America is being vandalized. Specifically, the American people are being abused and denigrated by their politicians. More precisely, they have become the targets of systemic gaslighting from the MAGA radicals and fascists who seek power by overturning democracy — lest they be forced to share it with a political opposition.
This is the worst case of "be careful what you wish for". Most of us don't want what the maga idiots think they want. (using the word "think" very loosely.)
The vote in 2024 needs to throw out the bottom feeders in Congress.
The key to saving our Democracy lies in voting for the Democratic party. Under normal circumstances, one would usually aim to choose who they think would be the best PERSON for the job. These are not normal circumstances.
And ACT. We need to help in ways we can the candidates we know will help reverse the hateful, immoral, unjust direction the current US House and so many state houses are taking. Donate, send postcards, make calls or go door to door. Yes vote. Early if you can. Check your state laws to know if or how you can help others vote. Help them where allowed. Be a poll worker. Ballot counter. I have a friend who has, for years, taken vacation to campaign in contested states as well as their own. Having lived by young life around Survivors; having marched and acted for rights all my life. Living now tells me that just as shrugging off climate actions was thought not necessary so is thinking others will take care and we just need vote. Commit to more. Please.
Life under the MAGA cretins would be no life at all. I still don't believe that more Americans than not would vote these maggots into power. I am seriously hoping I'm correct.
For the sake of the country, I hope that you're right. Given the current poll numbers, including/especially those in swing states such as Pennsylvania, Wisconsin, Arizona, Georgia and Michigan, I greatly fear that you're wrong.
I try not to listen to polls. My grandson works for Quinnipiac University polling. He told me if he talks to a couple of people each shift, that's a successful shift. Polls aren't always accurate and we're still far out from the election. Things can change in a heartbeat.
I never respond to polls because I don't know who is behind them plus we never answer the phone unless we recognize the number or it's in our contact list. So just how accurate are polls these days? How many people does your grandson call on average per hour?
I'm not sure. I will ask him, though. He does this part-time from home. I believe it's a four hour shift. I'm guessing he calls many numbers during that time.
Not ready to end the experiment thank you. Ready to toss the MAGA crowd out of Congress.
Please consider where your expertise and interests are and join in to register voters, text bank, phone bank, write letters or postcards, door knock (great exercise) or serve as an election judge.
The good news is people are involved. I attempted to sign up for an Ohio “ vote No on issue 1” text bank, and they were full. Hearing early Ohio voting is 50x higher than expected. People want democracy not MAGA.
We can stop MAGA, we can stop Kevin and his cohort. The clown show will continue until we bring out the hooks
It’s nice to put the thoughts in my mind on the internet. From what I’ve seen and read, McCarthy has to be the most vile, lying imbecile and pathetic of a person besides his dutiful cult leader, DJT. He sounds like the scum of the earth if there ever was one. How has McCarthy survived in all this time? Does he really represent his constituents in his district in Cali and do the constituents agree with his gaslighting ‘truth’? Is he a part of DJT’s spine and performs his devil’s work for him? Does McCarthy truly believe in DJT’s authoritarian policies? Did McCarthy want the ‘Speaker of the House’ so bad that he sell his soul to the highest bidder? Does McCarthy know the meaning of SOTH? Do the Democrats have to show him what serving the people really means by voting him out of the slim majority and out of the speakership? I would like for everyone to vote Blue to save our democracy from the evils of the other side. The questions were food for thought. MAGA will never represent me and my beliefs. In 2024, let’s put them back in the sewer with the hopes of never dealing with them again!
Oh no he doesn’t have a soul. He is just going through the motions in life. I imagine he did when he began his servitude to the people. That ultimately changed once the influence of others permeated his thoughts and actions.
And have friend that lives in what used to be his district. He has done very, very little for the people he represents.a major disgrace for my home state. At least I am in Southern California
This is what confounds me too, Loren. Do the people of his district approve? I didn’t think CA suffered from the ultra-gerrymandering that undermines the will of the people. How does he survive?
