Excellent newsletter Steve. I’m reminded of the words of lawyer Joseph Welsh, in 1954, to Senator McCarthy, during his Senate witch-hunt for communists.
This country is currently experiencing the same Shock Doctrine as in the 50’s. Instead of a communist takeover, we have an authoritarian kakistocracy takeover; both led by the most corrupt anti-American, shameless, self-promoting clowns of their times.
And if we learned anything from that era, it’s that witch-hunt’s and right-wing fallacies don’t end well for the heath, security and interests of this great nation. And it’s the most vulnerable that suffer the most.
I agree, Biden’s “let Trump continue with foot-in-mouth syndrome” is having the opposite effect. Trump and his minions continually gain ground, are becoming increasingly unified and his base is more galvanized and fanatical than ever before. He’s also making headway in African American and the Hispanic communities thanks to a biased media.
Is it shocking to know that Trump is an apathetic, egotistical charlatan, who only cares about himself? Only someone living in a bubble, and is oblivious to their surroundings, wouldn’t have already figured this out.
“The American people, by and large, are struggling. Life has become brutally hard, and the American dream has dried up as the nation’s elites have become a society apart. The simple truth is that many frustrated, ignored and unhappy people are falling for one of the oldest and most malicious lies there has ever been.”--Steve Schmidt
Excellent paragraph. Americans having been losing for generations. The wealth gap started under Reagan ( tax cuts and deregulation), and has continued by both parties as they became more addicted to billionaire campaign funding. I won’t argue who’s more at fault, since it’s irrelevant for this discussion.
The point is that wage increases and cost of living increases have been the best seen in the last three decades. Unemployment is at its lowest since 1962, and our economy is continuing to grow and outperform the entire world.
We even have record luxury car and yacht sales.; usually a sign of a robust economy. The people who struggle the most: healthcare, education, and living paycheck to paycheck are worse off because they continually vote against their interests; electing men and women who refuse Medicaid, the ACA federal subsidies and are constantly trying to cut entitlement programs. These people continually blame everyone and everything instead of caring enough to make policy based on empirical data and potentially good outcomes.
The real reason we got here is because of complacency and social media brainwashing. Not to mention, the MSM creating controversies where none exist.
As Robert Maynard Hutchins famously said:
“The death of democracy is not likely to be an assassination from ambush. It will be a slow extinction from apathy, indifference, and undernourishment.”
You’ve been reading my comments, even today I responded this same . PROFOUND 🔨Thank you and I underscore the pinpoint thumbed reality .
Throwing more money at it?
What to do?
I told ya so ... practice this in the mirror for 2025 Plans?
I DO STILL believe in the resilience of The American People to rally forth and vote A 💙TSUNAMI...but the work has then ...just begun. These issues bravely aforementioned have GOT to be addressed. There are a whole hoard of entrenched complicit needing ousted with equal commitment to voting 💙
We can not become increasingly complacent, carrying a big stick REALITY has got to focus on results for those disenfranchised , equality is prime focus.
Much to do, many loopholes to close, many hands to grab and lift to decency.
This lesson recognized as such is 🗣️last chance ...here’s our sign.....
Agreed. Well said. I’m sure throwing money alone at the problem won’t work. See DeSatan’s super pac that burned through hundreds of millions with nothing to show for it; although, being a flawed candidate didn’t help him much...:)
Democrats need a Joe Welsh moment. Someone who materializes out of thin air and turns the conversation on its head. Someone who can wake America up from its perennial stupor!
Think of Joe the Plumber. He may have represented the worst of our ideals, and was a fraud, but he managed to galvanize the Tea Party movement and advance its cause.
We need someone to step up with logic, and charisma. Clearly, no in the current administration fits the bill. That said, the message will reverberate far better if it comes from an outsider.
Steve’s a political scientist and respected political consultant. Perhaps he has some ideas, and if we can’t find someone who is representative and capable of resonating with the “unenthusiastic” base, and independents, then we need to manufacture someone; quick!
You’ve got the knack Steve...to get right in there with a genuine punch , congenial truth punch! Never before ( a giddy laugh frequent)...heard anyone call a liar out so profoundly succinct.
One of the reasons that I think Democrats, Never Trumpers, and Never-Again Trumpers (my term) are struggling to get Republicans and MAGA voters to cast pro-democracy votes is that I honestly believe that Republicans and MAGA voters do not care about democracy. As you point out, many people are hurting, even though the economy has come roaring back after the pandemic. How do you stop the hurt? One way, IMO, is to promote economic equality by restoring labor unions and by fighting corporate greed. The opposite way is to usher in an American Hitler and an American version of Nazism.
President Biden’s administration has done a great deal to help ordinary Americans, but Republicans in Congress care more about beating him than about assisting their constituents. If Fox News and Republicans are telling someone that Biden is stealing elections and hasn’t done anything for them, and that foreign people, “thugs,” and socialists are running rampant, they may turn to someone who is willling not only to end democracy, but to rid the country of the perceived culprits. Those of us who are descended from Holocaust victims know how that ends.
