Principles First Rollup - April 2022
Happy Spring folks! Like the grass in our yards, our movement is growing. We are honored by our many new subscribers and hope this note finds everyone well. Please continue to pass this email on to others who might be interested. Here’s what’s going on in Principles First today:
Principles First goes on tour. As our movement expands, we are organizing at the state level. Several State Chairs are reaching out to Principles Firsters in their states. We are seeing the same frustrations with status quo politics from so many different angles. The bottom line is folks are coming together and are eager to get involved – it is encouraging. This summer, the Principles First Tour kicks off with events across the country. Be sure and find an event near you (more to come). Come out and meet other Principled Americans and hear from some folks trying to reprioritize our politics.
NATO and the world order. Sixty three Republicans in the House this week voted against a resolution reaffirming the U.S. commitment to NATO and democratic institutions. Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell claims Republicans supporting Putin “are lonely voices”, but they are loud voices, at minimum. Maybe the starkest contrast today between our movement and the vestiges of the Trumpian nationalist wing on the right, is our belief in American and (small d) democratic leadership in the world as a net positive. American leadership is good for our country and for human flourishing across the world.
The new pro-life. Several pro-life representatives in Texas are making a move toward ideological consistency by opposing the death penalty. The “whole life” movement, which Principles First folks have lifted up, is taking hold as folks realize state-sponsored killing does more harm than good. While bills like Texas’ Heartbeat Bill might have unintended negative consequences, being anti-killing-our-own-citizens from womb to tomb is the kind of principled consistency we applaud.
Confirmation circus. Supreme Court nominee confirmation hearings continue to serve as a partisan sound bite opportunity rather than a serious advice and consent process. Most showmanship centered around Judge Kentanji Brown Jackson’s background as a public defender, a nonstandard path to SCOTUS. Senators Ted Cruz and Tom Cotton went the extra mile in an effort to hammer the notion public defenders should not exist. KBJ was confirmed by a vote of 53-47, with 3 Republican Senators (Romney, Collins, and Murkowski) voting to confirm. Interestingly, Senator Graham voted against her after voting to confirm for a lower court, while Senator Romney voted to confirm while voting against her confirmation to a lower court.
Elon weighs in on Twitter. Elon Musk, a self-described “free speech absolutist,” bought ~9% of Twitter stock this week, in part to weigh-in on the debate around speech regulation by tech companies. Many Republicans applauded the move and are attempting to fold it into the conversation on Big Tech regulation by Congress. Also at play is the development and popularity of Web3, or the decentralized internet built on the blockchain where users, rather than algorithms, choose their content. There is some real progress to made for free speech and expression as long as partisan positioning does not kill it.
Have something we should be reading? Send your recommendations for the Principles First Rollup to pfrollupeditor@gmail.com.
This month’s Principles First Rollup was written and edited by Bob Cox and Justin Louis Pitcock