hoods are indeed off. Higgins is one of many despicable people in the Republican Party.

Expand full comment

It appears as if nothing is too repugnant for these guys. The racism is a feature, not a bug.

Expand full comment

Vile scum of the earth. We need to scrape THEM off our shoes.

Expand full comment

The Grand Ole Party……of Hate

Expand full comment

GOPHers...

Expand full comment

If I read too many more irrational posts like this that are liked by Jay, I will strongly consider cancelling my paid subscription. To label the GOP as a party of hate is as ridiculous as labeling the Democrat Party a party of hate. This is the type of rhetoric that polarizes Americans.

Expand full comment

It is so hard to get my head around that so much hate that is being spewed in our politics. My heart is heavy with grief that in the 21st century we still have these racists screaming their vile...AND they're elected officials. I truly believe the election of Obama pulled the bandaid off and showed us that despite the Civil Rights Movement and the laws enacted, racism was "hiding" in the background and as strong as ever.

Expand full comment

Yep. When Obama got elected and people started yapping about "post-racist" America, I just shook my head. "Oh you poor deluded wretches," I said. "They will just crawl off into a corner to plot how they WILL come back from this madness, and restore the preeminence of White."

And lo, it has come to pass. Racism isn't genetic, but it IS inherited.

Expand full comment

I'm not convinced that Higgin's speech is protected under Brandenburg v. Ohio.

Here me out. That case limits actions against speech to that which takes place in such a way as to cause clear and imminent danger.

That, of course, was a KKK case (shocking!).

But times now are different. It can be demonstrated, through Vance and his orange boss, that words from government officials and former government officials are inciting violence. In this atmosphere, when a congress critter broadcasts hate, it incites violence. Nobody can really argue that it doesn't.

Radical far-right KKK behavior requires a radical response. Lock him up and make SCOTUS set him free. They will, of course, but make them do it.

Expand full comment

Oh, if only!!!

Expand full comment
Sep 26·edited Sep 26

Ok, congresscritter Higgins crossed the (a?) line. Absolutely.

However, I can't help but think that this particular congresscritter and all the other ones crossing lines with regularity would not ever dare to do so.... if not for the fact that the dayglo chaos goblin went roaring right past every line that ever existed nearly a decade ago and still continues to shamble across any lines he may encounter.

Expand full comment

Although elected officials represent the values, or lack of values, of their constituents, every elected office of public service, at every level, should have an application and examination process. To qualify to be registered on the ballot. Something similar to the licensing requirements of barbers and real estate sales people. The Naturalized Citizen Exam, perhaps. And disqualification for the same violations of law that other licensed professions have. Violence. Sexual misconduct. Fraud. Obtaining money under false pretenses.

Indeed, the current GOP candidate for the Presidency would not qualify to be a licensed barber or real estate agent in any state in this country. The bar for the highest office of sacred honor, the President of the United States and Leader of the Free World, is lower than a barber.

Expand full comment

I was writing postcards with Field Team 6 (www.fieldteam6.org) to prospective voters in NC around the theme that Trump was a felon who couldn't get a job at a shopping mall, but MAGA Republicans thought he was qualified to be president.

They completed all the names in that postcard campaign but there are several other campaigns focusing on swing states like FL (targeted districts) ,GA, NY (targeted districts), NC, OH, and PA. They even have a few campaigns in non-swing states (MD, NE).

FT6 also has phonebacks and several varieties of text banks. Please help register new voters while there is still time!

Expand full comment