I am not descendent from holocaust victims , but I am German and feel their pain . I was born in 1943 into the rubble of what was left of Germany. It was hard . I do not understand how anyone can support a fascist movement like MAGA and a Hitler wannabe after seeing what happened to the world under that.
I wish some of the propaganda footage of 1930s and 40s in Germany was regularly shown on the media to show how it all started.
Audrey, I agree. I think instead of talking about losing our democracy, which they don't seem to care about (or understand its value), the Democrats need to push heavily on what it would mean to them personally if they were to ltose it I favor of an autocratic and/or dictator.
They need to be told of the rights they would lose, the choices taken away from them in that kind of society, what it's like to live in a state of fear. I think their image of a MAGA Nirvana is vastly different than what they are hoping for.
And I am glad Obama has spoken out as the Biden campaign needs to fire up and get loud..... they have been too insular and complacent. Let's hope he stays involved in some capacity, and helps shepherd Biden through to victory.
Thanks Audrey, wow ...do you mind if I use this last sentence ? I am impressed with you all speaking eloquently , though it’s the choir mostly some I share these pieces with have agreed, changed their thought process..it was very slow...turtle won, right 😉👏🙌
By all means, go ahead and share. Even though we are indeed preaching to the choir here, if someone shares ideas with the off-key folks who think they can sing, maybe we’ll get through! :-)
We have already glimpsed what the future would look like with a Trump victory. Have we forgotten the hundreds of thousands of unnecessary deaths from covid. Have we forgotten the degradation of separating children from parents and putting them in cages at the southern border. Have we forgotten Trump believing Putin over his own intelligence services. Have we forgotten good people on both sides of a KKK rally in Virginia. My God do we really believe it was better under Trump after he tanked the economy during covid. Are we living in a world where facts no longer matter and January 6th never happened? I hope not. Please vote Blue and let freedom ring from sea to shining sea. We were conceived in liberty and need to remain a democracy of our choosing. Please choose wisely and vote blue.
I have a friend of 50 years. He's for Trump. I'm for democracy.
We have told each other we will always be friends. I have patiently listened to his "reasons" why he supports Trump:
1) Everyone is corrupt. So if you're going to hold Trump accountable, you have to hold everyone else accountable. 2) Pelosi is responsible for Jan 6 because she failed to keep us all safe by failing to order more security. 3) There were no wars with Trump. Now there's nothing but wars. 4) All of us know Trump is a narcissist. So what? 5) Biden is destroying the country.
There's much more, but I'll stop there.
I think #1 is his main reason for supporting Trump. Once again what I'm hearing beneath his comments is a victim mentality, a profound woundedness that conditions are unfair to him personally and to Trump, and that only Trump can fix it.
My friend's girlfriend is not talking to him in light of recent pro-Trump statements he made on Facebook. He is quite bothered by this.
I'm beginning to believe that this may be the only way to deal with MAGA folks, i.e., by following the guidelines for an intervention for people with substance abuse:
I love you, but you're behaving badly. You're destroying yourself in front of my eyes and I'm playing the role of enabling you. Get help or my door is closed to you.
My fear is there may be too many of them and not enough of us.
I am frightened for the first time in my 64 years that if Trump wins I will be personally retaliated against for my critical comments about Trump and MAGA.
I am also most concerned by the war remark, not by the MAGA but by the Bernie Sander’s millennial who thinks that it was because of Biden’s weak and confusing message. I disagree. Besides putting an end to Osama bin Laden, Obama and Biden very effectively punished Putin for invading Ukraine in 2014. Putin’s fortune was greatly reduced and his ability to intimidate his neighbors was very much weakened because of Obama/Biden administration. But after Trump’s win in 2016 that was all reversed. In the beginning of Biden’s presidency, Putin, who was energized by Trump, began to prepare the invasion of Ukraine in front of everyone’s view. And he invaded in 2022. As he is now losing very badly and having to fear for his own survival, he and his allies are now throwing the entire world into the fire. So anything they could think of will be attacked in cyber or political space, with any and all antidemocratic forces across the globe. Putin has put himself in a very difficult spot and with the hope of Trump’s comeback he is holding on at all cost. We are in the eye of the storm that Trump got this country into. Biden knows the intricacy of this and he will get us out of this. Putin is very afraid of Biden. That was why he was doing everything he could to help Trump in 2020 and also in this year’s elections.
Hi May, I follow Peter Zeihan, who's a geopolitical strategist. He states that Russia (and China) is facing demographic collapse, and that this is their last decade to assert themselves.
Still, he goes on to state, the calculus of the Ukraine conflict works very much in favor of the Russians who are always willing to throw people at a problem. The Russians greatly outnumber the Ukrainians. A war of attrition works to Russia's advantage. (Per Stalin, "quantity is a quality all its own.")
I hope the US will continue its support of Ukraine.
Certainly, if Trump wins, Ukraine goes to Russia (a resolution to the war within 24 hours as Trump spouts), and Taiwan goes to China.
