I don't know who this Joel Berry character is, but reading that tweet all I could picture is some guy who couldn't get a prom date in high school sitting in a bar years later, staring at his stale beer and contemplating going home to his pet snake 'Skank' and wondering why he's never had a girlfriend. And dreading that next phone call from his mom.
The GOP hasn't denounced the "election was stolen" lies, they've just come to the conclusion that they shouldn't talk about it anymore because it cost them some elections.
They haven't denounced trump or trumpism, they've just decided that trump should "retire" and let them handle it from here, with an improved trump 2.0 candidate.
The fact remains that today's GOP IS TRUMPISM. We have a lot of work to do still, and it cannot, must not, wait for the 2024 election cycle to begin. We have to knock on doors, listen to people, talk to people, register voters, stay in touch with voters, and convince them that today's GOP has nothing to offer but division, lies, violence, and chaos.
We must recognize that Latinos, Blacks, Asians tend toward the conservative, and if we want to expand our numbers among them, we have to be willing to enact policies that a majority of Americans support. For the first time in my life, there is overwhelming consensus on the most important issues facing our country today - gun violence, women's freedom to choose, humane security at our borders, freedom to choose whom we love and marry, the need to address catastrophic climate change, and other issues. If we go to extremes on any of these, all at once, we will do so at our peril.
Our peril will ultimately mean our Democracy's peril because of an unrepentant, anti-democratic, pro-fascist, white christian nationalist GOP.
To Pence and McConnell, and all the born-again "Trump-is-crazy and needs to shut up" Rs - F**K YOU! You had chance upon chance upon chance upon chance to shut him up and get rid him of him -TWO IMPEACHMENTS for God's sake, and you didn't. You bunch of s***ful cowards still voted for him and kept your mouths and honor shut. I would lay odds that each one of you is praying that Garland arrests him, but, cowards that you all are, you're keeping your pie-holes shut.
"Election administrators and voting rights advocates said the rebuke of election deniers seeking state-level office was a refreshing course correction by U.S. voters, whose choice of more seasoned and less extreme candidates reflected a desire for stability and a belief that the nation’s elections are in fact largely secure."
Just a small reminder that I said there have been times over the course of my life when the American people have surprised me, in a good way, in the result of elections.
"“And so let’s say in some fantasy world that Ron DeSantis beats Donald Trump..." then the GOP is still absolutely screwed because there is no way Trump either graciously concedes/supports Ron nor does he quietly go away and grumble at Mar-a-Lago. Trump will absolutely run--even as a write-in candidate--to get vengeance on his "betrayers". He'll loudly complain its all rigged and that his minions shouldn't vote GOP ever again. In *any* scenario where Trump doesn't willingly walk away, its entirely plausible a vengeful and crazed (well, crazier) Trump ushers in a "Blue Asteroid" which basically wipes out GOP candidates across the country.
These anti-antis and "never again" Trump Republicans don't understand they made a deal with the devil and there is still a pitchfork firmly stuck in their asses.
John Boehner had it bad enough as speaker trying to deal with the fractious, demanding, unreasonable tea party caucus. He finally resigned in frustration. The baton passed to Paul Ryan who got saddled with the even more fractious, dogmatic, unreasonable freedom caucus. He, too, resigned in frustration. If the republicans take the house, whoever becomes the speaker will get stuck in a Shelob's web with the delusional insurrectionist MAGA caucus. If that person turns out to be Keven McCarthy, it couldn't happen to a nicer guy.
I cannot begin to express how insulting I find all the single-female bashing. The toxic paternalism of the GOP is what has made me a Democratic voter my entire adult life.
"“Donald Trump has proven himself to be dishonest, disloyal, incompetent, crude and a lot of other things that alienate so many independents and Republicans.
- Mo Brooks, Ex-Congressman (R-AL)"
No, he's not wrong. But they've always known it and acted against the best interests of our nation purely to gain and keep power at any cost. The fact remains that they would rather keep power in an authoritarian regime than to lose it in a democracy.
Say what you will about trump - but our nation could have survived a one-term-trump. It has always been today's GOP that's the real danger - willing to spread the lies, court racists and wanna-be pretend soldiers in armed militias, unwilling to denounce the dangerous extremism, the violent threats. Until and unless they keep suffering defeats at the polls, they will not reform. DeFuture is just a cleaner, slicker trump 2.0.
