Latest Updates
Out of tragedy can come renaissance, and with the right leadership from Mayor Bloomberg and Governor Cuomo, the New York City beach community devastated by Sandy could be rebuilt better than before, says John Avlon.
Almost one month after Hurricane Sandy, some storefronts in the Rockaways—the seven-mile stretch of beachfront below Brooklyn—are alight at night, but many small businesses are still boarded up. Floodlights illuminate intersections, and cop cars and sanitation crews line streets piled with debris. Some 9,700 people here are still without power. Tattered American flags dangle in the wind by Breezy Point, where more than 100 homes were destroyed by fire at the height of the hurricane.
Lourides Rivera (R) is served Thanksgiving dinner by volunteers in the Rockaways section of Queenson November 22, 2012 in New York, as the city recovers from the effects of superstorm Sandy. (Stan Honda / Getty Images)
This is a tough and proud community, home to more than its share of police and firefighters, who again find themselves coping with life in a disaster zone. But in every crisis lies an opportunity—and with the influx of cash and the need to rebuild comes a rare opportunity to renew and strengthen this historic community.
The Rockaways have long been one of the great slumbering secrets of New York City. The same stretch of beach that is home to multimillion-dollar houses in the Hamptons extends 100 miles west, within walking distance of the A train.
In the late-19th century, this was one of the premier seaside resorts in the nation, so much so that Herman Melville wrote in the opening chapter of Moby-Dick: “Why did the poor poet of Tennessee, upon suddenly receiving two handfuls of silver, deliberate whether to buy him a coat, which he sadly needed, or invest his money in a pedestrian trip to Rockaway Beach?”
The waters here have a deep draw. In the early-20th century, a mixture of Irish, German, and Jewish immigrants transformed the neighborhood into a middle-class seaside escape, with thousands of modest but much-loved bungalows.
But decades of bad city planning turned what has been called “Hamptons West” into a shadow of its former self, a patchwork of disjointed communities punctuated by four major public housing projects, isolated more than an hour by train from Manhattan.
Out of tragedy can come renaissance, with the right leadership right now. And Mayor Michael Bloomberg, Governor Andrew Cuomo, and federal disaster funds together offer a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to rebuild the Rockaways better than they were before, back to their full potential.
Marco Rubio said Earth’s age is a great mystery. Fellow rising star Bobby Jindal’s state teaches creationism alongside science. Both Republicans are preaching reform, but if they and others keep pivoting away from common-sense science, the GOP will remain the Stupid Party—and fail.
Republicans need to “stop being the Stupid Party.” That was a blunt postelection declaration of independence by Louisiana Gov. Bobby Jindal.
Marco Rubio and Bobby Jindal. (AP Photo (2))
“We’ve also had enough of this dumbed-down conservatism,” continued Jindal. “We need to stop being simplistic, we need to trust the intelligence of the American people, and we need to stop insulting the intelligence of the voters.”
Amen.
After being demographically left in the dust by President Obama, conservatives are regrouping, reassessing, and recognizing the need to evolve on social issues if they are going to connect with the millennial generation.
Which is why it was significant to see another of the GOP’s brightest lights for the future, Florida Sen. Marco Rubio, go out of his way in a GQ interview to avoid offending the religious right by declaring himself agnostic on the subject of science—specifically on the question of roughly how old the Earth might be.
“I’m not a scientist, man,” said the 42-year-old senator. “I can tell you what recorded history says, I can tell you what the Bible says, but I think that’s a dispute amongst theologians, and I think it has nothing to do with the gross domestic product or economic growth of the United States. I think the age of the universe has zero to do with how our economy is going to grow. I’m not a scientist. I don’t think I’m qualified to answer a question like that … Whether the Earth was created in seven days, or seven actual eras, I’m not sure we’ll ever be able to answer that. It’s one of the great mysteries.”
The specific cause of the creation of the universe may indeed be one of the great mysteries; but there is scientific consensus on the rough geologic age of the Earth—4.5 billion years. That is a mystery easily solved by just opening up a textbook.
The day’s essential reads for independents and centrists.
Independent Nation gives you the day’s 5 essential reads for independents and centrists:
1. “More Minor Party and Independent Legislators Elected in 2012 Than in Any Year Since 1942,” at Ballot Access News.
25 were elected to state legislatures this year.
2. “Showdown at the Fiscal Cliff,” in Newsweek.
In his standoff with the GOP, the president’s packing heat, says David Frum.
3. “Can Marco Rubio, Florida’s Young Hip-Loving Cuban Senator, Save the GOP?” in GQ.