Yes true, Putin is now throwing everything at Ukraine as if they are fighting a real world war. Even though Ukraine is so much smaller in size and in economic power. Ukrainians are truly fighting a war of David and Goliath. For all of us the war of attrition works in Putin’s favor, at least on the surface. Even the little unmanned drones that challenged the Russian’s higher explosives and heavy equipments is turning into Putin’s favor since he is now sending enormous swarms of drones in addition to his indiscriminate bombings. For Ukraine to withstand this and to prevail we need a steady and unwavering commitment from the US to continue to lead fifty nations alliance to support them. The GOPs in the congress is dangerous and demoralizing to the entire democratic world with its inability to take any real action to support the United States and its allies. But I still believe that Putin is losing. Just watch this. https://youtu.be/jA9XHNjgV8M?si=vtnbHPTpsQTZdK0v
There is no reason to be afraid, united we stand, together. If you can’t tell it like it is now, when will you be able too. The lying insipid clown has no business anywhere in America except our deepest darkest prison. I would like to bulldoze his FL palace and turn the property into a public park for children.
I wonder how all of the "victims" are able to spend so much money on Trump/MAGA merchandise and travel to rallies. Another example of cognitive dissonance. Perhaps pointing that out to them should be part of the intervention.
You seem to be blaming a Democratic super PAC for the abomination that is Trump. Biden is the only person who has ever defeated Trump. He will defeat him again.
I’m not doing that at all. I’m simply saying that the Biden campaign and its Super PAC allies MUST fight back HARD against the abomination that is Trump.
Keep hitting (figuratively) and hitting until the MAGA fall down and can't get up. We need an onslaught of truth aimed at the misled and misinformed. Thank you, Steve. I'm glad I stuck with you.
I will repeat myself. Rachel Maddow, a dedicated student of history, said that no country will accept a person like Donald Trump unless it is somehow ready for it. The despair that Steve highlights exists because America is both broken and confused. What is the job of a society but to make the opportunity for a good life available to all who are in it? America does not do that. It rewards greed and avarice and competition that crushes. It allows the wealthy ways to escape fiscal responsibility. It makes life painfully harder for people who are not white…unforgiveable. When CEOs make 300 or 400 times as much money as his/her workers then the system has failed absolutely. All you get is the mass of population with footprints all over their backs and a willingness to turn, even religiously, to the Godless man that says, “I alone can fix it”. Well, it sure as hell needs fixing. So who supports the laws and initiatives and programs that work to level the playing field? The Democrats generally and Joe Biden specifically. The trouble is it is so hard for them to do what they need to do. Even Obamacare squeaked through, just one of the programs intended to level the playing field. Like Joe Biden’s $35 insulin cap, same thing. The Constitution, Gerrymandering and the Filibuster are like walls against progress. Democrats stand ready to pass the laws and find the ways to help the people who need it most, with imagination and compassion. You just have to give them a solid House majority, sixty Senators and clean up the State legislatures like Texas and Ohio and others, always Red, where humanity has taken a long but undeserved vacation. Greg Abbott is the Devil in a wheelchair and stupid Texas, as usual, bigger than anybody else in their corrupt and evil stupidity, wants razor wire at the border and a gun in every pocket. Why? And why oh why oh why-O would anyone want to live in Ohio? Certainly not a ten year old pregnant girl. So called conservative thinking is making your country damned near unlivable, with guns, forced birth, unfair taxes, book burnings, white supremacy, the list goes on. Please, use this election to rid yourselves of these evil and destructive people who are a roadblock to what America should be and could be again.
Quoting from Heather Cox Richardson this morning, "Siblings Jonathan and Olivia Pollock, whose family owns Rapture Guns and Knives, described on its Facebook page as a “christian owned Gun and Knife store” in Lakeland, Florida, and Joseph Hutchinson III, who once worked there, are suspected of some of the worst violence of January 6. The FBI had offered a $30,000 reward for “Jonny” Pollock, while the other two had been arrested but removed their ankle bracelets in March 2023 and fled."
Steve, why not talk about the gullibility of the evangelical christians who, since they believe everything their leaders say, will swallow anything "the chosen one" will say? You pointed out the ignorance of people who believe humans and dinosaurs lived at the same time. That's only one example.
How does one convince those people they've been lied to by their leaders?
Will Rogers is still correct. He said: I belong to no organized political party. I am a Democrat.” It’s ironic that Democrats have the programs these people need. This message has to get out. Get Obama, entertainment people, athletes and everyone out on the stump with messages people understand. Some are too attached to their grievances to listen. For them, The Civil War never ended.
You are right, the message is not getting out. Biden asked at the Valley Forge, “We all know who Donald Trump is. The question we have to answer is who are we? That’s what’s at stake. Who are we?”
The Democratic Super PAC‘s mere mention of what Trump said will not do anything. They have to go back and revisit Biden’s speech, here is how Biden answered it.
“That’s what’s at stake. Who are we?
In the year ahead, as you talk to your family and friends, cast your ballots, the power is in your hands. After all we’ve been through in our history, from independence to civil war to two world wars to a pandemic to insurrection, I refuse to believe that in 2024 we Americans will choose to walk away from what’s made us the greatest nation in the history of the world.
Freedom, liberty. Democracy is still a sacred cause, and there’s no country in the world better positioned to lead the world than America.