Because he’s from Bakersfield... not exactly the bastion of intelligent voters.. same with Nunes. That part of our central valley is an interesting place, not exactly the best of what California represents.. like Kentucky, where McConnell keeps getting the votes..does absolutely nothing for their people..
Are we ready to get money out of politics? American Democracy is no longer the home of the free & the brave, but the land of greed & depraved. Until “profit” is taken out of our election process system, it will continually evolve into a commercial business only interested in money. No wonder it feels like a reality show or a MyPillow ad. This was not how it was intended. Money is not a form of speech and profit is not the goal.
Where to start a comment after Steve so eloquent puts MAGA land on full flame thrower.
While reading this piece, I couldn't help but flash back to 'Get Smart' and the utter absurdity of how incompetent the Agents of Control were. The Keystone Cops of spy land.
So are Kevin the Klown and Newt the Serial Cheater having their little pow wow's in the cone of silence? Don't they understand that just because their little 30% caucus will follow them off the cliffs that they are not doing their required job to help govern this country? When MTG comes off as the least batty out of the MAGA tribe, then you know this whole thing is 'F'ed up beyond repair.
Maybe it is too early in the game BUT where are our former Democratic Presidents??? I use the word Democratic, as in Democracy only for now while we still have it. If this is as bad as it feels, Clinton & Obama need to be out there pounding the pavement. They are both excellent orators so why not have them beating the drum. The Democracy that they both did a very good job of running is in the balance. We have no time to waste.
Here’s a question for ask me anything: In one of your conversation with Maria Shriver, you were asked who the smartest / most impressive people you’ve dealt with during your time in politics. You answered diplomatically and without a long list, but you did mention John Roberts. Could you expand on that while also taking into account his seeming blindness to ongoing racism in this country? As he has, piece by piece, led the dismantling of the voting rights act and found no way to allow for race-consciousness in college admissions, the imbedded racism in this country has grown more and more visible and strident (especially regarding voting rights and congressional districts). Is he making political calculations? Does he really believe we are post-racism? Your informed opinion would help me re-form my own. Thank you.
And, when Roberts was employed by Reagan in the DOJ, he wrote extensively about how to overturn Roe v Wade. How does that fit into your exalted opinion about Justice John Robert’s, Steve? And how is he ok with his wife making $10 million from law firms that will be appearing before the Supreme Court? I think your high opinion of Justice Roberts is misplaced.
You and everyone here might want to read Amanda's Marcotte's short piece this a.m. from her bi-weekly Standing Room Only e-letter for Salon.com:
**No number of Trump crimes will make MAGA admit he’s a criminal**
Of course, the continuing source of media fascination — for understandable reasons! — is how Trump’s position in the GOP primary is only strengthening as the indictments come raining down. New York Times polling shows Trump has 54% support in the GOP, and really only a third of Republicans are even hesitant to back a man who has committed sexual assault, sedition, tax fraud, and violations of the Espionage Act.
It’s hard to get a handle exactly on why, because Republican voters lie, just like their idol. Only 13% will admit to a pollster that Trump’s attempted coup was a crime. This is not because Republicans are unaware that Trump is a criminal. Really, it’s more about their ideological belief that they are entitled to rewrite reality. Or more specifically, it’s because they want to redefine “criminal.” They don’t want “criminal” to mean “person who committed a crime.” They want it to be based on your skin color and perceived political affiliation. Liberals are “criminals,” in this view, especially if they’re Black. Conservatives, no matter what they do, cannot be “criminals,” especially if they’re white.
This is especially evident as the right brattily drove Jason Aldean’s dumb “Try That In A Small Town” song up the iTunes charts, even though it sucks. The song and especially the video embodies this view. Black Lives Matter protesters are equated with criminals, even though actual research shows that the percentage of protesters who committed violence was immeasurably tiny. The song also unsubtly celebrates lynching, which is a straight up crime. But in MAGA America, a peaceful progressive is a “criminal” and a right winger itching to murder people is merely a “patriot.”
And, of course, the result of this is Trump issues violent threats on a regular basis now, and even though he’s openly begging people to commit crimes, his voters still refuse to admit he’s a criminal.