The 42-year-old junior senator thinks America is a place where people should be free to teach the Earth is however old they want it to be.
4. “Republicans At a Crossroads,” at Politico.
More of the same, or time for a change? The Republican Governors Association suffers through the agony of choice, when the only options really may be sink or swim.
5. “Fla. GOP Tries to Defeat Crist Before He Can Run,” the Associated Press.
The former governor can barely make a public statement without Republicans firing off a press release.
Send stories for the Independent Rundown to matt.deluca@newsweekdailybeast.com. Follow him on Twitter: @DeLucaMattS.
The day’s essential reads for independents and centrists.
Independent Nation gives you the day’s 5 essential reads for independents and centrists:
1. “In U.S., Views of Obama, Democrats Improve After Election,” at Gallup.
Americans love to love a winner.
2. “Fiscal Cliff Talk Gets Fast Track,” in The Wall Street Journal.
Congressional leaders can talk to one another without spontaneously combusting. Who knew?
3. “Now That’s What I Call Voter Suppression,” at The Economist.
Voters do not want divided government.
4. “New Mexico Gov. Susana Martinez: Comments Like Romney’s Set ‘Us Back As a Party," at Yahoo! News.
Keep your gifts to yourself, Mitt.
5. “A Gathering of Heroes,” The Daily Beast.
Recap some of the best moments from Newsweek and The Daily Beast’s inaugural summit on America’s bravest men and women.
Send stories for the Independent Rundown to matt.deluca@newsweekdailybeast.com. Follow him on Twitter: @DeLucaMattS.
The day’s essential reads for independents and centrists.
Independent Nation gives you the day’s 5 essential reads for independents and centrists:
1. “The Final Insult: Mitt Romney’s Clueless Gift Gaffe,” at The Daily Beast.
Speaking to donors, the salesman candidate blamed his loss on the president’s pitch with no evident sense of the irony, writes John Avlon.
2. “Not-So-Super PACs: 2012’s Winners and Losers,” at The Daily Beast.
They spent hundreds of millions to get their candidates elected. But what did that money get them?
3. “Super PACs Will be Back in 2016,” at The Daily Beast.
Don’t be fooled by their poor track record this time around – political operatives say don’t even consider running for president next election without the help of a super PAC.
4. “Top Georgia GOP Lawmakers Host Briefing on Secret Obama Mind-Control Plot,” at Mother Jones.
Ready the tin-foil hats.
5. “Has the Emerging Democratic Majority Emerged,” at New York.
America might be moving leftward for a while. Buckle up.
Extra: “If Trends Hold, Texas Will be a Toss-Up State by 2024,” at The Houston Chronicle.
But then who will petition for secession?
Send stories for the Independent Rundown to matt.deluca@newsweekdailybeast.com. Follow him on Twitter: @DeLucaMattS.
Speaking to donors, the salesman candidate blamed his loss on the president's pitch with no evident sense of the irony, writes John Avlon.
Mitt Romney made his final newsworthy post-election pronouncement, explaining to a conference call of big-dollar donors that he had fallen short because President Barack Obama had bribed liberal special interests with expensive gifts.
Republican presidential candidate and former Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney gestures to supporters during his election night rally, Wednesday, Nov. 7, 2012, in Boston. (David Goldman / AP Photo)
Here’s what he said, according to The New York Times:
“With regards to the young people, for instance, a forgiveness of college loan interest, was a big gift…Free contraceptives were very big with young college-aged women. And then, finally, Obamacare also made a difference for them, because as you know, anybody now 26 years of age and younger was now going to be part of their parents’ plan, and that was a big gift to young people. They turned out in large numbers, a larger share in this election even than in 2008 … You can imagine for somebody making $25,000 or $30,000 or $35,000 a year, being told you’re now going to get free health care, particularly if you don’t have it, getting free health care worth, what, $10,000 per family, in perpetuity, I mean, this is huge … Likewise with Hispanic voters, free health care was a big plus. But in addition with regards to Hispanic voters, the amnesty for children of illegals, the so-called DREAM Act kids, was a huge plus for that voting group.”
Romney’s comments about his opponent’s “old playbook,” as he called it, again revived a dystopian scenario conservatives have been warning about since the New Deal, where Democrats “buy” a permanent majority and undermine democracy at the cost of the productive class. Using this old myth to explain his defeat illustrates again Romney’s disconnect from modern America. He views growing groups—young voters and particularly young women, and Hispanics—as outside special interests, and not as an essential part of the fabric of America.
