Highlights 2. Most Polarized Democracy; Trust Crash; Christian Soldier; The Annunciation of the Culture Warriors; Vichy Republicans; Head Chopping Justice: And if Only Twitter Voted; Three-quarters of UK Universities in Deficit September 2025; 84% of University of California Seismic Need Not Funded

November 9, 2016, cousin's guest room, Columbus, Ohio

MOST POLARIZED DEMOCRACY 

“Pernicious polarization threatens democracies by hampering their ability to solve problems and — worse — by increasing the risks of political violence and authoritarianism. Here again, the findings are not encouraging. In a separate analysis based on the same dataset but focused just on democracies since 1950, we found that severe polarization correlates with serious democratic decline. Of the 52 instances where democracies reached pernicious levels of polarization, fully half of them experienced erosion of their democracy, with most of them sliding into authoritarianism. All of the 16 cases that managed to reduce polarization to below-pernicious levels stayed democratic as they did so. Even within this “lucky” subset, some have since repolarized. . . .

"Strikingly, the US is quite alone among the ranks of perniciously polarized democracies in terms of its wealth and democratic experience. There simply is no other wealthy, long-standing democracy in the V-DEM dataset as badly polarized as the US."

SOURCE: Jennifer McCoy, Bloomberg

TRUST CRASH

Trust that the government will do the right thing plunged for both parties under Nixon. It plunged again for Republicans under Biden, but had already plunged for them under Bush I and Bush II. It has never recovered to 1960s levels.

SOURCE: The Economist

CHRISTIAN SOLDIER

Trump's nominee for Secretary of Defense, Fox personality Pete Hegreth, emerges from the pool.

SOURCE: Matthew D. Taylor

“There are at least two major strands of Christian supremacy operating in the U.S. today: the highbrow Calvinists and the populist charismatics. Both groups are Protestant, and both have theological roots in an obscure group of Reformed (Calvinist) American theologians called the “Christian Reconstructionists,” who emerged in the 1960s and 1970s. 

“The Reconstructionists draw inspiration from 16th-century theologian John Calvin’s Geneva, a theocratic city-state where unrepentant heretics could be executed by a government that enforced orthodoxy.

 

Though certainly not representative of all Calvinists, today’s Reconstructionists have embraced a vision of what they call ‘dominion theology.’ They interpret certain Bible passages to mean that Christians must ‘take dominion’ over every society and remake it into the kingdom of God. 

 

“Today, they hold conferences with titles such as ‘Blueprints for Christendom 2.0’ and talk about how they will help Jesus the ‘warrior-king’ to ‘dominion-ize’ this world.

 

“These theological intellectuals of the Christian far right are radicalizing more run-of-the-mill Christian nationalists. Reconstructionist luminaries today include people like Stephen Wolfe, a scholar with a Ph.D. in political theory who argues full-throatedly in his book The Case for Christian Nationalism that ‘Non-Christians … are not entitled to political equality.’”

SOURCE: Matthew D. Taylor

THE ANNUNCIATION OF THE CULTURE WARRIORS

“South Dakota Governor Kristi Noem, a long-time Trump supporter who shares his hardline views on immigration, has been tapped for Homeland Security secretary. His choice to lead the Environmental Protection Agency, former Representative Lee Zeldin, has little environmental experience but has been a firm Trump supporter.

 

“Rubio originally clashed with Trump when both sought the Republican nomination in 2016. But he became a staunch Trump supporter in the Senate and helped lead outreach to Hispanics during this year’s election campaign. He’s gone as far as comparing the various court cases against Trump to Cuban show trials.

 

“Elise Stefanik, Trump’s pick to be ambassador to the United Nations, was one of his first national security announcements — and reflects not just loyalty to Trump but her penchant for going after cultural elites. . . .

 

“His choice for White House national security advisor, Representative Mike Waltz of Florida, is a combat-decorated former Green Beret who introduced an act in Congress to end diversity, equity and inclusion policies in the military and halt the teaching of critical race theory. His choice for defense secretary, Hegseth, comes directly from Fox News — and has also supported efforts to counter such “woke” policies in the military.”

SOURCE: Iain Marlow, Bloomberg 

VICHY REPUBLICANS

"If you’re surprised, you’re a dupe. President Trump is going to do in his second term what he said he’d do on the campaign trail, and what he tried fitfully to do in his first term. He’s going to turn the federal government into an instrument of MAGA policy and grievance. He’s going to pursue retribution against enemies. He’s going to destroy what remains of the older norms that guide the operations of the government, and of the institutional checks that constrain the abuse of power. . . .

 

“Will Republicans and conservatives now stand up to Trump? Was yesterday a real wake up call for them, or simply the latest of dozens such moments when the alarm sounds, and they first mute it, then turn it off, and then conveniently forget that it ever sounded in the first place?