That’s why, I’ve said it many times, that’s why I’ve never been more optimistic about our future, and I’ve been doing this a hell of a long time.
Just to remember who we are. With patience and fortitude, with one heart, we are the United States of America, for God’s sake. I mean it. There’s nothing. I believe with every fiber there’s nothing beyond our capacity if we act together and decently with one another.
Nothing. Nothing. Nothing. I mean it. We’re the only nation in the world that’s come out of every crisis stronger than we went into that crisis. And that was true yesterday.
It is true today. And I guarantee you it will be true tomorrow.”
"The American people, by and large, are struggling. Life has become brutally hard, and the American dream has dried up as the nation’s elites have become a society apart. The simple truth is that many frustrated, ignored and unhappy people are falling for one of the oldest and most malicious lies there has ever been."
Steve, one of the main grades I taught was 6th grade. The faces of so many of my students, from years ago, came to mind while reading what you shared today. My heart is broken. Please keep speaking out for the children who have no voice and no choice in this insanity. Great work, Steve!!
Life has ALWAYS been a struggle for those at the lower end of the economy, and due to lack of skills, intelligence, or just plain luck there will always be people at the lower end. Now, the GOP has had a lunatic fringe for as long as I've been around, it was the Minutemen militias and Birchers in the 60s, but the Party was able to suppress them and keep them marginalized. But today the fringe IS the Party and the lunatics are off the grass and in the hall. The Party had several opportunities to rid themselves of Trump and they didn't do it, hoping the courts or the Democrats would do it for them I guess. Steve, I applaud conservative Republicans such as yourself and other Never Trumpers, it's why I send money to you every month, but to break this populist fever it's going to take the help of senior Republicans to join in and start talking truth to the base, and so far I'm not seeing it. If anything, other than the ones who are whipping the base into an even greater frenzy, they are cowering in fear of a Trump tweet and their own voters.
I think Steve has gone after these people or fruitcakes or whatever they are. I am gobsmacked by the idea that people actually sat around a kitchen table, no alcohol, no drugs and came up with the name “Rapture Guns & Knives”. That there is an FBI reward for these people just makes it seem even more like an SNL skit. A little more of this foolishness, not to mention evil, and Christian will become a dirty world. I’m an atheist but like to think of Christian as a compliment because of the value, Jesus’ values, that it used to represent. Not any more. Many are just Trump-loving Looloobirds.
Get over it! Tell that to the families that have lost so many children just sending them off to school in the morning.packing a lunch , kissing them goodbye not realizing this is the last time. get over it BS. But what else would you expect from someone that has no soul, no heart and only cares about himself. And people support him !?
I strongly agree with Carol Gamm. What the Dems really need is a simple, straightforward message highlighting the Dems' achievements against what the gop has done and failed to do. Then this message must be repeated over and over in all newspapers, TV stations, and all other media, day after day until the election. If a lie, told over and over can be seen as the truth, then why not the truth told over and over, and hopefully it will sink in to anyone and everyone who listens to it. The message also must incorporate the need to vote to preserve civil rights. Sam Teller
As some who has lost a child, I must comment. One of the worst things you can say, if not THE worst thing you can say, to a parent who’s lost a a child is “get over it “, “move through it”, or phrases like that. The reason is a parent who’s lost a child NEVER gets over it. Never. You are never the same because it’s not possible. You will eventually process through your grief, but you are never the same and you will not be same. It’s one of the great misunderstandings that many make about grieving. That’s a fact. For someone like Trump who wants to be a president this should be a huge”red flag” for all Americans. He has ZERO emotional intelligence and compassion. Absolutely none, and that is something an effective leader MUST have. Imagine how the parents of these tragically killed children feel right now, especially when they hear Trump’s words. Actually, no one who has not lost a child can begin to understand how these parents feel. It is total emotional and physical devastation. But we can feel compassion, love, and empathy for these parents, something Trump has none of. If you’ve lost a child, you would not wish that on your worst enemy. No parents expects their kid to precede them in death. Trump has proven here yet again why he’s unfit for public office- not even dog catcher. My heart goes out to these parents. May the God of all comfort draw these parents and families near and hold them close through this nightmare. Make no mistake, it is truly a nightmare of the worst kind.
Biden understands, I see that on his face every time, as well as Jamie Raskin. I feel their sorrow and their grief. And their genuine commitment to help others that came from it.
…and Chris Murphy who fights this fight every day. The quality of Democrats is excellent because their motivation is public service in place of power, though they need power to perform their public service at its best. Right on, May!
“Have you no decency?”--Joseph Welch
Excellent newsletter Steve. I’m reminded of the words of lawyer Joseph Welsh, in 1954, to Senator McCarthy, during his Senate witch-hunt for communists.
This country is currently experiencing the same Shock Doctrine as in the 50’s. Instead of a communist takeover, we have an authoritarian kakistocracy takeover; both led by the most corrupt anti-American, shameless, self-promoting clowns of their times.
And if we learned anything from that era, it’s that witch-hunt’s and right-wing fallacies don’t end well for the heath, security and interests of this great nation. And it’s the most vulnerable that suffer the most.