And it shows the mind of a man who believes that everything is for sale—including, or especially, votes. This is consistent with what I always felt was the most accurate criticism of Romney: that he approached politics as a salesman, offering every group a different pitch. From that perspective, it’s easy to see how he could complain about government as a competing salesman, cobbling together constituencies with “gifts”—which sound perilously close to “bribes” in this context.
A final point: President Obama backing the DREAM Act or contraception coverage is not a nakedly political gesture, it is a matter of policy difference. Addressing the needs and desires of people is not a bribe or a government gift to be exchanged for a vote. It is part of the purpose of representative government as conservative forefather Edmund Burke himself once envisioned: “Government is a contrivance of human wisdom to provide for human wants. Men have a right that these wants should be provided for by this wisdom.”
Romney’s distance from this perspective about government shows how far the conservative conversation has drifted from original principles. His impulse to rationalize defeat as victory for liberal special-interest bribery shows again that it is probably best for the country that he was not elected president this November.
The day’s essential reads for independents and centrists.
Independent Nation gives you the day’s 5 essential reads for independents and centrists:
1. “Partisan Journalists Are Following the Money All Too Literally,” at The Daily Beast.
The right-wing media’s disconnect from reality in the 2012 election was fed by its dependence on the growing partisan economy, writes John Avlon.
2. “Predictable in Retrospect,” at the Columbia Journalism Review.
Knew Obama would win all along? Yeah, right.
3. “Opinion: Failure to Attract Millenials Is Sinking the GOP,” at CNN.
Befriend some young people, writes Margaret Hoover. The party will live longer.
4. “The New Grand Old Party,” at Slate.
Words of advice from some leading conservative thinkers.
5. “Bipartisan Group Pitches Overhaul of Political Money System,” at Roll Call.
A bunch of activists say it’s time to stop the political money system’s “revolving door.”
Send stories for the Independent Rundown to matt.deluca@newsweekdailybeast.com. Follow him on Twitter: @DeLucaMattS.
The right-wing media’s disconnect from reality in the 2012 election was fed by its financial dependence on the growing partisan economy, writes John Avlon.
Sifting through the wreckage of the 2012 election, conservatives are realizing the price of staying inside their cocoon. The unskewed polls, the partisan cheerleading and complaints about the MSM’s liberal bias, the rigid think-tank reinforcement—it all led the right into a state of denial about the election, and a disconnect from modern American culture.
Dick Morris: “There was a period of time when the Romney campaign was falling apart, people were not optimistic, nobody thought there was a chance of victory and I felt that it was my duty at that point to go out and say what I said.” (Win McNamee / Getty Images)
Perhaps the most powerful driver of this galloping group-think? Money.
The rise of partisan media has created financial incentives for columnists, pundits, and pollsters to try and please ideological employers with pronouncements that resonate with the faithful. After all, nothing gets clicks like confirmation bias.
The competition too often becomes about who can outflank their fellow travelers. Natural partisan affinity gets forced into something more militant, with substantive calls for common ground treated as signs of weakness. This dynamic fuels polarization in our politics because even congressmen look to partisan media for their clues about just what the base might want, rather than what is right or practical in terms of actually solving problems.
That in turn creates distorted policy debates, where politicians and partisan journalists (the phrase should be an absurd contradiction, but it is not) put their own independent perspectives through a filter, calibrating their short-term interests against what they might really believe would be in the long-term best interests of the nation.
The intellectual dishonestly usually comes in the form of soft collusion—a reluctance to criticize extreme voices on their own side of the aisle in public, even as they are dismissed in private. Team-ism drives the coverage because team-ism drives the funding. There is no profit in making enemies of people who might sign your next paycheck. There is no quicker career-killer than whispers of “disloyalty” to the partisan cause. And all this is reinforced by socialization—the separate social circles that conservatives and liberals travel in, especially in Washington, D.C., and New York. The days of William F. Buckley and Murray Kempton being genuinely good friends seem like a distant dream.
Dick Morris is a prime example of a partisan hack posing as a pollster and analyst, and as part of his mea culpa for publically predicting a landslide for Mitt Romney he essentially admitted to Sean Hannity that he was trying to create his own reality-distortion field: “There was a period of time when the Romney campaign was falling apart, people were not optimistic, nobody thought there was a chance of victory and I felt that it was my duty at that point to go out and say what I said.” This is a naked admission that his political analysis is little more than partisan propaganda —and yet what’s most striking is how dog-bites-man it seems, an acknowledgement of the obvious.