I think now that we know that the Dems won't get enough votes to do anything about the filibuster, I want to see the Republicans with a one-seat House majority. Watching Stefanik jam the knife into McCarthy, only to wind up like Paul Ryan, it's too glorious to pass up if nothing is going to happen anyway.
Also, Mike Pence can shove his low-risk candor somewhere unpleasant. Jumping for the anti-Trump bandwagon just like he jumped for the pro-Trump bandwagon when it was clear he could be VP. He did the right thing once, but did anyone figure he could be trusted to do it again?
The best part being that they are doubling down on insanity, because it’s working out so well for them. Attacking “single women” with misogynistic insults - another stellar strategy. The exit polling showing single women not voting R by 37% is wrong, just like 99% of the other polling these days. Married women largely want nothing to do with them, either. The politics of controlling women isn’t going to go over well with women. I can’t believe I have to say that out loud.
Lots of valid points raised here as to why the GOP lost votes among those who are not rigidly aligned with MAGA, and even in some places where the rot runs so deep that a rock painted with an "R" on it would win any given election. But let's give some equal time to why some on the left might have won more than those on the right lost.
Let's call it the Likeability Factor. My frame of reference here is Tony Evers, Governor of Wisconsin. For those not familiar, he looks like the high school dork that no one would talk to in the lunchroom. He says things like "folks" and "golly" as often as he uses prepositional phrases. And, most importantly, he is the guy who stands next to you in line at the grocery store, attends the PTA meetings in your small town, or sits at the next table over from you at any given restaurant. People relate to him. They understand him. And they like him. As opposed, to, say, Kari Lake, who is so nasty, mean-spirited, and self-serving at every turn that you can't imagine spending more than five minutes in her company without feeling an enhanced urge to regurgitate your lunch. Ditto Boebert. Ditto Gaetz. Ditto Jordan. Megadittoes Trump. It matters.
Evers won his election in what was considered a tight race. So did a number of other Democrats who look, sound, and act like the rest of us, in their unguarded moments no less than when they position themselves to be seen and heard. As much as MAGA turns people off with its incessant anger and persecution complex, the normal "folks" (not necessarily the same as "not the crazies") seem to have their finger on the pulse of what motivates more objective observers to go to the polls, set some of the politics aside when specific issues are not of overriding personal importance, and embrace those who resemble what we see when we look into our own mirrors. As long as MAGA doesn't understand that public relations matter, these everyday citizen candidates will have home field advantage in competitive districts and win by personality comparison as much as on the politics of the day. The Evers win was more than just a victory for democracy. It is a blueprint. Copy and share.
No amount of Pence's puffing up his chest and making bold(?) declarations about Trump's malfeasance in office will diminish, let alone erase, the memories of his 4 years of puppydog toadying up to his master. He is still more of a washed-up has-been than Trump is at this moment in time.
Yes the Trump GOP support looks wobbly ONCE again. But history (starting with, "I don't like people who are captured" in July 2015) continually shows that Trump recovers from political disasters. What will happen in the next two months that will be any different than the two months after Jan 6th? There is plenty of life in this cockroach (apologies to cockroaches.)
There is a precedent for what is happening to the Republicans: the takeover of the Democratic Party in 1896 by William Jennings Bryan. I. F. Stone, in *They Also Ran*, wrote half a century later: "Bryan was interested in neither the election of a Democrat nor the free coinage of silver. He was interested in William Jennings Bryan." After Bryan's defeat in 1896, the Democrats were stuck with him and nominated him twice more, and Bryan became the only Presidential nominee of a major party to lose three general elections. (Henry Clay had not been nominated by a party in 1824.) Bryan was still the most influential Democrat in 1912 but had decided that three losses was enough.
I'd like to add one thing to Tim's excellent essay on the ways McConnell et al the kick in the face they richly deserve for humoring Trump's malevolence instead of standing up for democracy. It gives me great pleasure to think that it was the Dobbs decision that put the nail in the GOP coffin on this election, and probably well into the future, as red states double down and young people become a generation that loathes and fears Republicans. And Dobbs would not have happened without McConnell's immoral SCOTUS manipulation and double-dealing. I just don't think we would have seen this with Merrick Garland on the court instead of Gorsuch and without Coney Barrett.
MAGA Meltdown
I don't know who this Joel Berry character is, but reading that tweet all I could picture is some guy who couldn't get a prom date in high school sitting in a bar years later, staring at his stale beer and contemplating going home to his pet snake 'Skank' and wondering why he's never had a girlfriend. And dreading that next phone call from his mom.
