Working together

Politics and sports have a lot in common. Political parties are the teams that politicians play on. Teams or parties can win only if all the players work together. If political parties want to be successful, they might learn something from watching successful sports teams. The phrase “there is no I in team” is overused, but it still resonates for good reasons. There are many positions on a team. One such position is an activist, but activists don’t always make the best team players. Players like Aaron Rodgers and Colin Kaepernick have the right to express their opinions, and their passions may be admirable. But as we have learned, activism can polarize a team, the fanbase, and the game itself. In politics, an activist is someone who works to bring about political or social change and is an important part of our political system. But they tend to be uncompromising and focus on ideological purity. While this purity test may get the public’s attention, it doesn’t always translate to legislative success. The missions of activists and politicians can overlap, but some have not been successful in delivering their respective promises and responsibilities. Successful politicians must compromise and listen to the whole of their constituents, not just a subgroup. The difference between politics and sports is, of course, the voters. Voters do not have any control over the outcome of a game and who gets to play on a sports team, but in politics, they can certainly make their opinions heard both in pre-election polls and in the actual vote on Election Day. —Lynn Schmidt, Renew America Movement Fellow

• Biden speaks about Ukraine amid unconfirmed reports of evacuations from separatist area —The Washington Post

• Judge rejects Trump attempt to toss conspiracy lawsuits, finds ‘plausible’ case former president incited Capitol riot —Associated Press

• Kevin McCarthy backs Liz Cheney’s challenger, escalating a party feud —The New York Times

• Archives confirms Trump records at Mar-a-Lago included classified documents —The Hill

• Trucker protest convoy looms as growing concern in Washington —Bloomberg

When push comes to shove

It only took the threat of war and falling off a funding cliff, but Congress got some important stuff done this week. First, it approved temporary legislation that will fund the government through March 11, avoiding the potentially calamitous possibility of federal agencies shutting down amid the Russia-Ukraine crisis. Second, the Senate approved a symbolic, nonbinding resolution calling on President Biden to impose unspecified “significant costs” on Russia if it invades Ukraine in the coming days—something that's looking more and more likely with each passing hour. There were other glints of bipartisanship this week as well… —Politico

• “Big Tech has brazenly failed children.” Democratic Sen. Richard Blumenthal and Republican Sen. Marsha Blackburn introduced new bipartisan legislation on Wednesday that would curb the potentially harmful impacts of social media on young people. The Kids Online Safety Act, which targets tech platforms' handling of content surrounding issues such as eating disorders, substance abuse, and suicide, marks the latest example of how Congress is flexing its regulatory power over the tech industry, with support from both sides of the aisle. —CNN

• Could immigration reform actually happen? Immigration reform advocates are hoping a new proposal could spur a bipartisan deal. Rep. Dan Newhouse has introduced a bill along with six other GOP lawmakers that would bolster border security and give millions of unauthorized immigrants legal status and a potential path to citizenship. Immigration reform is one of Newhouse’s priorities. He previously worked with Rep. Zoe Lofgren to shepherd a bipartisan bill through the House that would expand an agricultural guest worker program, mandate tougher enforcement measures, and let unauthorized workers gain legal status after paying a fine. —The Spokesman-Review

• Don’t sing Kumbaya just yet. After a burst of initial bipartisan interest in a fix for the dangerously complex Electoral Count Act of 1887, which played a prominent role in the events of Jan. 6, 2021, progress in the Senate seems to have stalled on that front. Why? Word is that Republicans want to slow-walk the reform effort. Surprise, surprise… —New York Magazine

MORE: Postal Service Reform Act is rare bipartisan policymaking —The Washington Post

Holt: Let's make pluralism our cultural identity again 

“Pluralism is a political science word that’s not used as much as it should be. It describes a system where many perspectives co-exist. They don’t surrender to each other or attempt to eradicate each other. A pluralistic approach arrives at outcomes that represent enough of each worldview to satisfy the greatest number of people. Pluralism is, I believe, essential to American democracy’s success. It’s the opposite of political tribalism, the corrosive anti-democratic framework widely practiced at all levels of government today—a zero-sum game in which every special interest group demands 100% of what they want, rejecting compromise.” —David Holt in The Hill

David Holt has served as mayor of Oklahoma City since 2018. 

