Very, very cogent. Looks a lot like what Hitler did in 1931. Its time to shock people into believing what Trump is telling them. It’s the ONLY path forward. Even some of the Trumpers, I’ll bet, don’t believe Trump’s real plan (as espoused in Project 2025). Wake up!! There is ONLY one option to protect democracy and personal freedom in America and beyond!! VOTE!!!
I need to vent! I am so angry at Merrick Garland for waiting TWO YEARS to begin prosecuting Trump for his many crimes. Just look at the mess we are in now. If Kamala had been AG instead of VP these criminals all would be tried and convicted by now and the Supreme Court would not be granting immunity to convicts so they might continue their criminal enterprises.
Further, now that POTUS has full immunity for all official acts, why not arrest Trump for fomenting violence and insurrection? Is he NOT a clear threat to the government? Is the job of POTUS to protect democracy or not?!! Dems need to realize they are up against a Retrumplican gang that know no rules.
Trump says he will use the Justice Dept to jail his opponents.... is that not license for Dems to do the same?
Thank you! I don't know WTF is wrong with the "Never Trump coalition" because America was all that supposed to matter. If anything could get the coalition to focus, it's this. I am concerned that they weren't who i thought they were. I am still writing postcards, training to register voters, work the polls but this has been demoralizing. Thanks for this slap in the face.
The so-called Never Trumpers outside of Rick's orbit (mostly at The Bulwark) are not Democrats and think they're using the Democratic Party as a means to an end, which is why I liken them to Bernie bros. But they were out to sea a long time ago. Their beau ideal of the modern GOP is Dubya Bush's party, which is kind of a sick joke, considering that the Islamophobia he unleashed (wittingly or not) was just transferred over to undocumented immigrants. They claim to loathe Christian nationalism but they had no problem with Ted Cruz (hello, Amanda Carpenter!). As consultants they liked to back socially liberal media darlings (Jon Huntsman) and big donor favorites (Jeb Bush) and were completely ineffectual at stopping Trump in the '16 primary. That's why watching them try to piddle around in the Democratic Party nominating process is so farcical. They have a small audience and precious little anthropological understanding of voters, despite all of Sarah Longwell's focus groups.
As for your fears and demoralization, Colette, I hope you watched Joe's NATO press conference last night. He hit it out of the park. His command of foreign policy is nothing short of masterful and his vision of America's role in the world is able to unite old cold warriors like Rick with Rachel Maddow. Joe has to avoid the disastrous performance he gave at the debate to be perfectly sure, but he doesn't need to be "perfect" from here on out -- that's media noise. It would be helpful, as Keith Olbermann suggests, to give on-the-fly events like this once a week from now to the election. Because Joe Biden has been damn excellent at presidenting.
Note something: This isn't like Reagan in '80, when the Democrats were terrified of a sabre rattling washed up B-movie actor and backed their damaged incumbent Jimmy Carter. Carter had a lot of good will among Democrats for being such a decent man, but very few people of any ideological stripe thought he was a particularly good president. Joe's been fantastic.
And that will matter to voters. He just has to keep getting the word out.
I'm still at a loss at how to get through to MAGA people. I have several in my family (doesn't everybody) and they are so cult like it's scary. Something you used to see just with small groups has now gone nationwide, even world wide . No wonder Cons love him, he's able to take their poison and make it tasty to tens of millions more people. And then success breeds success and that means millions more fans. A mental and emotional contagion... a mind virus. Once infected with this virus, it is hard to cure. It's like deprogramming any other cult member I guess. But that takes intensive one-on-one therapy. So what I'm looking for is some kind of mass deprogramming tool. And it should be cheap and easy to use. I'm asking a lot here... I know.
Keith, I've spent almost 2 years trying to answer that very question on my substack newsletter.
First, I don't think there's one answer fits all. There are a range of Trump supporters with different agendas.
Trump understand his supporters' fears and needs, and knows how to exploit them: he amplifies their fear of social and demographic change, gives them someone to blame (Muslims, Mexicans, globalists, elites, ...) presents himself as a demagogic leader (I alone can fix this, I am your voice) and most of all, he satisfies their need for "status as Americans" - which explains why MAGA voters vote against their own economic self-interest; Trump appeals to their self-interest as Americans; it is their Americanism that is threatened and he is the savior of their Americanism. USA, USA, USA. Build the wall, build the wall, build the wall.
I found this explanation in Richard Hofstadter's "The Paranoid Style in American Politics" written in the 1960s (as a response to Sen.Joe McCArthy, Barry Goldwater, the John Birch Society, the rising tide of conservative evangelicalism, etc). Hofstadter's warnings about the "Radical Right" are even more alarming today than they were back then.
