THURSDAY, JULY 9, 2026
...when "the people" align in tribes? Of the people? By the people? Can a government like that "long endure?"
Speaking at Gettysburg, President Lincoln understood that some observers around the world weren't especially sure. He closed his brief remarks that day by saying that those present should dedicate themselves to the task of ensuring that government of the people "shall not perish from the earth."
Today, we're engaged in a great civil war—a tribal war marked by vast clowning. For an example of what we mean, consider what happened on CNN last night.
Midway through the 8 o'clock hour, Anderson Cooper spoke with a three member panel concerning Graham Platner's apparent withdrawal from the Maine Senate race.
Cooper played substantial chunks of Platner's taped statement. He then threw to Gretchen Carlson, a former Fox News Channel host.
We the people should be grateful to Carlson. The leading authority explains:
Gretchen Carlson
Gretchen Elizabeth Carlson (born June 21, 1966) is an American broadcast journalist, writer, and television personality.
Carlson was born and raised in Minnesota. A talented youth violinist, Carlson competed in a number of music contests before becoming a beauty pageant contestant. After winning Miss Minnesota in 1988, Carlson became Miss America for 1989. She attended Stanford University and graduated in 1990.
[...]
In July 2016, Carlson filed a lawsuit against then Fox News chairman and CEO Roger Ailes, claiming sexual harassment. Subsequently, dozens of other women also stepped forward to accuse Ailes of harassment, and Ailes resigned under pressure. In September 2016 Carlson and 21st Century Fox settled the lawsuit reportedly for $20 million, and Carlson received a public apology. Carlson was one of the first high-publicity cases of 2016's #MeToo movement.
In 2019 she co-founded Lift Our Voices to work towards a ban on non-disclosure agreements (NDAs) and forced arbitration clauses in employment agreements. In February 2022, the U.S. Congress passed the Ending Forced Arbitration of Sexual Assault and Sexual Harassment Act, a law championed by Carlson which excludes sexual assault and sexual harassment complaints from arbitration clauses, including retroactively. On March 3, 2022, President Joe Biden signed the bill into law. On December 7, 2022, he also signed the Speak Out Act, another bill backed by Carlson.
And so on, at length, from there.
In our view, we the people should be grateful to Carlson. That doesn't mean that she has perfect judgment because, of course, nobody does.
Last evening, Cooper threw to Carlson first. Below, you see what she said:
COOPER (7/8/26): Gretchen Carlson, Platner still denies the allegations. How do you think his statement is going to be received? What do you— What are your thoughts right now?
CARLSON: That [videotaped statement] was a disgusting display of hubris that every woman and man in America should be incredibly upset about. Regular people do not abuse women. It's always somebody else to blame. It's typical cry of assaulters.
His own wife turned in text messages that he was having with other women. He posted on Reddit many years ago that he believed that women should be responsible for when bad things happen to them sexually.
Not to mention the Nazi tattoos and a myriad of other things. He is conflating tonight his candidacy of being popular with being an every kind of person [sic], with accusations of rape.
That—those are two totally different things. And a real man would stand up and take accountability for what has happened here.
This movement has had immense progress over the last ten years and these women are believed. And I don't know what this display was in this video, but I wouldn't want the endorsement of Graham Platner, whoever the Democrat is, running in this race.
Some of that was hard to follow, but that's what Carlson said.
Brad Todd, a Republican strategist, was the third panel member to speak. Can the nation expect to long endure? This is what he said:
TODD: Well, I think, by the way, the race should have gone to this spot a long time ago. I mean, all those things that Gretchen just outlined are exactly true about Graham Platner, and they were true before this weekend.
If you look back at The New York Times on June the 4th, he said that if someone broke in his house, he would rape them to show them he was dominant. So we heard he was physically abusive by a corroborated story from a longtime girlfriend. But Democrats in Washington and in Maine just ignored it.
The Sheldon Whitehouse, the Senator from Rhode Island, said, "Oh, those accusations came from a Republican operator." So he didn't think they were anything to worry about. Graham Platner has been bad all the way from the start. And the only difference was this week—is on this weekend, there were polling numbers came out that showed he might be losing to Susan Collins.
His cardinal sin to get dumped by the Democratic Party is looking like he might lose. And I think that, where this race goes from here—I mean, Maine Democrats are going to pick someone else awful. They're going to pick—they like Graham Platner because he's bad. They'll pick someone else because he's bad.
... I mean, it's really just come down to raw power. Democrats will tolerate anything for raw power in Maine.
Democrats will tolerate anything, the Republican strategist said. He then made an amazing claim:
Democrats like Platner because he's bad! Also, they'll pick someone to be his replacement because [that new person] is bad!
They'll pick the new person because he or she is bad! That seems to be what Todd said.
Can a government expect to endure in the face of such tribal vehemence? We aren't sure, but there was a blindingly obvious problem with what Todd said—and Democratic Party official Christine Quinn now stepped in to say it:
COOPER (continuing directly): Christine, what do you think of what Brad said there?
QUINN: You know, first of all, I think on a day where a federal judge ordered President Trump to pay over $5 million to E. Jean Carroll for sexual assault, I just find it rich.
These Republicans and Republican leaders who are now so concerned about sexual assault and rape, when they have stood by President Trump time and time again when he has been accused of horrible sexual misdeeds.
Maybe this is a moment where everyone will start to come together and hold everyone accountable and say no one is above the law, even if they are president of the United States. But I sincerely doubt that we will see that. I think we will continue to see hypocrisy on the part of the Republicans.
It's what we mentioned yesterday, speaking about The Five. It's astounding to see people who have swallowed the sitting president's apparent sexual history suddenly expressing shock when Democrats show an inclination to look the other way regarding one of their own.
Quinn pushed back against the one-way fury of Republican strategist Todd. Yesterday afternoon, on Fox, Jessica Tarlov pushed back against guest host Trace Gallagher in a similar way.
Gallagher is a reliable (and highly skilled) partisan attack dog. As you can see at this Mediaite report, Tarlov abruptly told him this:
"The Democrats will not be lectured by the party of Donald Trump...about what good behavior is when it comes to how women are treated and questions of abuse. That is a non-starter here."
Personally, we think the time has come for Tarlov to leave The Five—to stop agreeing to play the role of designated punching bag on that ludicrous imitation of a "cable news" TV program.
That said, people like Gallagher have disappeared all manner of misconduct, sexual and otherwise, on the part of the sitting president. Their ability to blow past their double standard in this matter is truly astonishing, and Tarlov pushed back quickly and hard.
For what it's worth, we agree with something Todd said on CNN. We thought Senator Whitehouse was remarkably dismissive about earlier claims against Candidate Platner.
We were amazed and disappointed by the frivolous tone he adopted, on The Last Word, toward the June 4 New York Times report. We think less of him because of the way he reacted, and we're sorry that we do.
That said, we the people now engaged in a great tribal war—a tribal war marked by the astounding true belief performed by many of the most watched stars in this nation's "cable news" industry. That brings us back to Professor Rosen's essay for The Atlantic, which bore this dual headline:
IDEAS
American Democracy Wasn’t Designed for This
Can our 18th-century institutions survive 21st-century technology?
Even such as it has been, can our democracy expect to survive? Will it long endure?
Our guess:
Not in the face of the fury of Gallagher / Todd and so many others. Also, not in the face of what we'd call Professor Rosen's passivity.
Tomorrow: The constant refusal to speak