I agree, Biden’s “let Trump continue with foot-in-mouth syndrome” is having the opposite effect. Trump and his minions continually gain ground, are becoming increasingly unified and his base is more galvanized and fanatical than ever before. He’s also making headway in African American and the Hispanic communities thanks to a biased media.
Is it shocking to know that Trump is an apathetic, egotistical charlatan, who only cares about himself? Only someone living in a bubble, and is oblivious to their surroundings, wouldn’t have already figured this out.
“The American people, by and large, are struggling. Life has become brutally hard, and the American dream has dried up as the nation’s elites have become a society apart. The simple truth is that many frustrated, ignored and unhappy people are falling for one of the oldest and most malicious lies there has ever been.”--Steve Schmidt
Excellent paragraph. Americans having been losing for generations. The wealth gap started under Reagan ( tax cuts and deregulation), and has continued by both parties as they became more addicted to billionaire campaign funding. I won’t argue who’s more at fault, since it’s irrelevant for this discussion.
The point is that wage increases and cost of living increases have been the best seen in the last three decades. Unemployment is at its lowest since 1962, and our economy is continuing to grow and outperform the entire world.
We even have record luxury car and yacht sales.; usually a sign of a robust economy. The people who struggle the most: healthcare, education, and living paycheck to paycheck are worse off because they continually vote against their interests; electing men and women who refuse Medicaid, the ACA federal subsidies and are constantly trying to cut entitlement programs. These people continually blame everyone and everything instead of caring enough to make policy based on empirical data and potentially good outcomes.
The real reason we got here is because of complacency and social media brainwashing. Not to mention, the MSM creating controversies where none exist.
As Robert Maynard Hutchins famously said:
“The death of democracy is not likely to be an assassination from ambush. It will be a slow extinction from apathy, indifference, and undernourishment.”
You’ve been reading my comments, even today I responded this same . PROFOUND 🔨Thank you and I underscore the pinpoint thumbed reality .
Throwing more money at it?
What to do?
I told ya so ... practice this in the mirror for 2025 Plans?
I DO STILL believe in the resilience of The American People to rally forth and vote A 💙TSUNAMI...but the work has then ...just begun. These issues bravely aforementioned have GOT to be addressed. There are a whole hoard of entrenched complicit needing ousted with equal commitment to voting 💙
We can not become increasingly complacent, carrying a big stick REALITY has got to focus on results for those disenfranchised , equality is prime focus.
Much to do, many loopholes to close, many hands to grab and lift to decency.
This lesson recognized as such is 🗣️last chance ...here’s our sign.....
💙💙VOTE ALL THE COMPLICIT OUT💙💙
Agreed. Well said. I’m sure throwing money alone at the problem won’t work. See DeSatan’s super pac that burned through hundreds of millions with nothing to show for it; although, being a flawed candidate didn’t help him much...:)
Democrats need a Joe Welsh moment. Someone who materializes out of thin air and turns the conversation on its head. Someone who can wake America up from its perennial stupor!
Think of Joe the Plumber. He may have represented the worst of our ideals, and was a fraud, but he managed to galvanize the Tea Party movement and advance its cause.
We need someone to step up with logic, and charisma. Clearly, no in the current administration fits the bill. That said, the message will reverberate far better if it comes from an outsider.
Steve’s a political scientist and respected political consultant. Perhaps he has some ideas, and if we can’t find someone who is representative and capable of resonating with the “unenthusiastic” base, and independents, then we need to manufacture someone; quick!
Just a thought...:)
Can we find another Mark Anthony ? I’m all ears.
I invite ,would welcome, support Steve .
You’ve got the knack Steve...to get right in there with a genuine punch , congenial truth punch! Never before ( a giddy laugh frequent)...heard anyone call a liar out so profoundly succinct.
Spot on Mr. Jaffee, as usual!
One of the reasons that I think Democrats, Never Trumpers, and Never-Again Trumpers (my term) are struggling to get Republicans and MAGA voters to cast pro-democracy votes is that I honestly believe that Republicans and MAGA voters do not care about democracy. As you point out, many people are hurting, even though the economy has come roaring back after the pandemic. How do you stop the hurt? One way, IMO, is to promote economic equality by restoring labor unions and by fighting corporate greed. The opposite way is to usher in an American Hitler and an American version of Nazism.
President Biden’s administration has done a great deal to help ordinary Americans, but Republicans in Congress care more about beating him than about assisting their constituents. If Fox News and Republicans are telling someone that Biden is stealing elections and hasn’t done anything for them, and that foreign people, “thugs,” and socialists are running rampant, they may turn to someone who is willling not only to end democracy, but to rid the country of the perceived culprits. Those of us who are descended from Holocaust victims know how that ends.
I am not descendent from holocaust victims , but I am German and feel their pain . I was born in 1943 into the rubble of what was left of Germany. It was hard . I do not understand how anyone can support a fascist movement like MAGA and a Hitler wannabe after seeing what happened to the world under that.
I wish some of the propaganda footage of 1930s and 40s in Germany was regularly shown on the media to show how it all started.