MORE: Peter Meijer voted to impeach. Can he survive in the GOP? —The Atlantic

Meet the new Pence…same as the old Pence

If you blinked, you might have missed former Vice President Mike Pence’s brief transformation into someone who found his backbone. It was just a few weeks ago that he declared that “Trump is wrong,” and said he had no right to overturn the outcome of the 2020 election on Jan. 6, 2021, despite Donald Trump’s urging him to do so. Well, that clear-eyed version of Pence is gone again, and back in his place is the Pence we all came to know during the Trump Administration. In a speech he gave at Stanford University yesterday, Pence defended the Republican National Committee’s description of Jan. 6 as “legitimate political discourse,” and failed to criticize Trump. Farewell, Principled Pence. We hardly knew ye. —The Hill

MORE: Republican voters split over RNC censure of Cheney and Kinzinger —The Hill

Mancuso: The far-right is no longer the fringe

“It is easy to write off extremist candidates as an anomaly or fringe individuals with zero chance of being elected. However, these candidates are no longer dancing on the fringe of our nation’s political scene; they are now representing a dominant wing of the Republican Party. The election of extremists in Congress, such as Marjorie Taylor Greene, Lauren Boebert, and Madison Cawthorne, to name a few, has emboldened fellow conspiracy theorists and embracers of extremist views to seek office. In 2022, there are more than 100 far-right extremists are running for office across the country.” —Mary Anna Mancuso on Political Hype

Mary Anna Mancuso is the national spokeswoman of the Renew America Movement.

MORE: Feds say Oath Keepers plot went beyond Jan. 6 attack on Capitol —NBC News

Focus on the 2022 election

Two years ago, when the COVID-19 pandemic first threatened to throw the 2020 presidential election into chaos, hundreds of millions of dollars flowed to state and local election agencies to ensure they had ample resources to conduct a fair and accessible election. Now, that money is gone, and new challenges have arisen, including security threats, supply-chain disruptions, and rising costs for basic materials such as paper ballots. With the midterm elections about to get underway, election officials and voting experts are warning that new funding is needed to avoid significant problems in November. But money isn’t even the biggest problem… —The Washington Post

• Democracy on the ballot. The 2020 election introduced many Americans to the critical importance of secretaries of State and attorneys general at the state level to the administration of elections—something taken for granted in the past. This year, 27 secretaries of state and 30 attorneys general will be elected nationwide and will wield power in 2024. In a number of cases, people who actively worked to subvert the 2020 election are seeking these powerful positions. —FiveThirtyEight

• “It has exploded out of control.” Meanwhile, those who already hold these and other election-related administrative positions find themselves on the front lines of a two-theater war. They're still putting out fires stemming from the last election, while simultaneously preparing for the next one. The biggest challenge? Disinformation from officeholders and political candidates that's undermining the election system, and conspiracy theories that target even the most obscure parts of America’s election infrastructure. —Politico

• It's really bleak in Texas. The Houston Chronicle polled all 143 Republican candidates running for Congress in Texas, asking them whether the 2020 election was legitimate. Only 13 believe President Biden was duly elected. With more folks like this running elections or coming into office—and given the authority to speak in an official capacity—the destabilization of our democracy, like that which led to the Jan. 6 insurrection, will only intensify. —Houston Chronicle

MORE: Biden orders Trump White House visitor logs to be turned over to Jan. 6 committee —The Washington Post

Bacon: We need more small-d democrats

“I’m glad [U.S. Senate candidate Evan] McMullin is running with this nonpartisan approach. Any challenge to an incumbent such as [Sen. Mike] Lee…is welcome. And I think it’s useful for those wary of the radicalism of the GOP to try out many electoral approaches, whether that’s running from the left, the center, or the right, and whether that’s running with the Democratic Party or separate from it. We need more Democrats in the Senate. But more important, we need more democrats in the Senate—like Evan McMullin.” —Perry Bacon Jr. in The Washington Post

Perry Bacon Jr. is a Washington Post columnist covering government and elections.

MORE: Why this Democratic U.S. Senate candidate is rooting for a Republican —Deseret News

As financial markets react to the perception, however questionable, of attenuation of the Russian threat to invade Ukraine, it is worth considering what has been achieved thus far. The Atlantic Alliance has remained united in the face of a clear and ominous threat, which is as much a credit to President Biden's approach as it is to NATO Secretary General Stoltenberg's. Neither is dramatic, but their work has avoided what hasn't happened. One need only speculate how fractured the Alliance would be if Trump had been re-elected. Even so, one must wonder what Germany stands for. Supporting Ukraine with the means to defend itself upholds the principles of the Helsinki Final Act of 1975, as much a part of the German SPD's Ostpolitik heritage as anything else. The CDU has long evaded the NATO 2% Defense Investment Pledge, itself a response to Russia's 2014 taking of Crimea and effectually the Donbas. Whatever comes of the current Ukrainian crisis, the Western Alliance has some work to do in informing the German public of German obligations. —Steve J., Pennsylvania

The views expressed in "What's Your Take?" are submitted by readers and do not necessarily reflect the views of the editorial staff, the Renew America Movement, or the Stand Up Republic Foundation.