The day’s essential reads for independents and centrists.
Independent Nation gives you the day’s 5 essential reads for independents and centrists:
1. “Lee Atwater’s Infamous 1981 Interview on the Southern Strategy,” in The Nation.
Before there was Mitt Romney’s 47 percent rant, there was Lee Atwater.
2. “Romney Earned Zero Votes in Some Urban Precincts,” at CBS News.
In the heart of the city,there ain’t no love for Mitt.
3. “Dick Morris Admits That He is a Partisan Hack,” at The Huffington Post.
This is what happens when you let your gut do arithmetic for you.
4. “Post-Pew Poll: Fiscal Cliff Negotiations Predicted to Fail,” at The Washington Post.
53 percent of Americans say they are likely to blame Republicans if a fiscal-cliff deal falls through.
5. “Will Obama Agree to Entitlement Cuts? He Already Has,” at The New York Times.
It wouldn’t be the first time Obama OK’ed cuts to Social Security and Medicare.
Send stories for the Independent Rundown to matt.deluca@newsweekdailybeast.com. Follow him on Twitter: @DeLucaMattS.
The day's essential reads for independents and centrists.
Independent Nation gives you the day’s 5 essential reads for independents and centrists:
1. “Election a Call for Purple Politics,” at CNN.
The voters spoke loud and clear, writes John Avlon: Give us a bi-partisan government.
2. “Americans Favor Regulations More Than Romney Bargained For,” at Bloomberg News.
Adios, regulations on the financial industry? No thanks, Mitt.
3. “Rightbloggers’ Solution to Obama’s Reelection: Bring Back Culture War and White People!” at The Village Voice.
Bloggers on the right thought that if only they believed hard enough, Mitt Romney might become president.
4. “Media Fight on the Right Over GOP,” at Politico.
How will the far right respond to criticism of its media darlings?
5. “Bush Adviser Threatens to Cut Out Republicans’ Tongues,” at Salon.
If they keep mouthing off about rape.
Send stories for the Independent Rundown to Matt DeLuca at matt.deluca@newsweekdailybeast.com . Follow him on Twitter: @DeLucaMattS.
The day’s essential reads for independents and centrists.
Independent Nation gives you the day’s 5 essential reads for independents and centrists:
1. “Will Conservative Donors Ever Open Their Wallets Again?,” in The Sunday Telegraph.
Crabby American billionaires want their money back, writes John Avlon.
2. “A Veterans Day Like None Other Before,” in The Atlantic.
Today, America must make peace with her veterans.
3. “What Romney Lost,” in The New York Review of Books.
As a candidate, Mitt Romney abandoned everything he ever stood for. What can we expect after such a cynical campaign?
4. “The GOP Polling Debacle,” at Politico.
The Republican Party overdosed on its own internal polling.
5. “How Obama Won the Middle,” in the New York Daily News.
Pollster Doug Schoen runs down the numbers, and finds that independents and moderates may have made the difference.
Send stories for the Independent Rundown to matt.deluca@newsweekdailybeast.com. Follow him on Twitter: @DeLucaMattS.
The day’s essential reads for independents and centrists.
Independent Nation gives you the day’s 5 essential reads for independents and centrists:
1. “Welcome to the Twilight Zone,” in Newsweek.
John Avlon on how the right-wing media invented a new reality.
2. “The GOP Must Choose: Rush Limbaugh or Minority Voters,” at The Atlantic.
Do Republicans want to chomp stogies with El Rushbo or remain a force in American politics?
3. “Mitt Romney’s ORCA Program Couldn’t Stay Afloat,” in Politico.
How the GOP’s voter-targeting program went belly-up.
4. “California GOP Showing Worries Party Strategists,” from the Associated Press.
Republicans are going the way of the dodo in the Golden State.
5. “State of Denial,” in The Economist.
For the party of Lincoln, it could have been worse. That’s what’s terrifying them.
Send stories for the Independent Rundown to Matt DeLuca at matt.deluca@newsweekdailybeast.com. Follow him on Twitter: @DeLucaMattS.
The day’s essential reads for independents and centrists.
Independent Nation gives you the day’s five essential reads for independents and centrists:
1. “The Cuban Stunner,” at The Daily Beast.
Another reason the GOP can’t break out the victory cigars – Obama might have stolen away the Cuban vote, writes John Avlon.
2. “How the GOP Got Stuck in the Past,” in Newsweek.
Republicans have become estranged from modern America, writes David Frum.
