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Summer hit full stride in July, but backyard barbecues faced stiff competition from indoor pursuits: Netflix released the third season of its nostalgia-fueled hit Stranger Things on July 4 and reported more than 40 million households streamed the show during the first week.

The massive viewership broke streaming records, but a Netflix account wasn’t necessary to watch plenty of other strange things unfold during July.

In Washington, D.C., some Democratic lawmakers accused House Speaker Nancy Pelosi of being too moderate—a strange charge the congresswoman from California doesn’t often face.

Pelosi hit back at four freshmen congresswomen who criticized her for passing a border bill they didn’t deem sufficient. Pelosi questioned their reach of influence beyond Twitter. One of the four freshmen—Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, D-N.Y.—said Pelosi’s comments were disrespectful to “newly elected women of color.”

What sounded like a silly fight revealed serious fissures in the Democratic coalition ahead of the 2020 elections, as the party battles over how far left it will go: Its leaders know that moderate and independent voters will be crucial to electoral victories. But far-left lawmakers, like the four congresswomen Pelosi sparred with, have grabbed headlines with a slew of controversial statements and proposals.

Republican lawmakers likely didn’t mind the open display of disunity in the Democratic Party. But the dynamic took a stranger turn on July 14 when President Trump seemed to aim a series of tweets at the four minority congresswomen. He said they should “go back and help fix the totally broken and crime infested places from which they came … you can’t leave fast enough.”

Three of the four congresswomen were born and raised in America. The fourth is a naturalized U.S. citizen. In a flash, the Democratic Party was united again—at least for the moment.

One could imagine a Washington version of Stranger Things, though it would be difficult to envision what’s next. One storyline does seem clear: The line between policy offensive and personal offensiveness—on both sides—seems to be fading even farther into distant realms.

In a closer realm, the border crisis continued to broil in the summer heat. Vice President Mike Pence visited border stations on July 12, including a location in McAllen, Texas, that was packed with adult males. Pence acknowledged conditions in the overflowing temporary facility weren’t acceptable, and he called on Congress to fix the immigration system.

Congress does need to act, but if that sounds like a rerun of an old episode in a yearslong debate, it’s hard to see a new season on the horizon.

Some Americans broke from politics to celebrate the Fourth of July, just as Nike scrapped its release of a limited-edition sneaker emblazoned with a 1770s American flag. NFL star and activist Colin Kaepernick reportedly complained the flag came from an era when slavery was allowed in America.

Source: Wng.org

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