Rachel Maddow's observation last night that every single governor in the country (yup, all 50 of 'em) have positive polling numbers belies the misery Republicans are selling. In other words, things are looking up for most Americans. Otherwise, they would be blaming the politicians with the highest local profile.
It boggles my mind that so many voters continue to follow those most responsible for decimating the middle class, and support the politicians advocating policies that solely benefit those that need it the least.
Why is it that Republican politicians and their accomplices on the Right Wing Liar radio and TV networks can scare the bejeezus out of so many people with BS, and "our" side can't do the very same thing with the truth? We have some real problems to solve, and Hunter Biden ain't one of 'em.
"The fringes of his conference” is quite a description and declaration of naïveté from CNN about reality. There is no fringe in the MAGA majority. It is an undulating blob of layered imbecility, cowardice, vice, extremism, ignorance, ambition, incompetence and scheming, bubbling and gurgling together in a ceaseless assault against democracy. The fringe and its middle are identical. MAGA is round and without edges. "
This. This paragraph is the reason that you are a treasure, Steve.
Again, you bring up the idea that the American people, by means of the vote will be the deciders in all of this.. While a feckless Democratic Party does little to take on the more urgent matter of ridding the country of a war monger and his mob..You seem to avoid what I and others believe to be the factual matter that the attack on our Capitol, conceived and conspiratorially put forward by Donald Trump and his allies was an act of war..
We have been in desperate times that have yet to receive the desperate measures required to crush this fascist insurgency..The legal path lead by Jack Smith while proper and a significantly strong evidence heavy case is insufficient to the need at hand..Simply speaking a jury could go either way..NOT GOOD ENOUGH..
This was not a bank robbery, it was an insurrection to overturn a free and fair election, shred our Constitution and destroy our Democracy..Where is the unprecedented significant pressure being brought down on the Republicans? Trump and his allies must be crushed, and not at the ballot box..We have always been way past that as a remedy..But where is the will to act?
Yes, what in the hell is going on?! DJT is front-runner in GOP after inciting a violent insurrection against our government?! He and his cohorts are domestic terrorists; they are an immediate threat to the safety of citizens of this country and to the continuation of Democracy. They are domestic terrorists who have enacted real crimes resulting in death in the USA. What do we do to foreign terrorist who have attacked our country and continue to be a threat? That 'solution', I feel, is appropriate for DJT and a few others. Chop off the head of the MAGA domestic terrorist leader, swiftly, and completely. Take him out. Put him down. Now. Forever. Desperate times require desperate measures. Let's get a handle on this!
Thanks to Steve and to all of you. It’s good to know that you are out there. Kevin McCarthy is a disgrace, but he has no morals. Nothing is a problem for him. An essential part of the Republican treason is the attempted destruction of voting rights. I feel as if we are back in the 50’s and early 60’s. Look at what’s happening across the country, notably In Alabama. It’s hard to comprehend how far we have fallen and how so many are OK with this.
MAGA GOP gives them too much legitimacy. Nothing grand. Only cherry-picks American history’s bad. Okay, party’s fine, but it’s more of the clowncar variety.
Steve, you hit the perfect word in your column, one that captures what the party of Lincoln has become. Can we refer to them like this from now on?
In different ways you, the creative and deeply good Michael Moore, Greg Olear and a few others light the needed🔥fire of outrage evident in your desire to save us from ourselves.
Our message is simple: vote Democrat. With Abe Lincoln, it was vote Republican.
Regardless, President Abe Lincoln urged respect, courage, prayer, hope not despair, civil rights, and emancipation.
It’s not about Party. It’s about tolerance, love, compassion, children and tomorrow.
This is the worst case of "be careful what you wish for". Most of us don't want what the maga idiots think they want. (using the word "think" very loosely.)
The vote in 2024 needs to throw out the bottom feeders in Congress.
The key to saving our Democracy lies in voting for the Democratic party. Under normal circumstances, one would usually aim to choose who they think would be the best PERSON for the job. These are not normal circumstances.