 

“I’m not optimistic. . . . Trump is their master. As Rep. Troy Nehls (R–Tex.) said yesterday, “His mission, and his goals and objectives, whatever that is, we need to embrace it. All of it. Every single word. . . . If Donald Trump says, ‘Jump three feet high and scratch your head,’ we all jump three feet high and scratch our heads. That’s it.”

 

“That’s it. That’s Trump’s Republican party. That’s our Republican party.”

SOURCE: William Kristol and Andrew Egger

HEAD CHOPPING JUSTICE

“The announcement of Gaetz’s nomination may have thrilled MAGA, but it shocked official Washington, coming on the heels of a brazen series of selections by Trump for other cabinet posts. The congressman’s firebrand label is well deserved. He has been a bombastic member of the House, keen to throw sharp elbows at his foes, defend Trump in dramatic ways and pick fights within his own party’s tent. 

“That attitude has won him many enemies on the Hill. But it was also fundamental to Trump’s decision to choose him for the AG slot, according to a Trump adviser familiar with the transition process. 

“’None of the attorneys had what Trump wants, and they didn’t talk like Gaetz,’ the adviser said. ‘Everyone else looked at AG as if they were applying for a judicial appointment. They talked about their vaunted legal theories and constitutional bullshit. Gaetz was the only one who said, ‘Yeah, I’ll go over there and start cuttin’ fuckin’ heads.”’ . . .

“In the Trump era, immediate shock and awe often has a way of morphing into awkwardly-rationalized acceptance by Republicans. And even the once tough-talking Mullin signaled on Wednesday afternoon that he’d be at least open to voting for Gaetz.

“’I completely trust President Trump’s decision-making on this one,’ Mullin told CNN’s Jake Tapper. ‘He has to answer those questions. And hopefully, he‘s able to answer the questions right. If he can, then we’ll go through the confirmation process.’” . . .

“In the Trump era, immediate shock and awe often has a way of morphing into awkwardly-rationalized acceptance by Republicans. And even the once tough-talking Mullin signaled on Wednesday afternoon that he’d be at least open to voting for Gaetz.

“”I completely trust President Trump’s decision-making on this one,” Mullin told CNN’s Jake Tapper. “He has to answer those questions. And hopefully, he‘s able to answer the questions right. If he can, then we’ll go through the confirmation process.’”

SOURCE: Mark A. Caputo

AND IF ONLY TWITTER VOTED

SOURCE: Midwest Sandernista

THREE-QUARTERS OF UK UNIVERSITIES TO BE IN DEFICIT IN SEPTEMBER 2025

“Almost three-quarters of such institutions are forecast to be in deficit in the academic year starting September 2025, following a £3.4bn decline in net income across the sector, according to a report published on Friday by the Office for Students. . . .

“The OfS said some providers would need to consider significant structural changes such as mergers, with the aggregate deficit expected to reach £1.6bn in 2025-26. The most recent financial returns for the HE sector from the end of 2023 forecast a surplus of £1.8bn.

“Redundancy and restructuring programmes are under way at 76 higher education institutions.

“About 100 providers fell short of their UK undergraduate recruitment forecasts for the current academic year, and roughly 150 failed to meet targets for international enrolments, according to OfS estimates. . . .

“Vivienne Stern, chief executive of Universities UK, the main sector lobby group, welcomed the increase in tuition fees but added the government needed to work with universities on a longer-term solution.

“’Across the sector tough decisions have already been made to control costs, and universities will look to go further still to be as efficient and effective as possible,’ she added.

“The University and College Union, which represents lecturers, said the government needed to provide long-term public funding to universities. . . .”

SOURCE: Amy Borrett and Peter Foster

84% OF UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA SEISMIC NEED NOT FUNDED.

"UC has $16 billion in seismic retrofit needs but only identified funding for 16% of that, or $2.5 billion, last academic year. . . .

 "The scale of the need is vast. According to the UC, about 1,464 buildings require seismic upgrades across the system.

 

"UC officials disclosed yesterday that the system is debuting a new plan in which campuses will reduce its backlog of structures that need seismic upgrades by 4% annually, with the structures most in need of an overhaul receiving priority.

 

"And then there’s all the new construction UC needs. The system completed 139 projects at a cost of $1.4 billion last academic year — but has more than $20 billion in active construction plans for about 400 projects. More than half of those are for UC’s extensive medical care operation, in part to satisfy state rules on strengthening hospitals to better withstand earthquakes. 

 

"Through 2030, UC’s construction plans total $30 billion, with about $12 billion for its medical centers. Philanthropy helps pay for all those projects, but only a little. Just about $2 billion of the construction plan budget will come from gifts. About $300 million will come from state funds directly — a relatively tiny portion of the overall revenue picture for the system’s six-year building plan. Much of the projects will be paid for with external financing, such as bonds that the system sells to investors. 

 

"But that’s just projects with a funding source. UC Berkeley, for example, has more than $14 billion in construction needs but has identified the funding for just about $2.8 billion of that."

SOURCE: Mikhail Zinshteyn