The GOP hasn't denounced the "election was stolen" lies, they've just come to the conclusion that they shouldn't talk about it anymore because it cost them some elections.
They haven't denounced trump or trumpism, they've just decided that trump should "retire" and let them handle it from here, with an improved trump 2.0 candidate.
The fact remains that today's GOP IS TRUMPISM. We have a lot of work to do still, and it cannot, must not, wait for the 2024 election cycle to begin. We have to knock on doors, listen to people, talk to people, register voters, stay in touch with voters, and convince them that today's GOP has nothing to offer but division, lies, violence, and chaos.
We must recognize that Latinos, Blacks, Asians tend toward the conservative, and if we want to expand our numbers among them, we have to be willing to enact policies that a majority of Americans support. For the first time in my life, there is overwhelming consensus on the most important issues facing our country today - gun violence, women's freedom to choose, humane security at our borders, freedom to choose whom we love and marry, the need to address catastrophic climate change, and other issues. If we go to extremes on any of these, all at once, we will do so at our peril.
Our peril will ultimately mean our Democracy's peril because of an unrepentant, anti-democratic, pro-fascist, white christian nationalist GOP.
Now that we've seen how wrong the polling and punditry was for the mid-terms, maybe we should revisit Bidens' polling numbers too.
To Pence and McConnell, and all the born-again "Trump-is-crazy and needs to shut up" Rs - F**K YOU! You had chance upon chance upon chance upon chance to shut him up and get rid him of him -TWO IMPEACHMENTS for God's sake, and you didn't. You bunch of s***ful cowards still voted for him and kept your mouths and honor shut. I would lay odds that each one of you is praying that Garland arrests him, but, cowards that you all are, you're keeping your pie-holes shut.
Thanks, I needed to get that out.
"Election administrators and voting rights advocates said the rebuke of election deniers seeking state-level office was a refreshing course correction by U.S. voters, whose choice of more seasoned and less extreme candidates reflected a desire for stability and a belief that the nation’s elections are in fact largely secure."
Just a small reminder that I said there have been times over the course of my life when the American people have surprised me, in a good way, in the result of elections.
This one is at the top! Well done everyone!
"“And so let’s say in some fantasy world that Ron DeSantis beats Donald Trump..." then the GOP is still absolutely screwed because there is no way Trump either graciously concedes/supports Ron nor does he quietly go away and grumble at Mar-a-Lago. Trump will absolutely run--even as a write-in candidate--to get vengeance on his "betrayers". He'll loudly complain its all rigged and that his minions shouldn't vote GOP ever again. In *any* scenario where Trump doesn't willingly walk away, its entirely plausible a vengeful and crazed (well, crazier) Trump ushers in a "Blue Asteroid" which basically wipes out GOP candidates across the country.
These anti-antis and "never again" Trump Republicans don't understand they made a deal with the devil and there is still a pitchfork firmly stuck in their asses.
John Boehner had it bad enough as speaker trying to deal with the fractious, demanding, unreasonable tea party caucus. He finally resigned in frustration. The baton passed to Paul Ryan who got saddled with the even more fractious, dogmatic, unreasonable freedom caucus. He, too, resigned in frustration. If the republicans take the house, whoever becomes the speaker will get stuck in a Shelob's web with the delusional insurrectionist MAGA caucus. If that person turns out to be Keven McCarthy, it couldn't happen to a nicer guy.
I cannot begin to express how insulting I find all the single-female bashing. The toxic paternalism of the GOP is what has made me a Democratic voter my entire adult life.
"“Donald Trump has proven himself to be dishonest, disloyal, incompetent, crude and a lot of other things that alienate so many independents and Republicans.
- Mo Brooks, Ex-Congressman (R-AL)"
No, he's not wrong. But they've always known it and acted against the best interests of our nation purely to gain and keep power at any cost. The fact remains that they would rather keep power in an authoritarian regime than to lose it in a democracy.
Say what you will about trump - but our nation could have survived a one-term-trump. It has always been today's GOP that's the real danger - willing to spread the lies, court racists and wanna-be pretend soldiers in armed militias, unwilling to denounce the dangerous extremism, the violent threats. Until and unless they keep suffering defeats at the polls, they will not reform. DeFuture is just a cleaner, slicker trump 2.0.