Talk to everyone you can...vote Democrat in 2024.
And ACT. We need to help in ways we can the candidates we know will help reverse the hateful, immoral, unjust direction the current US House and so many state houses are taking. Donate, send postcards, make calls or go door to door. Yes vote. Early if you can. Check your state laws to know if or how you can help others vote. Help them where allowed. Be a poll worker. Ballot counter. I have a friend who has, for years, taken vacation to campaign in contested states as well as their own. Having lived by young life around Survivors; having marched and acted for rights all my life. Living now tells me that just as shrugging off climate actions was thought not necessary so is thinking others will take care and we just need vote. Commit to more. Please.
Life under the MAGA cretins would be no life at all. I still don't believe that more Americans than not would vote these maggots into power. I am seriously hoping I'm correct.
For the sake of the country, I hope that you're right. Given the current poll numbers, including/especially those in swing states such as Pennsylvania, Wisconsin, Arizona, Georgia and Michigan, I greatly fear that you're wrong.
I try not to listen to polls. My grandson works for Quinnipiac University polling. He told me if he talks to a couple of people each shift, that's a successful shift. Polls aren't always accurate and we're still far out from the election. Things can change in a heartbeat.
I never respond to polls because I don't know who is behind them plus we never answer the phone unless we recognize the number or it's in our contact list. So just how accurate are polls these days? How many people does your grandson call on average per hour?
I'm not sure. I will ask him, though. He does this part-time from home. I believe it's a four hour shift. I'm guessing he calls many numbers during that time.
Not ready to end the experiment thank you. Ready to toss the MAGA crowd out of Congress.
Please consider where your expertise and interests are and join in to register voters, text bank, phone bank, write letters or postcards, door knock (great exercise) or serve as an election judge.
The good news is people are involved. I attempted to sign up for an Ohio “ vote No on issue 1” text bank, and they were full. Hearing early Ohio voting is 50x higher than expected. People want democracy not MAGA.
We can stop MAGA, we can stop Kevin and his cohort. The clown show will continue until we bring out the hooks
And drag them off. Find your hook and help.
It’s nice to put the thoughts in my mind on the internet. From what I’ve seen and read, McCarthy has to be the most vile, lying imbecile and pathetic of a person besides his dutiful cult leader, DJT. He sounds like the scum of the earth if there ever was one. How has McCarthy survived in all this time? Does he really represent his constituents in his district in Cali and do the constituents agree with his gaslighting ‘truth’? Is he a part of DJT’s spine and performs his devil’s work for him? Does McCarthy truly believe in DJT’s authoritarian policies? Did McCarthy want the ‘Speaker of the House’ so bad that he sell his soul to the highest bidder? Does McCarthy know the meaning of SOTH? Do the Democrats have to show him what serving the people really means by voting him out of the slim majority and out of the speakership? I would like for everyone to vote Blue to save our democracy from the evils of the other side. The questions were food for thought. MAGA will never represent me and my beliefs. In 2024, let’s put them back in the sewer with the hopes of never dealing with them again!
Charlie McCarthy doesn't have a soul. He's just a wooden puppet sitting on TFG's knee while TFG pulls the strings.
It should say, McCarthy would sell his soul.
I disagree with your central premise, as it would suggest that McCarthy has a soul.
Oh no he doesn’t have a soul. He is just going through the motions in life. I imagine he did when he began his servitude to the people. That ultimately changed once the influence of others permeated his thoughts and actions.
And have friend that lives in what used to be his district. He has done very, very little for the people he represents.a major disgrace for my home state. At least I am in Southern California
This is what confounds me too, Loren. Do the people of his district approve? I didn’t think CA suffered from the ultra-gerrymandering that undermines the will of the people. How does he survive?
Because he’s from Bakersfield... not exactly the bastion of intelligent voters.. same with Nunes. That part of our central valley is an interesting place, not exactly the best of what California represents.. like Kentucky, where McConnell keeps getting the votes..does absolutely nothing for their people..