Audrey, I agree. I think instead of talking about losing our democracy, which they don't seem to care about (or understand its value), the Democrats need to push heavily on what it would mean to them personally if they were to ltose it I favor of an autocratic and/or dictator.
They need to be told of the rights they would lose, the choices taken away from them in that kind of society, what it's like to live in a state of fear. I think their image of a MAGA Nirvana is vastly different than what they are hoping for.
And I am glad Obama has spoken out as the Biden campaign needs to fire up and get loud..... they have been too insular and complacent. Let's hope he stays involved in some capacity, and helps shepherd Biden through to victory.
Thanks Audrey, wow ...do you mind if I use this last sentence ? I am impressed with you all speaking eloquently , though it’s the choir mostly some I share these pieces with have agreed, changed their thought process..it was very slow...turtle won, right 😉👏🙌
By all means, go ahead and share. Even though we are indeed preaching to the choir here, if someone shares ideas with the off-key folks who think they can sing, maybe we’ll get through! :-)
We have already glimpsed what the future would look like with a Trump victory. Have we forgotten the hundreds of thousands of unnecessary deaths from covid. Have we forgotten the degradation of separating children from parents and putting them in cages at the southern border. Have we forgotten Trump believing Putin over his own intelligence services. Have we forgotten good people on both sides of a KKK rally in Virginia. My God do we really believe it was better under Trump after he tanked the economy during covid. Are we living in a world where facts no longer matter and January 6th never happened? I hope not. Please vote Blue and let freedom ring from sea to shining sea. We were conceived in liberty and need to remain a democracy of our choosing. Please choose wisely and vote blue.
Beyond the pale, right Patrick?
Way beyond!
Right On!! Vote Blue!! (Happy New Year, Patrick!)
Peace
I have a friend of 50 years. He's for Trump. I'm for democracy.
We have told each other we will always be friends. I have patiently listened to his "reasons" why he supports Trump:
1) Everyone is corrupt. So if you're going to hold Trump accountable, you have to hold everyone else accountable. 2) Pelosi is responsible for Jan 6 because she failed to keep us all safe by failing to order more security. 3) There were no wars with Trump. Now there's nothing but wars. 4) All of us know Trump is a narcissist. So what? 5) Biden is destroying the country.
There's much more, but I'll stop there.
I think #1 is his main reason for supporting Trump. Once again what I'm hearing beneath his comments is a victim mentality, a profound woundedness that conditions are unfair to him personally and to Trump, and that only Trump can fix it.
My friend's girlfriend is not talking to him in light of recent pro-Trump statements he made on Facebook. He is quite bothered by this.
I'm beginning to believe that this may be the only way to deal with MAGA folks, i.e., by following the guidelines for an intervention for people with substance abuse:
I love you, but you're behaving badly. You're destroying yourself in front of my eyes and I'm playing the role of enabling you. Get help or my door is closed to you.
My fear is there may be too many of them and not enough of us.
I am frightened for the first time in my 64 years that if Trump wins I will be personally retaliated against for my critical comments about Trump and MAGA.
But I will persist.
I am also most concerned by the war remark, not by the MAGA but by the Bernie Sander’s millennial who thinks that it was because of Biden’s weak and confusing message. I disagree. Besides putting an end to Osama bin Laden, Obama and Biden very effectively punished Putin for invading Ukraine in 2014. Putin’s fortune was greatly reduced and his ability to intimidate his neighbors was very much weakened because of Obama/Biden administration. But after Trump’s win in 2016 that was all reversed. In the beginning of Biden’s presidency, Putin, who was energized by Trump, began to prepare the invasion of Ukraine in front of everyone’s view. And he invaded in 2022. As he is now losing very badly and having to fear for his own survival, he and his allies are now throwing the entire world into the fire. So anything they could think of will be attacked in cyber or political space, with any and all antidemocratic forces across the globe. Putin has put himself in a very difficult spot and with the hope of Trump’s comeback he is holding on at all cost. We are in the eye of the storm that Trump got this country into. Biden knows the intricacy of this and he will get us out of this. Putin is very afraid of Biden. That was why he was doing everything he could to help Trump in 2020 and also in this year’s elections.
Hi May, I follow Peter Zeihan, who's a geopolitical strategist. He states that Russia (and China) is facing demographic collapse, and that this is their last decade to assert themselves.
Still, he goes on to state, the calculus of the Ukraine conflict works very much in favor of the Russians who are always willing to throw people at a problem. The Russians greatly outnumber the Ukrainians. A war of attrition works to Russia's advantage. (Per Stalin, "quantity is a quality all its own.")
I hope the US will continue its support of Ukraine.
Certainly, if Trump wins, Ukraine goes to Russia (a resolution to the war within 24 hours as Trump spouts), and Taiwan goes to China.
