Views | Posts Filtered by Month

Rove was the key strategist in George W. Bush's presidential campaigns, and his advisor while in office. Those on the left criticized Rove for his divisive use of wedge issues, such as same-sex marriage, to drive conservative voter turnout. Rove claimed executive privilege in an attempt to avoid testifying before Congress. He outed Valerie Plame as a CIA operative during a feud with her husband, ambassador Joseph Wilson, after Wilson challenged the Bush administration's claims around Iraqi attempts to purchase uranium from Niger—an example of Rove's willingness to engage in brazen and potentially deadly political retribution.

Rove set the precedent for behaviors Donald Trump would amp up to eleven. And yet here was Rove, in the Wall Street Journal, announcing support for the Democratic opponent in Republican Bo French's bid for statewide office. Rove devoted most of his opinion piece excoriating French as a bigot and a misogynist. For me though, the most interesting paragraph is when Rove dials the lens back to wide view, and comments on the current state of the Republican party:

Conservatism and the party it dominates have an increasing number of bigoted advocates of a “heritage America” composed of white descendants of the original European settlers. There are “just asking questions” Jew-haters, misogynists who worship hypermasculinity, conspiracy nuts seeking clicks for profit, and religious bigots who won’t differentiate between Muslim terrorists and Muslim American patriots. These people are diminishing the Republican Party, not building it. I’ll have no part of it.

We are reminded that, for all its dissembling and corruption, the Bush administration signaled its support for Muslim Americans in the aftermath of 9/11. Bush even spoke at a mosque a few days later, characterizing Islam as a religion of peace and quoting the Quran. Donald Trump has distilled every bad impulse present in the Republican party of 25 years ago and injected that venom into our politics, doing lasting and possibly irreparable harm.

Rove has joined a growing group of Republicans distancing themselves from MAGA intolerance, incompetence, and corruption. Congresswoman María Elvira Salazar (R-FL), the daughter of Cuban immigrants and a crusader for immigration reform, issued a pointed video statement, in which she spoke directly to President Trump to denounce ICE policies and actions:

Mr. President, some of your immigration enforcement efforts have gone too far. In July, 50% of the 50,000 people who were detained had no criminal record. Be careful what your advisers are telling you about immigration policy. The same Hispanics who helped you get to the White House in 2024 feel betrayed today. You can be for immigration what Lincoln was for slavery, and Reagan was for communism. I'm not talking about giving them amnesty, I'm talking about giving them a dignified life in this promised land. Only you can do that.

Congressional incumbents like Carlos de la Cruz (R-TX), James Gallagher (R-CA), Ralph Alvarado (R-KY), and Ryan Mackenzie (R-PA) have removed Trump and MAGA references from their literature or otherwise distanced themselves from the current administration. Iowa Senate candidate and congresswoman Ashley Hinson didn't appear with JD Vance today and now opposes Trump's tariffs and beef imports. All of these individuals are running for reelection, unlike Thomas Massie, whose anti-Trump activism peaked only after he had lost his primary.

Many high-profile Republicans skipped the farcical midterm Republican convention dubbed "Trumpapalooza," one saying he had promised to watch his son play football.

It could be just the economy, stupid. Nonetheless, a couple of optimistic takes:

(a) the roster of Americans vilified as radical, extreme, criminal, communist, and/or perverse by Trump has grown to where it's impossible for most politicians to win an election without them, and

(b) Americans in the mainstream are not as alarmed by peaceful, law-abiding non-citizen neighbors, and by those defying gender norms, as they are by MAGA extremism and cruelty.

The November elections and what happens after them will determine if such optimism is warranted.

Share this:

Link: https://halwrightnewtown.info/blog/More-Republicans-Find-their-Voice-64/

September 2, 2026
An Infant Dies in Lancaster County

The controversy over the death of a newborn in Lancaster County has revealed the extent to which our politics and our public health are broken.

