Three important markers for election 2024
PLUS: How Trump created a “political disaster” for Republicans
There are three stories today that are important markers 208 days before the American people make a choice that will shape the destiny of the United States and the entire world.
The three stories combined reveal some of the currents, eddies and riptides on the proverbial river that is campaign 2024. Each delivers a powerful insight through a focused lens, examining aspects of our culture that will build until they become definitional in the choice ahead.
The angry left in America has plagued the Democratic Party mostly with stupid slogans and an insistence that they be repeated or else. Case in point: defund the police!
MAGA controlled the presidency and Congress, the “squad” ran nothing, yet for millions of Americans shaped by a vast and delusional propaganda machine, it was the other way around. This matters because there is an elemental aspect of American life that isn’t talked enough about in the conversations that are supposed to explicate our politics to people who are bewildered about the utter insanity of the moment.
Jonathan Chait is one of the most insightful chroniclers of this era in American history. His latest piece about a rising left-wing extremism that is wrapped in the flag of Hamas and on the march is essential to read for every person who cares about American freedom.
One of the deepest quotes about American politics has long been misattributed to Sinclair Lewis: “When fascism comes to America it will be wrapped in the flag and carrying a cross.” This is spot on.
The United States of America will never be threatened by a far-left political movement or radical cause that will ever have a prayer of taking political power. Ever. Their agenda, tactics, politics beliefs and dogmas are inimical towards the character of the American people, who will reject them en masse for as long as the United States endures.
However, the fear of a radical left is enough to lift a menacing fascism to victory in an election. This is exactly what happened in Germany in 1932. It is the danger being described by Chait in his article. Trump is fueled by extremism, chaos and disorder — even if it isn’t his.
The second story comes from Arizona Central, showing an Arizona legislator on the floor of the State House with a group of religious fundamentalists speaking in tongues and chanting gibberish hours before the Arizona Supreme Court reset the state’s abortion laws to 1864. I find this is terrifying, and it should terrify you.
The third story comes from Politico about a recording made of former Biden White House Chief of Staff Ron Klain, telling basic truths about the communications anemia afflicting the Biden campaign operation.
Here was his direct and truthful quote:
I think the president is out there too much talking about bridges. He does two or three events a week where he’s cutting a ribbon on a bridge. And here’s a bridge. Like I tell you, if you go into the grocery store, you go to the grocery store and, you know, eggs and milk are expensive, the fact that there’s a fucking bridge is not [inaudible].
He’s not a congressman. He’s not running for Congress. I think it’s kind of a fool’s errand. I think that [it] also doesn’t get covered that much because, look, it’s a fucking bridge. Like it’s a bridge, and how interesting is the bridge? It’s a little interesting but it’s not a lot interesting.
Spot on.
208 days to go.
How Trump created a “political disaster” for Republicans
Last night, I joined Scripps News to explain how President Donald Trump's choices for Supreme Court justices led to the overturning of Roe v. Wade. While Republican politicians had long called for its reversal, no president had previously vetted candidates with a litmus test question on abortion laws:
"The United States of America will never be threatened by a far-left political movement or radical cause that will ever have a prayer of taking political power."
Yet, extremist voices are the loudest ones in the room. Right wing propagandists are much better at amplifying and elevating the strident college-campus faction of the Democratic party than we are at defining the modern Republican party as the real threat.
I am a Vermont Democrat. I have news for ordinary, not particularly political Republicans... For the most part, we Democrats are not the quiche-eating, latte loving, crunchy granola, cross-dressing, trans-gender obsessed people that right-wingers studiously magnify as culture combatants on the warpath to upend societal norms. (Sean Hannity built a personal empire playing this theme). Most of us are simply pragmatic people that believe in democracy and freedom. Real freedom. For one and all.
The excerpt from Ron Klain is notable. The real threat to our country is coming from hard-charging right wing Fascists. They have the money from billionaire sociopaths and their lackeys in Congress to convince enough of our fellow citizens that Nancy Pelosi is the enemy, not Donald Trump. People need to understand what Fascism means in the starkest possible terms. Democrats need to focus and fight harder to clarify the real menace. We have reality on our side.
My analysis is : Putin in Russia - through Ukraine, through Trump and the subservient GOP. Is taking over the United States - without one shot fired !
Putin laughs - who knew it would be this easy ?