Kevin gets caught

Happy Earth Day! As we mark another year without a real solution to the ongoing climate crisis, it is becoming more pressing that we extend Earth Day into Earth Year. While addressing the climate crisis seems like something better left to our elected officials, there are ways we can all help in our daily lives to make an impact. First, let’s ditch single-use plastic. Swap your plastic water bottle for a reusable one. Second, think global and buy local. Shopping for produce at your local farmer’s market or co-op not only reduces carbon emissions, but also supports small business. Lastly, opt for reusable bags when running errands or heading to the grocery store. If you’re already doing these things, I applaud you! If you’re looking to take your climate activism a little farther, contact your elected representative and ask them to tackle and pass climate legislation. The road to climate solutions is not a two-lane highway through D.C.; it is a myriad of country roads running through our communities, paved by people like you doing your part to lower emissions and reduce your carbon footprint. After all, there is no planet B. —Mary Anna Mancuso, National Spokeswoman, Renew America Movement

• Russian general lets slip a secret plan to invade Moldova and seize Ukraine’s entire coastline —The Daily Beast

• Marjorie Taylor Greene testifies at court challenge on her candidacy —Atlanta Journal-Constitution

• Zelensky, Liz Cheney named JFK 'Profile in Courage' recipients for 'defending democracy' —CNN

• Florida Legislature votes to strip Disney of self-government status in a win for Gov. Ron DeSantis —CBS News

• Obama: Online disinformation encourages 'humanity's worst impulses' —USA Today

From fury to fealty

In the days after the Jan. 6 attack on the U.S. Capitol, House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy and Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell were fed up with Donald Trump. Both admitted to associates that they believed the ex-president was responsible for inciting the deadly riot and would likely be impeached. McCarthy went so far as to say he would personally push Trump to resign. “I’ve had it with this guy,” he told GOP colleagues, including then-House Republican Conference Chair Liz Cheney. “What he did is unacceptable. Nobody can defend that, and nobody should defend it." The explosive revelations are featured in the upcoming book “This Will Not Pass: Trump, Biden, and the Battle for America’s Future,” by Jonathan Martin and Alexander Burns. In a Twitter statement yesterday, McCarthy called the reporting “totally false and wrong.” —The New York Times

• It’s all on tape. Despite McCarthy’s denials, audio recordings played on MSNBC last night reveal that he did indeed express his opinion to fellow Republicans that Trump was responsible for Jan. 6, and he planned to urge him to resign. A demoralized McCarthy called Trump last night after the audio was released. Trump was reportedly not upset about the remarks and was glad that McCarthy didn’t follow through on them, which Trump sees as a sign of his continued grip on the Republican Party. —The Washington Post

• Wait, there’s more. In additional audio, broadcast by CNN, McCarthy is heard directly blaming Trump for the insurrection during a House Republican Conference call on Jan. 11, 2021. McCarthy further claimed that Trump himself acknowledged to him that he bears responsibility for the Capitol attack. Wow. —CNN

• McCarthy keeps mum. So far, McCarthy has been tight-lipped about the new revelations. But Rep. Adam Kinzinger, who serves alongside Cheney on the committee investigating the Jan. 6 attack at the Capitol, said McCarthy should be ashamed. He encouraged voters to hold him and others in GOP leadership accountable, saying, “Republicans, your leaders think you are dumb. Let’s be done with them." Amen. —The Know

MORE: Tim Miller: Mike Lee and the ‘good Republicans’ were no different than the crazy Kraken lady —The xxxxxx

Burns: Mike Lee reveals his extremism

“There is no provision in the Constitution that authorizes a state legislature, whenever it doesn’t like the outcome of an an election, to go rogue by appointing competing electors who will then choose the candidate who lost the popular vote. And yet [Sen. Mike] Lee, who fancies himself a constitutional scholar, promoted just that. ‘Everything changes [on Jan. 6], of course, if the swing states submit competing slates of electors pursuant to state law,’ he texted on Jan. 3, 2021. … He’s entitled to his own opinions, but not his own constitution.” —David Burns in The Salt Lake Tribune

David Burns is a contributing columnist for The Salt Lake Tribune.

MORE: D.C. police officer says Sen. Mike Lee opposed Jan. 6 investigation to cover up his actions —The Salt Lake Tribune

Focus on voting and elections

Here’s some good news. According to The Fulcrum, more than 60% of Americans favor using ranked-choice voting for federal elections. RCV has already been used statewide in Maine, for municipal elections in New York City, and in more than 40 other jurisdictions. Alaska will use RCV for the first time this summer in a special election for a vacant U.S. House seat. While there is a partisan divide over RCV, with 73% of Democrats and 55% of independents in favor of its use, virtually half (49%) of Republicans also support it, according to polling data released by the University of Maryland's Program for Public Consultation and Voice of the People. —The Fulcrum

