The Republican death drive, and this is the Editorial Board‘s Weekend Edition.

I’m your host, John Stoehr.

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And now … the week that was.

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In an interview, Casey Ryan Kelly explains why refusing to sacrifice anything means sacrificing everything. It’s the Republican death drive. “It represents a refusal to leave things in the past, and we develop an unhealthy and compulsive relationship. We cannot move past the event. The past begins to own us and actively shape our actions in the present. It’s a fixation or habit we cannot kick.”

Mia Brett says it looks like the six Republican justices are ready to believe the lies told about affirmative action. “What Blum and those associated with him are really fighting for are facially neutral (no mention of race), or “colorblind,” policies that may or may not result in racial discrimination. But as anyone familiar with that scary critical race theory knows, facially neutral laws can perpetuate a lot of racial discrimination. We don’t live in a colorblind society. Our laws, policies and culture must acknowledge race and racism.”

In an interview, Kaitlin Byrd says the confirmation of a new justice to the Supreme Court will tell us whether the president understands the Black solidarity and power that put him in the White House. “Biden and Democrats should be saying that the purpose of the work that the presidency does, that the legislature does, that the government is designed for is to protect and serve the people.”

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Lindsay Beyerstein bird-dogs the ongoing investigation into the J6 insurrection. This time prosecutors are looking at faked Electoral Certificates. “Similarities in language and formatting between the fake certificates suggests a far-reaching conspiracy orchestrated at the national level.”

In an interview, David Matthews asks if the US is at the end of a natural end-point in whatever this experiment in representative democracy is. ““That almost no one marched, died and bled in the streets to protest every day of Trump’s ‘regime’ tells me everything I need to know about how hard citizens are willing to fight for ‘democracy.’”

Richard Sudan asks whether an FBI informant helped stop a plot to kidnap Michigan Governor Gretchen Whitmer or help it along. “What happens when the very organizations supposedly tasked with tackling such threats have themselves become part of the mix, for all the wrong reasons?”

In an interview, Daniel K. Pryce talks about the corrupt feedback loop that exonerates cops of crimes other people would be convicted for. “Any case before the courts with glaring conflicts of interest would leave the public divided as to what the real truth is regarding the evidence presented for exoneration or conviction.”

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In an interview, Rachel Michelle Gunter explains why voting isn’t a right. “The line between citizen and immigrant was permeable and constantly shifting. ‘Immigrant declarants’ could be drafted into the military; they could be charged with treason. It makes sense that along with the responsibilities of this liminal stage of citizenship comes some of its rights as well.”

Noah Berlatsky explains why the covid has shown us how badly our education system harms the republic when some kids in it are treated better than others. “A country with a zero-sum attitude toward education is a country ill-equipped to respond with civic responsibility to a pandemic.” 

Jason Sattler says Ron DeSantis is the flavor of the month. He’s Donald Trump’s mini-me. “The Republicans wish this cut-rate Don Jr. without giant veneers could be their future, but he’s just another wannabe.”

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