3. “Back to Work, Obama is Greeted by Looming Crisis,” in The New York Times.
When Obama called, GOP leaders didn’t pick up.
4. “How the Faithful Voted: 2012 Preliminary Analysis,” at the Pew Forum.
More Mormons voted for Bush than for Romney.
5. “‘Next Bush’ Makes Campaign Filing in Texas,” at NBC Latino.
A resident of Fort Worth, W’s nephew filed papers to run for state office on Thursday.
Send stories for the Independent Rundown to Matt DeLuca at matt.deluca@newsweekdailybeast.com. Follow him on Twitter: @DeLucaMattS.
It appears the president won or almost won the Cuban-American vote, which reveals a diminished affinity for the GOP and underscores the perils of the party’s anti-immigration stance—and its need to reach out aggressively.
The depth, if not dimensions, of President Obama’s reelection victory is slowly resonating, even in Republican circles.
A woman waves a Cuban flag and an American flag in the Miami neighborhood of Little Havana. (Lynne Sladky / AP Photo)
After all the partisan spinning, it is clear that the combination of the Obama campaign’s ground game and demographic evolutions in our nation were decisive for his victory and bode well for the Democrats in the future.
One broad measure of this recognition is this: conservatives are arguing that the man they once dismissed as a failed socialist president is now grimly touted as a rare political talent with an unparalleled ability to inspire. These compliments come with a base alloy of consultant self-interest—once Obama is no longer on the ticket, they say, Republicans will be back in fighting form. There’s no need to change policies.
There are a lot of demographic shifts you can point to by way of saying that the GOP has a lot of ’splaining to do. After all, Americans today are more racially diverse and more likely to live in cities than the past. These are not conservative sweet spots.
But if you want one fact to slam home the deeper shift beneath this election, you can just say this: it looks like President Obama won the Cuban-American vote.
Florida’s final votes are still being counted, but some exit polls show Obama narrowly won the Sunshine State’s Cuban vote. The Pew Hispanic Center found that Obama won Cuban Americans in Florida by 48 to 47. So did Fox News’s exit-poll numbers and the Obama-associated One Florida—numbers Obama campaign manager Jim Messina quoted in a post-election interview. The Miami Herald found Romney narrowly won the Cuban-American vote, while local pollster Sergio Bendixen set the margin at 52-48.
But that’s almost beside the point. Fifty years after the Cuban missile crisis, it looks like Democrats picked the Republican Cuban lock in Florida. This is not just demographic data, it has the sweep of history behind it.
The day’s essential reads for independents and centrists.
Independent Nation gives you the day's five essential reads for independents and centrists:
1. “Rove Piling-On Continues As He Rings Donors Today,” at Bloomberg News.
Rove’s sugar daddies morph into loan sharks.
2. “Alan Simpson: Leaders Know What to Do, Now Do It,” in The Wall Street Journal.
One half of America’s crusading debt-reduction duo tells recalcitrant pols to, you know, do something.
3. “GOP Challenge: How to Transcend Aging White Base,” in The National Journal.
Republicans are desperately seeking their non-white friends.
4. “Adviser: Romney ‘Shellshocked’ By Loss,” at CBS News.
False confidence in Mitt’s camp caused missteps in the final weeks.
5. “Meet the Republican Losers Who Make it Really Hard to Spin a ‘No Mandate’ Narrative,” at Slate.
Spin away, Karl – a look at the Republicans who got trounced makes voters’ intentions clear.
Send stories for the Independent Rundown to Matt DeLuca at matt.deluca@newsweekdailybeast.com. Follow him on Twitter: @DeLucaMattS.
About the Author
John Avlon
John Avlon is senior columnist for Newsweek and The Daily Beast, and the host of Beast TV. He is a CNN contributor regularly appearing on the show Erin Burnett Out Front at 7 p.m. EST. He won the National Society of Newspaper Columnists’ award for best online column in 2012.
Avlon: Government Has 'Proper' Regulation Role
Last week's tragic fertilizer plant explosion in West, Texas, has brought the issue of government regulation back to the forefront. On Friday night's Real Time with Bill Maher, The Daily Beast's Political Director John Avlon denounces deregulation rhetoric.
Unlimited Funds
Probing the Super-PAC Economy
The Dark Money Shuffle
The strange, opaque world of politically minded nonprofits. By John Avlon and Michael Keller.
See More Politics
From The Daily Beast
Obama Gets Syria Rebuke
Josh Rogin reports on the Senate Foreign Relations Committee’s approval of a bill to arm the rebels.