• South Carolina. In a time when debates over elections and voting end up in heated partisan arguments, Democrats and Republicans in the South Carolina General Assembly are trying to come together to expand early voting in the state. The State Senate unanimously gave the proposal key approval this week. It now heads back to the House for approval of the Senate changes. Lawmakers are trying to get the new rules in place for the state’s primary election on June 14. —NBC News

• New York. A panel of five appellate justices in New York began hearing arguments this week to determine whether the Democratic-led State Legislature unconstitutionally passed new maps. A group of Republican voters says the maps are gerrymandered, and filed a lawsuit to have the maps tossed out and redrawn, and to delay the state’s June primary election until late August. Democrats are arguing that the maps are more than fair to Republicans. Stay tuned. —Olean Times Herald

• Wisconsin. The Wisconsin Supreme Court has adopted the Republican-drawn maps for the State Legislature, handing the GOP a victory after initially approving maps drawn by Democratic Gov. Tony Evers. In reversing itself, the high court said Evers’ map failed to consider whether a “race-neutral alternative that did not add a seventh majority-Black district would deny Black voters equal political opportunity.” —Yahoo! News

MORE: Why democracy isn’t a key 2022 issue for Democrats —The New York Times

Kendall: The future of Alaska elections begins now

“In this new system, every candidate is now competing for every vote. Rather than just target their base, or the members of one party, candidates will have to engage in the free market of ideas and try to reach every Alaskan. The winner’s reward will be the ability to vote their conscience—and Alaska’s best interests—rather than the party line.” —Scott Kendall in Anchorage Daily News

Scott Kendall is an attorney who works in public policy, campaigns, and elections. He was the author of Ballot Measure 2, the “Better Elections Initiative,” that brought election reform to his home state of Alaska.

MORE: Mock M&M election teaches Alaskans about ranked-choice voting —KTOO

Abernathy: Will the MAGA base ever turn on Trump?

“People who cannot fathom the depth of loyalty to Donald Trump often ask, ‘Is there anything Trump could do that would cause his base to abandon him?’ It has been tough to think of anything. Most of the scandals of his presidency were shrugged off by supporters, including me, as media bias and lasting bitterness over a shocking 2016 election result. While his unfiltered persona was often frustrating, I never considered abandoning him until he refused to accept defeat and instigated an attack on the U.S. Capitol to disrupt a constitutional count of electoral votes. But even that didn’t do the trick for most of his devotees.” —Gary Abernathy in The Washington Post

Gary Abernathy is a writer and contributing columnist for The Washington Post.

MORE: The golden ticket: Will Trump's endorsement in Ohio race burnish or tarnish his star power? —Reuters

This month’s read is: “Lincoln and the Fight for Peace” by John Avlon, presented by Book Corner guest contributor Lynn Schmidt

Avlon starts his book by admitting, “There have been more than 16,000 books published about Abraham Lincoln, but few—if any—have focused on his role as a peacemaker.” I am so glad that Avlon decided to write this one about Lincoln’s efforts and goal of peacemaking. 

This beautifully written book shares Lincoln’s vision for a uniting peace in a post-Civil War America. As a student and practitioner of words, I appreciated that Avlon highlighted Lincoln’s use of words in his speeches. Avlon describes Lincoln’s last speech this way: “Despite the temptation to declare victory and damn the enemy, Lincoln was determined to turn this into a teachable moment: there is no enemy in the aftermath of civil war, there is only us.” 

This book is so timely for those of us interested in the deescalation of political polarization and reconciliation. Avlon’s last sentence says it all. “Lincoln showed us the way.” —Lynn Schmidt, Renew America Movement Communications Fellow

Have you read this? Share your thoughts with me on Twitter @lynnschmidtrn

Many observers of the American political scene have remonstrated against the polarization of American politics, but little analysis has been devoted to the underlying causes of the polarization, which is equally present in other Western societies. The dysfunction in the information media environment is a primary cause. So long as human beings will be naturally inclined to indulge in the ego-satisfying self-indulgence of seeking information that affirms one’s own biases, advertising revenue will be generated by sensationalism and contrived narratives divorced from any pretense of objectivity to cater to whatever confirmation biases exist in the information media marketplace. 

This judgment is not confined exclusively to the Right or the Left. Whereas Jefferson observed that an educated citizenry is a vital requisite for our survival as a free people, the information media environment in the internet age has worked against that requirement. Low barriers to entry into the information media environment afforded by the internet and social media have exacerbated the problem of attention-getting sensationalism and contrived narratives paving the way for extremist rhetoric. This is especially true in the case of media commentary, which is intended to nurture a target audience for advertising revenue purposes by reinforcing the opinions of the “right-thinking” against those who think otherwise.

If algorithms on social media can feed extremist rhetoric and action, algorithms can also be written to direct identifiably more centrist content to recipients. A resurrection of an updated, more modern “fairness doctrine”, a practice that had served the public interest on broadcast media until the FCC abolished it in 1987, may need to be considered for the public good, since the market incentives arising from the information media business model do not allow the industry to be effectively self-regulating. —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 Renew America Foundation.