The Archbishop Gonna Sanctify Me

Two topics this Black Friday morning.

First, I had an interesting conversation with a young Canadian traveler yesterday. She is one of these people who works half the year and travels for the rest. She enjoys the US National Parks and was acutely aware that Trumpers just tacked on another $100 to the fees charged to foreign visitors. This “Americans first” policy is yet another way to kill US tourism.

This young woman also told me that she had been hassled at the border by a US Customs agent, who threatened not to let her into the country because he suspected she was working in the US. Needless to say she’s not interested in traveling in the US anymore, joining the many thousands of Canadians who are avoiding our country and spending their tourist dollars elsewhere.

Second, Steve M had a good post earlier this week about Schumer’s real aim in his primary picks this cycle. He notes that a group of Democrats in the Senate (the ones you’d expect) are challenging Schumer’s picks.

Read the whole thing, it’s good.

There was some discussion in the comments the other day about the Progressive Caucus’ endorsement of Daniel Biss over Kat Abughazaleh. I know there are a few policy positions where they differ, but the political project for Democrats for the next few years isn’t going to turn on fine points of policy. Rather, as many of us believe, it will be fighters vs non-fighters. Abughazaleh is a fighter. She will push leadership to do everything in their power to fight the Trump Administration, even if it’s uncomfortable. The other thing she’ll probably do is spill the tea about controversies in the caucus — in other words, have fights out in the open.

Reps like AOC and Crockett are in an interesting spot. They’re trying to go along with leadership to the degree that they can advance in the seniority-driven House, and they’ve both been thwarted because their celebrity and fight intimidate leadership. The more Kat Abughazaleh types we have in Congress, the more possibility there is for a caucus of fighters to emerge. Also, she’s another self-funder who doesn’t need big donor money. This is a double-edged sword, because this means that a lot of her money comes from outside the district, so her fundraising totals might be overstating her popularity in the district, but, like AOC, if she wins, it also gives her a degree of independence that a lot of “regular” Representatives lack. (Though, as I’ve argued before, there’s no reason that D+double digit district Representatives need a big war chest.)