NYT. / 9.8.24. “Donald Trump is stuck. He is a brutally transactional politician who represents a coalition of ideologues. His instinct is to promise the moon, and he’ll say anything to get a vote — or just to get out of a room. He also knows, however, that he has no choice but to dance with the date who brought him. He can’t abandon the groups, interested parties and constituencies that put him in the White House to execute their agenda — to exercise their will.
The problem comes when most voters don’t want what your partners hope to do with the power they helped you get.
Such is the case with abortion.
Trump represents the movement to outlaw abortion, restrict contraception and severely limit the scope of reproductive health care. Under rules issued by his administration, employers who had a religious or moral objection could refuse to cover birth control for their employees.
He appointed hard-line anti-abortion activists to help lead the Department of Health and Human Services and, of course, nominated the justices who voted — with three other Republican members of the Supreme Court — to overturn Roe v. Wade and end the constitutional right to an abortion.
[But out of the other side of his mouth…]
All of this, especially the end of Roe, is deeply unpopular, and Trump knows it. This is why he has tried the two-step of celebrating his appointments to the court but distancing himself from the consequences, both practical and political, of his anti-abortion accomplishments. Even the most gifted rhetoricians would struggle to sell this to the public. That, obviously, is not Trump. Unsurprisingly, he has floundered…
… with Vice President Kamala Harris at the top of the ticket, Democrats have placed abortion rights and reproductive health care at the center of their pitch to women. Abortion, in fact, is now the top issue for many voters in swing states…
Photo: NYT.
Is DEI DIE-ing? | New Oxford Review
Microsoft laid off its diversity, equity, and inclusion team after having poured millions of dollars into the initiative — becoming the latest major company to ditch the “woke” policy (New York Post, July 17). The Big Tech giant disbanded the team due to “changing business needs” after pledging to invest $150 million in DEI initiatives following the 2020 Black Lives Matter protests. Microsoft joins Google and Meta, which reduced their DEI programs and cut staff last year. This summer, tractor giant John Deere and farm-chain retailer Tractor Supply announced they will scuttle nearly all their DEI polices in favor of a quality-based workplace. Zoom, Snap, Tesla, DoorDash, Lyft, Home Depot, and Wayfair have also downsized their DEI teams. Overall, DEI-related job postings declined by 44% by mid-2023 compared to the same period in 2022. Last fall, in its annual “Diversity & Inclusion Report,” Microsoft said women comprise 31.2% of all employees globally — a 3.6% increase since 2019 — and black employees represent 6.7% of its global workforce — up 2.2% from 2019.
+ Speaker Mike Johnson says he’d ‘like to’ defund PBS and Planned Parenthood
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