Yes true, Putin is now throwing everything at Ukraine as if they are fighting a real world war. Even though Ukraine is so much smaller in size and in economic power. Ukrainians are truly fighting a war of David and Goliath. For all of us the war of attrition works in Putin’s favor, at least on the surface. Even the little unmanned drones that challenged the Russian’s higher explosives and heavy equipments is turning into Putin’s favor since he is now sending enormous swarms of drones in addition to his indiscriminate bombings. For Ukraine to withstand this and to prevail we need a steady and unwavering commitment from the US to continue to lead fifty nations alliance to support them. The GOPs in the congress is dangerous and demoralizing to the entire democratic world with its inability to take any real action to support the United States and its allies. But I still believe that Putin is losing. Just watch this. https://youtu.be/jA9XHNjgV8M?si=vtnbHPTpsQTZdK0v
There is no reason to be afraid, united we stand, together. If you can’t tell it like it is now, when will you be able too. The lying insipid clown has no business anywhere in America except our deepest darkest prison. I would like to bulldoze his FL palace and turn the property into a public park for children.
I wonder how all of the "victims" are able to spend so much money on Trump/MAGA merchandise and travel to rallies. Another example of cognitive dissonance. Perhaps pointing that out to them should be part of the intervention.
You seem to be blaming a Democratic super PAC for the abomination that is Trump. Biden is the only person who has ever defeated Trump. He will defeat him again.
Gisele,
I’m not doing that at all. I’m simply saying that the Biden campaign and its Super PAC allies MUST fight back HARD against the abomination that is Trump.
Steve
Keep hitting (figuratively) and hitting until the MAGA fall down and can't get up. We need an onslaught of truth aimed at the misled and misinformed. Thank you, Steve. I'm glad I stuck with you.
I asked in a previous comment Steve; Why is MSM all doing death by a thousand razor cuts to Biden?
What instinctually has Katy Tur (a victim of TFG hate), as example, done to become so dismissive of Biden's positives. She's one of many.
I am only of the view Lawrence O'Donnell, Rachael, and Nicolle Wallace are punching above the belt with truth.
My question to you is why is TFG continually getting the benefit on MSM? You know the marketing politics of campaign advertising.
I will repeat myself. Rachel Maddow, a dedicated student of history, said that no country will accept a person like Donald Trump unless it is somehow ready for it. The despair that Steve highlights exists because America is both broken and confused. What is the job of a society but to make the opportunity for a good life available to all who are in it? America does not do that. It rewards greed and avarice and competition that crushes. It allows the wealthy ways to escape fiscal responsibility. It makes life painfully harder for people who are not white…unforgiveable. When CEOs make 300 or 400 times as much money as his/her workers then the system has failed absolutely. All you get is the mass of population with footprints all over their backs and a willingness to turn, even religiously, to the Godless man that says, “I alone can fix it”. Well, it sure as hell needs fixing. So who supports the laws and initiatives and programs that work to level the playing field? The Democrats generally and Joe Biden specifically. The trouble is it is so hard for them to do what they need to do. Even Obamacare squeaked through, just one of the programs intended to level the playing field. Like Joe Biden’s $35 insulin cap, same thing. The Constitution, Gerrymandering and the Filibuster are like walls against progress. Democrats stand ready to pass the laws and find the ways to help the people who need it most, with imagination and compassion. You just have to give them a solid House majority, sixty Senators and clean up the State legislatures like Texas and Ohio and others, always Red, where humanity has taken a long but undeserved vacation. Greg Abbott is the Devil in a wheelchair and stupid Texas, as usual, bigger than anybody else in their corrupt and evil stupidity, wants razor wire at the border and a gun in every pocket. Why? And why oh why oh why-O would anyone want to live in Ohio? Certainly not a ten year old pregnant girl. So called conservative thinking is making your country damned near unlivable, with guns, forced birth, unfair taxes, book burnings, white supremacy, the list goes on. Please, use this election to rid yourselves of these evil and destructive people who are a roadblock to what America should be and could be again.
Quoting from Heather Cox Richardson this morning, "Siblings Jonathan and Olivia Pollock, whose family owns Rapture Guns and Knives, described on its Facebook page as a “christian owned Gun and Knife store” in Lakeland, Florida, and Joseph Hutchinson III, who once worked there, are suspected of some of the worst violence of January 6. The FBI had offered a $30,000 reward for “Jonny” Pollock, while the other two had been arrested but removed their ankle bracelets in March 2023 and fled."
Steve, why not talk about the gullibility of the evangelical christians who, since they believe everything their leaders say, will swallow anything "the chosen one" will say? You pointed out the ignorance of people who believe humans and dinosaurs lived at the same time. That's only one example.
How does one convince those people they've been lied to by their leaders?
Will Rogers is still correct. He said: I belong to no organized political party. I am a Democrat.” It’s ironic that Democrats have the programs these people need. This message has to get out. Get Obama, entertainment people, athletes and everyone out on the stump with messages people understand. Some are too attached to their grievances to listen. For them, The Civil War never ended.
You are right, the message is not getting out. Biden asked at the Valley Forge, “We all know who Donald Trump is. The question we have to answer is who are we? That’s what’s at stake. Who are we?”
The Democratic Super PAC‘s mere mention of what Trump said will not do anything. They have to go back and revisit Biden’s speech, here is how Biden answered it.
“That’s what’s at stake. Who are we?