I think now that we know that the Dems won't get enough votes to do anything about the filibuster, I want to see the Republicans with a one-seat House majority. Watching Stefanik jam the knife into McCarthy, only to wind up like Paul Ryan, it's too glorious to pass up if nothing is going to happen anyway.
Also, Mike Pence can shove his low-risk candor somewhere unpleasant. Jumping for the anti-Trump bandwagon just like he jumped for the pro-Trump bandwagon when it was clear he could be VP. He did the right thing once, but did anyone figure he could be trusted to do it again?
The best part being that they are doubling down on insanity, because it’s working out so well for them. Attacking “single women” with misogynistic insults - another stellar strategy. The exit polling showing single women not voting R by 37% is wrong, just like 99% of the other polling these days. Married women largely want nothing to do with them, either. The politics of controlling women isn’t going to go over well with women. I can’t believe I have to say that out loud.
Lots of valid points raised here as to why the GOP lost votes among those who are not rigidly aligned with MAGA, and even in some places where the rot runs so deep that a rock painted with an "R" on it would win any given election. But let's give some equal time to why some on the left might have won more than those on the right lost.
Let's call it the Likeability Factor. My frame of reference here is Tony Evers, Governor of Wisconsin. For those not familiar, he looks like the high school dork that no one would talk to in the lunchroom. He says things like "folks" and "golly" as often as he uses prepositional phrases. And, most importantly, he is the guy who stands next to you in line at the grocery store, attends the PTA meetings in your small town, or sits at the next table over from you at any given restaurant. People relate to him. They understand him. And they like him. As opposed, to, say, Kari Lake, who is so nasty, mean-spirited, and self-serving at every turn that you can't imagine spending more than five minutes in her company without feeling an enhanced urge to regurgitate your lunch. Ditto Boebert. Ditto Gaetz. Ditto Jordan. Megadittoes Trump. It matters.
Evers won his election in what was considered a tight race. So did a number of other Democrats who look, sound, and act like the rest of us, in their unguarded moments no less than when they position themselves to be seen and heard. As much as MAGA turns people off with its incessant anger and persecution complex, the normal "folks" (not necessarily the same as "not the crazies") seem to have their finger on the pulse of what motivates more objective observers to go to the polls, set some of the politics aside when specific issues are not of overriding personal importance, and embrace those who resemble what we see when we look into our own mirrors. As long as MAGA doesn't understand that public relations matter, these everyday citizen candidates will have home field advantage in competitive districts and win by personality comparison as much as on the politics of the day. The Evers win was more than just a victory for democracy. It is a blueprint. Copy and share.
No amount of Pence's puffing up his chest and making bold(?) declarations about Trump's malfeasance in office will diminish, let alone erase, the memories of his 4 years of puppydog toadying up to his master. He is still more of a washed-up has-been than Trump is at this moment in time.
Yes the Trump GOP support looks wobbly ONCE again. But history (starting with, "I don't like people who are captured" in July 2015) continually shows that Trump recovers from political disasters. What will happen in the next two months that will be any different than the two months after Jan 6th? There is plenty of life in this cockroach (apologies to cockroaches.)
There is a precedent for what is happening to the Republicans: the takeover of the Democratic Party in 1896 by William Jennings Bryan. I. F. Stone, in *They Also Ran*, wrote half a century later: "Bryan was interested in neither the election of a Democrat nor the free coinage of silver. He was interested in William Jennings Bryan." After Bryan's defeat in 1896, the Democrats were stuck with him and nominated him twice more, and Bryan became the only Presidential nominee of a major party to lose three general elections. (Henry Clay had not been nominated by a party in 1824.) Bryan was still the most influential Democrat in 1912 but had decided that three losses was enough.
This column put me in a great mood today.
I'd like to add one thing to Tim's excellent essay on the ways McConnell et al the kick in the face they richly deserve for humoring Trump's malevolence instead of standing up for democracy. It gives me great pleasure to think that it was the Dobbs decision that put the nail in the GOP coffin on this election, and probably well into the future, as red states double down and young people become a generation that loathes and fears Republicans. And Dobbs would not have happened without McConnell's immoral SCOTUS manipulation and double-dealing. I just don't think we would have seen this with Merrick Garland on the court instead of Gorsuch and without Coney Barrett.
I recommend this Ron Brownstein commentary on the reddening of red states in the face of a blue and purple state backlash against Republican extremism: https://www.cnn.com/2022/11/14/politics/abortion-midterm-voters-politics-democrats-republicans-fault-lines/index.html