Dick Durbin is sabotaging Democrats — and democracy

Time to choose: Democracy or civility. Plus, lots of state news!

Welcome to a Sunday edition of Progress Report.

This is the third edition of the weekly countdown, where we run down some of the biggest stories of the week, with the ones you probably haven’t yet come across exclusive to premium subscribers.

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We’ve got a great mix of stories tonight, including everything from the Supreme Court to under-the-radar ballot initiative battles, child labor laws, and, uh, necrophilia laws, among other things.

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1️⃣ Quit Dicking Around: Just as it was egregious but not at all shocking to learn that Supreme Court crank Samuel Alito flew an insurrectionist-coded, upside down American flag outside his home in the days after Jan. 6th, it was egregious but not at all shocking that Senate Judiciary Committee chair Dick Durbin failed to meet the moment.

Did he announce an investigation into Alito and his wife openly calling for the overthrow of the US government? Use the moment to launch a public campaign against the corrupt Supreme Court? Even cede the floor to Democrats who were more willing to do so?

No, Dick Durbin did none of those things. Instead, he issued a worthless press release asking Alito to voluntarily recuse himself from the Supreme Court’s deliberations on whether Donald Trump — the man whom Alito evidently wanted to see overthrow the government — should enjoy total criminal immunity for his role on Jan. 6th. He politely asked the same of insurrectionist husband Clarence Thomas earlier this year, a request that was promptly ignored.

In case it wasn’t obvious that Durbin has no intention of ever holding anybody on the court accountable for their biases and crimes, he also called on the Republican Congress to pass a law that would require the Supreme Court to create a binding code of conduct for its members. That has about as much of a chance of happening as the Knicks calling me up in the morning and asking me to fill out the roster for Game 7.

If Democrats want to make this election about saving democracy, their leaders should act like they care about it every once in a while. More on this story in the days to come…

2️⃣ Goliath goes to the ATM in Arkansas: Walmart heir Jim Walton just dropped another half a million dollars on a campaign to defend Arkansas’s new school voucher program from having to actually benefit kids — and the coalition fighting for reform says he can bring it on.