In the year ahead, as you talk to your family and friends, cast your ballots, the power is in your hands. After all we’ve been through in our history, from independence to civil war to two world wars to a pandemic to insurrection, I refuse to believe that in 2024 we Americans will choose to walk away from what’s made us the greatest nation in the history of the world.
Freedom, liberty. Democracy is still a sacred cause, and there’s no country in the world better positioned to lead the world than America.
That’s why, I’ve said it many times, that’s why I’ve never been more optimistic about our future, and I’ve been doing this a hell of a long time.
Just to remember who we are. With patience and fortitude, with one heart, we are the United States of America, for God’s sake. I mean it. There’s nothing. I believe with every fiber there’s nothing beyond our capacity if we act together and decently with one another.
Nothing. Nothing. Nothing. I mean it. We’re the only nation in the world that’s come out of every crisis stronger than we went into that crisis. And that was true yesterday.
It is true today. And I guarantee you it will be true tomorrow.”
Thanks for your thoughtful post.
"The American people, by and large, are struggling. Life has become brutally hard, and the American dream has dried up as the nation’s elites have become a society apart. The simple truth is that many frustrated, ignored and unhappy people are falling for one of the oldest and most malicious lies there has ever been."
Hitting the nail on the head.
Steve, one of the main grades I taught was 6th grade. The faces of so many of my students, from years ago, came to mind while reading what you shared today. My heart is broken. Please keep speaking out for the children who have no voice and no choice in this insanity. Great work, Steve!!
When it comes to loosing Decency, Warnings must be heeded. Put that in a Super PAC.
I've heard Iowa High Schoolers plan a walkout tomorrow to protest this state’s nonexistent gun laws. I hope they do.
Life has ALWAYS been a struggle for those at the lower end of the economy, and due to lack of skills, intelligence, or just plain luck there will always be people at the lower end. Now, the GOP has had a lunatic fringe for as long as I've been around, it was the Minutemen militias and Birchers in the 60s, but the Party was able to suppress them and keep them marginalized. But today the fringe IS the Party and the lunatics are off the grass and in the hall. The Party had several opportunities to rid themselves of Trump and they didn't do it, hoping the courts or the Democrats would do it for them I guess. Steve, I applaud conservative Republicans such as yourself and other Never Trumpers, it's why I send money to you every month, but to break this populist fever it's going to take the help of senior Republicans to join in and start talking truth to the base, and so far I'm not seeing it. If anything, other than the ones who are whipping the base into an even greater frenzy, they are cowering in fear of a Trump tweet and their own voters.
I think Steve has gone after these people or fruitcakes or whatever they are. I am gobsmacked by the idea that people actually sat around a kitchen table, no alcohol, no drugs and came up with the name “Rapture Guns & Knives”. That there is an FBI reward for these people just makes it seem even more like an SNL skit. A little more of this foolishness, not to mention evil, and Christian will become a dirty world. I’m an atheist but like to think of Christian as a compliment because of the value, Jesus’ values, that it used to represent. Not any more. Many are just Trump-loving Looloobirds.
Get over it! Tell that to the families that have lost so many children just sending them off to school in the morning.packing a lunch , kissing them goodbye not realizing this is the last time. get over it BS. But what else would you expect from someone that has no soul, no heart and only cares about himself. And people support him !?
I strongly agree with Carol Gamm. What the Dems really need is a simple, straightforward message highlighting the Dems' achievements against what the gop has done and failed to do. Then this message must be repeated over and over in all newspapers, TV stations, and all other media, day after day until the election. If a lie, told over and over can be seen as the truth, then why not the truth told over and over, and hopefully it will sink in to anyone and everyone who listens to it. The message also must incorporate the need to vote to preserve civil rights. Sam Teller
As some who has lost a child, I must comment. One of the worst things you can say, if not THE worst thing you can say, to a parent who’s lost a a child is “get over it “, “move through it”, or phrases like that. The reason is a parent who’s lost a child NEVER gets over it. Never. You are never the same because it’s not possible. You will eventually process through your grief, but you are never the same and you will not be same. It’s one of the great misunderstandings that many make about grieving. That’s a fact. For someone like Trump who wants to be a president this should be a huge”red flag” for all Americans. He has ZERO emotional intelligence and compassion. Absolutely none, and that is something an effective leader MUST have. Imagine how the parents of these tragically killed children feel right now, especially when they hear Trump’s words. Actually, no one who has not lost a child can begin to understand how these parents feel. It is total emotional and physical devastation. But we can feel compassion, love, and empathy for these parents, something Trump has none of. If you’ve lost a child, you would not wish that on your worst enemy. No parents expects their kid to precede them in death. Trump has proven here yet again why he’s unfit for public office- not even dog catcher. My heart goes out to these parents. May the God of all comfort draw these parents and families near and hold them close through this nightmare. Make no mistake, it is truly a nightmare of the worst kind.
www.tomthedemocratist.com
Biden understands, I see that on his face every time, as well as Jamie Raskin. I feel their sorrow and their grief. And their genuine commitment to help others that came from it.
…and Chris Murphy who fights this fight every day. The quality of Democrats is excellent because their motivation is public service in place of power, though they need power to perform their public service at its best. Right on, May!