Are we ready to get money out of politics? American Democracy is no longer the home of the free & the brave, but the land of greed & depraved. Until “profit” is taken out of our election process system, it will continually evolve into a commercial business only interested in money. No wonder it feels like a reality show or a MyPillow ad. This was not how it was intended. Money is not a form of speech and profit is not the goal.
Start by getting rid of Citizens United! Money is ruining our Democracy!
Well put
Where to start a comment after Steve so eloquent puts MAGA land on full flame thrower.
While reading this piece, I couldn't help but flash back to 'Get Smart' and the utter absurdity of how incompetent the Agents of Control were. The Keystone Cops of spy land.
So are Kevin the Klown and Newt the Serial Cheater having their little pow wow's in the cone of silence? Don't they understand that just because their little 30% caucus will follow them off the cliffs that they are not doing their required job to help govern this country? When MTG comes off as the least batty out of the MAGA tribe, then you know this whole thing is 'F'ed up beyond repair.
Just ask Steve
Maybe it is too early in the game BUT where are our former Democratic Presidents??? I use the word Democratic, as in Democracy only for now while we still have it. If this is as bad as it feels, Clinton & Obama need to be out there pounding the pavement. They are both excellent orators so why not have them beating the drum. The Democracy that they both did a very good job of running is in the balance. We have no time to waste.
Here’s a question for ask me anything: In one of your conversation with Maria Shriver, you were asked who the smartest / most impressive people you’ve dealt with during your time in politics. You answered diplomatically and without a long list, but you did mention John Roberts. Could you expand on that while also taking into account his seeming blindness to ongoing racism in this country? As he has, piece by piece, led the dismantling of the voting rights act and found no way to allow for race-consciousness in college admissions, the imbedded racism in this country has grown more and more visible and strident (especially regarding voting rights and congressional districts). Is he making political calculations? Does he really believe we are post-racism? Your informed opinion would help me re-form my own. Thank you.
And, when Roberts was employed by Reagan in the DOJ, he wrote extensively about how to overturn Roe v Wade. How does that fit into your exalted opinion about Justice John Robert’s, Steve? And how is he ok with his wife making $10 million from law firms that will be appearing before the Supreme Court? I think your high opinion of Justice Roberts is misplaced.
I think I’m going to be sick.
Consider working against them. Action helps
Another tremendously searing analysis, Steve.
You and everyone here might want to read Amanda's Marcotte's short piece this a.m. from her bi-weekly Standing Room Only e-letter for Salon.com:
**No number of Trump crimes will make MAGA admit he’s a criminal**
Of course, the continuing source of media fascination — for understandable reasons! — is how Trump’s position in the GOP primary is only strengthening as the indictments come raining down. New York Times polling shows Trump has 54% support in the GOP, and really only a third of Republicans are even hesitant to back a man who has committed sexual assault, sedition, tax fraud, and violations of the Espionage Act.
It’s hard to get a handle exactly on why, because Republican voters lie, just like their idol. Only 13% will admit to a pollster that Trump’s attempted coup was a crime. This is not because Republicans are unaware that Trump is a criminal. Really, it’s more about their ideological belief that they are entitled to rewrite reality. Or more specifically, it’s because they want to redefine “criminal.” They don’t want “criminal” to mean “person who committed a crime.” They want it to be based on your skin color and perceived political affiliation. Liberals are “criminals,” in this view, especially if they’re Black. Conservatives, no matter what they do, cannot be “criminals,” especially if they’re white.
This is especially evident as the right brattily drove Jason Aldean’s dumb “Try That In A Small Town” song up the iTunes charts, even though it sucks. The song and especially the video embodies this view. Black Lives Matter protesters are equated with criminals, even though actual research shows that the percentage of protesters who committed violence was immeasurably tiny. The song also unsubtly celebrates lynching, which is a straight up crime. But in MAGA America, a peaceful progressive is a “criminal” and a right winger itching to murder people is merely a “patriot.”
And, of course, the result of this is Trump issues violent threats on a regular basis now, and even though he’s openly begging people to commit crimes, his voters still refuse to admit he’s a criminal.