On August 14, a baby was born in Lancaster County. The mother was seriously ill with measles, having spiked a 102 degree fever. She received IV fluids the day before. The infant had a pulse at birth, but was not breathing. The baby never took a breath. Paramedics said the baby was dead. The county coroner was contacted.

The mother, and the mother's 13 children, were unvaccinated. [The Atlantic]

The baby tested positive for measles, and had a ruptured spleen. The PA Department of Health ruled the death "measles-associated," indicating only that the subject had tested positive for measles at the time of death. [PA Department of Health]

The county coroner, Dr. Stephen Diamantoni, stated that the infant had died from the ruptured spleen, and that measles played no role. His conclusions were based on a forensic patholgist's report that the infant's spleen was not enlarged. Nonetheless, Diamantoni said the coroner's office is still investigating the infant's death and had not issued a final report. [WGAL]

Some medical professionals have pushed back against Diamantoni's conclusions, most notably Dr. Paul Offit of the Children's Hospital of Philadelphia. Offit acknowledged that "Dr. Diamantoni is in a tough spot" dealing with an unusual case, but argues that "it's hard to make sense of what he is saying." Offit outlined three objections to Diamantoni's public statements:

It's difficult to determine the size of a ruptured spleen before it was ruptured. "[I]f you find a balloon on the ground that has burst, it’s hard to know how big it was before it burst," said Offit.
Diamantoni did not indicate what had caused the fragility of the spleen that led to rupture. In the absence of such evidence, measles remains as a reasonable cause.
Measles can damage a spleen without significantly enlarging it.

Offit summarizes: "We know that this infant was infected with measles while in the womb; we know that the infant died of splenic rupture; we know that measles infections can increase splenic fragility leading to rupture; and we know that splenic rupture is extraordinarily rare in newborns." In the absence of a more compelling reason why the infant's spleen ruptured, we are left with measles as the obvious cause. [Substack]

The infant's death, and another death in Lancaster County, have driven a politicized conflict between Governor Shapiro and RFK Jr's Department of Health and Human Services. Writing on X, Shapiro said: "The correlation is clear: Secretary Kennedy has stoked confusion amongst parents and others — and the result has been less protection from measles and more cases." Kennedy responded, saying that Shapiro's office had not provided the CDC with details about the deaths, and accusing Shapiro of fabricating that measles were the reason for the deaths. [Axios]

My foray into social media yields a predictable pattern: MAGA has embraced Diamantoni's statements to the exclusion of every other piece of evidence, and downplayed the severity of measles, while liberals have distilled the matter down to, "A baby died from measles, and it's RFK Jr's and Trump's fault." Right-leaning anti-vaxxers have issued high-pitched, frantic warnings that Shapiro will shut the state down as during COVID and mandate vaccinations. (Claude said I should flesh this out with examples, but honestly, the threads are too depressing to revisit.)

All of this has played out against the backdrop of a nationwide measles outbreak caused by unvaccinated individuals, the worst in 35 years. [CDC] During the outbreak, at RFK Jr.'s urging, Trump signed an executive order that the MMR vaccine be split into three separate administrations, complicating parents' ability to get their kids vaccinated. [White House]

While Shapiro's and other Democrats' alarm over the measles outbreak is justified, their instinct to politicize it before all the facts are in does not serve the public interest. Meantime, right-wing politicians amplify vaccine skepticism with false information and emotional appeals. COVID has opened the door for despots to bend infectious disease into political power with no stated intent to address and reduce the rate of infection.

In another time, a measles outbreak would have prompted bipartisan effort to increase vaccination rates, condolences to the families of those affected, and little else. Now, deaths of all kinds are politicized before the family has begun to grieve, and in many cases against their expressed wishes thereafter. Common perceptions of what helps and harms public health are uninformed by science and distorted by ideology. We are in a vulgar, ignorant place with no clear path to escape, and for many, little desire to find one.