Stuff You Should Read, August 29, 2021
Welcome to this week’s edition of “Stuff You Should Read.”
“These Afghans Won the Visa Lottery Two Years Ago — Now They’re Stuck in Kabul and Out of Luck” by Dara Lind, ProPublica
A March 2020 ban signed by President Donald Trump, citing a need to protect the American economy, prevented Akbari and visa lottery winners from entering the U.S. In response to a lawsuit by immigration lawyers, a federal judge ruled earlier this month that the government has to move ahead on processing thousands of last year’s lottery winners. But the U.S. has told the judge it can’t even start until fall 2022 at the earliest. Several hundred Afghans are in the group. They may be the unluckiest winners in the visa lottery’s 30-year history.
“Why the Biden administration’s competence strategy is flawed” by Perry Bacon, Washington Post
The Biden team should govern competently — and also fight on more polarized issues … instead of trying to dodge them.Biden can’t unilaterally end the partisan “uncivil war,” no matter how hard he tries, because the Republicans are so deeply committed to it. Biden’s strategy implies there are “culture war” issues to avoid and “pocketbook” issues to focus on. In reality, Republicans push almost every issue, from vaccinations to unemployment benefits to voting rights, into the broader, zero-sum fight between the parties. So conservative activists and politicians are opposing mask-wearing in schools just as fervently as they oppose the teaching of critical race theory.
“Let’s Not Pretend That the Way We Withdrew From Afghanistan Was the Problem,” by Ezra Klein, The New York Times
Focusing on the execution of the withdrawal is giving virtually everyone who insisted we could remake Afghanistan the opportunity to obscure their failures by pretending to believe in the possibility of a graceful departure. It’s also obscuring the true alternative to withdrawal: endless occupation. But what our ignominious exit really reflects is the failure of America’s foreign policy establishment at both prediction and policymaking in Afghanistan.
“Far-right floods the internet with calls for Biden’s ouster” by Kyle Tharp and Nick Seymour, FWIW Newsletter
On Facebook, posts about Biden impeachment or removal have received 11.25 million interactions (reactions, comments, shares) since August 15th. By comparison, in that same time period, posts mentioning “infrastructure” received around 5.2 million interactions.
If, as Bacon writes, the reality is that Republicans push every issue into the zero-sum fight between the parties, I wonder how coordinated that is. Is it coincidence that attacks are coming in on both culture and pocketbook issues, or is an unseen hand moving the pieces as part of a grand strategy of putting us on the defense on all fronts?
I agree with your continued emphasis that winning cannot be done by trumpeting competence and good stuff alone. It might be hard to convince some to set aside their high road principles. But the persuadable, targeted audience, not so ideological, can appreciate harsher tactics, the offense. Alan Alda returns the briefcase intact in West Wing fantasies.
But if Biden administration will not accept that not having a contingent plan for evacuating all the Afghans who would need to be evacuated IF the Taliban were successful was a mistake, then It has no defense at all. [Of course that was not part of Trump's agreement because he cares nothing for refugees.] There is no way that people will believe that Kabul airport scene (why not Bagram?) was the absolute least worst outcome.
This does not detract from the point that the MSM should not be making this into the "crime of the century" as the did with Hillary's emails.