Wow! Excellent, Helpful, Insightful -Thank You!
Rachel Maddow's observation last night that every single governor in the country (yup, all 50 of 'em) have positive polling numbers belies the misery Republicans are selling. In other words, things are looking up for most Americans. Otherwise, they would be blaming the politicians with the highest local profile.
It boggles my mind that so many voters continue to follow those most responsible for decimating the middle class, and support the politicians advocating policies that solely benefit those that need it the least.
Why is it that Republican politicians and their accomplices on the Right Wing Liar radio and TV networks can scare the bejeezus out of so many people with BS, and "our" side can't do the very same thing with the truth? We have some real problems to solve, and Hunter Biden ain't one of 'em.
"The fringes of his conference” is quite a description and declaration of naïveté from CNN about reality. There is no fringe in the MAGA majority. It is an undulating blob of layered imbecility, cowardice, vice, extremism, ignorance, ambition, incompetence and scheming, bubbling and gurgling together in a ceaseless assault against democracy. The fringe and its middle are identical. MAGA is round and without edges. "
This. This paragraph is the reason that you are a treasure, Steve.
Right On! Thanks.
Again, you bring up the idea that the American people, by means of the vote will be the deciders in all of this.. While a feckless Democratic Party does little to take on the more urgent matter of ridding the country of a war monger and his mob..You seem to avoid what I and others believe to be the factual matter that the attack on our Capitol, conceived and conspiratorially put forward by Donald Trump and his allies was an act of war..
We have been in desperate times that have yet to receive the desperate measures required to crush this fascist insurgency..The legal path lead by Jack Smith while proper and a significantly strong evidence heavy case is insufficient to the need at hand..Simply speaking a jury could go either way..NOT GOOD ENOUGH..
This was not a bank robbery, it was an insurrection to overturn a free and fair election, shred our Constitution and destroy our Democracy..Where is the unprecedented significant pressure being brought down on the Republicans? Trump and his allies must be crushed, and not at the ballot box..We have always been way past that as a remedy..But where is the will to act?
Yes, what in the hell is going on?! DJT is front-runner in GOP after inciting a violent insurrection against our government?! He and his cohorts are domestic terrorists; they are an immediate threat to the safety of citizens of this country and to the continuation of Democracy. They are domestic terrorists who have enacted real crimes resulting in death in the USA. What do we do to foreign terrorist who have attacked our country and continue to be a threat? That 'solution', I feel, is appropriate for DJT and a few others. Chop off the head of the MAGA domestic terrorist leader, swiftly, and completely. Take him out. Put him down. Now. Forever. Desperate times require desperate measures. Let's get a handle on this!
Good question
Thank you Janet..
Thanks to Steve and to all of you. It’s good to know that you are out there. Kevin McCarthy is a disgrace, but he has no morals. Nothing is a problem for him. An essential part of the Republican treason is the attempted destruction of voting rights. I feel as if we are back in the 50’s and early 60’s. Look at what’s happening across the country, notably In Alabama. It’s hard to comprehend how far we have fallen and how so many are OK with this.
MAGA GOP gives them too much legitimacy. Nothing grand. Only cherry-picks American history’s bad. Okay, party’s fine, but it’s more of the clowncar variety.
Steve, you hit the perfect word in your column, one that captures what the party of Lincoln has become. Can we refer to them like this from now on?
MAGA BLOB.
.
Dear Steve,
In different ways you, the creative and deeply good Michael Moore, Greg Olear and a few others light the needed🔥fire of outrage evident in your desire to save us from ourselves.
Our message is simple: vote Democrat. With Abe Lincoln, it was vote Republican.
Regardless, President Abe Lincoln urged respect, courage, prayer, hope not despair, civil rights, and emancipation.
It’s not about Party. It’s about tolerance, love, compassion, children and tomorrow.
Sandy
Sandy bless you …even if you’ve never voted for democrat MUST
Hold you breath Boted Strate Blue ticket if you care about freedom democracy being healthy PLEASE!