Here's my book review of that seminal and timely work:
Thanx... I'll check it out. I have read "The Paranoid Style in American Politics myself. They bundled that long essay with some of his shorter pieces into a reader for college students way back when.
I think you are right, no answer fits all, people go to Trump for a variety of reasons.
But I can't help but think there may be something more to it. The Right has mastered the art of getting people to vote against their own economic interests many years ago. Ronald Reagan got elected on that. Using racial paranoia and sticky sentimentality for a good old days that never really existed. But it did in peoples imaginations. As a Hollywood professional, Reagan was well aware of how to sell fakery. They've made a multi-billion dollar industry out of selling dreams and fantasies after all. And the changing demographics of the country are frightening to a lot of people. Myself included. I prefer my own rather than the other. But I also realize that's just a primitive part of my brain guiding my feelings. And I am heartened by the fact that people of other skin tones and heritages, after being here for a generation or two, are Americans like any other Americans. But it takes some getting used to. But I'm sensing something more at work here. Something that's a part of the human psyche, and for which no one has seemed to find a cure for. And if we don't find a cure for it, may be the end of us yet.
Have you read much of the writings of Edgar Allen Poe. Something more than just the obligatory reading of The Raven (which is a great poem). There are his poetry, his journalism, and the tales of horror. He thought of himself as really being a poet. But did the tales and journalism to make a living. He was very observant and thoughtful and imaginative. Contributed about a dozen new words to American English plus a bunch of other stuff. And was a fast worker, because he accomplished all that by the time he was 40, when he died. Interesting man.
My point: Poe created a character who appeared in several different Tales and in his journalism I think, and was alluded to in some of his poetry. He wrote of it as a character, but really it is an aspect or feature of human nature. The Imp of the Perverse is its name. He described it as something like a short and squat troll or gremlin. Muscular, capable, intelligent, and deadly. A thing which inspires people to commit the most heinous crimes and acts of violence. The Imp contributes nothing good to humanity. Yet he is always with us, in some obscure corner of our hearts and minds. Playing on our fears and desires and greed. Our lust for the destructive. First of others, then of ourselves. Nazi Germany was a regime and then whole country living out the doings of the Imp of the Perverse. He caused unrivaled carnage in other countries. Then ended up bringing disaster down upon the German peoples. The Imperial Japanese regime too. Fascism in general seems an implementation of the spirit of the Imp of the Perverse. And that is very scary. Fascist regimes don't last long. They are much too passionate in their hatred and violence. The fratricide between the Tutsi and Hutu is a more recent example. Despite being only loosely organized militias and posse, the Hutu achieved a kill rate equal to the Nazis for about 3 months. It was a murder spasm. Like the pogroms of Eastern Europe against Jews. And these murder spasms show up in human history repeatedly. They look to be very exciting while they last. People get bored with their ho-hum everyday lives. The Imp will provide some excitement.
And I just can't shake the feeling that the Imp of the Perverse is involved with America right now. Especially MAGA of course. Though maybe with some others too. After all, why spend all that money on guns and training if you're never going to use them??? After much observing of Trump and his cronies. And conversating with MAGA people, some of whom are family members, I can't shake the feeling that they know, as individuals, that Trump is bad. Sometimes the worse he is the better they like him.
An urge to destruction, first of others then of themselves.
That's why it's so important to flush Trumpism right now with a massive Blue wave, but sadly, one stubborn old man may bungle the one last chance to kill the imp, or at least send him back under his rock.
I believe Women have a magic power of life and nurture and fruition, and I hope the Women of America collectively stand up (ie Vote Blue) to kill this evil cancer before it spreads any further. Because as Historian Tim Snyder says, "any election can be the last"
I'm adding links from my newsletter because I'm thinking of shutting it down:
2 years and 40+ articles raising the alarm of Trump and neo-fascism, and now I'm watching the Democrat party (the only chance of beating Trump) stuck with a stubborn old man, lost in a delusional bubble of denial, driven by pride and ego, clinging to power, completely blowing our last chance to stop fascism from taking over America.
I think, what's the use; sound the alarm of a 5-alarm red-alert danger, and the fire department sends out an old veteran with dementia who doesn't listen to anyone and leads us over the cliff instead of fighting the fire of fascism.
Hubris indeed.
Too depressing. But thanks for the Poe references. A wise and prescient man indeed. Where's our wise men now? Who can read the writing on the wall?
Reminds me of Yeats' "Second Coming":
"Things fall apart; the centre cannot hold;
Mere anarchy is loosed upon the world,
The blood-dimmed tide is loosed, and everywhere
The ceremony of innocence is drowned;
The best lack all conviction, while the worst
Are full of passionate intensity.
...
And what rough beast, its hour come round at last,
Rick a light don on Marble head here. You guys should start putting videos of Dead Americans in freezers trucks and lined up in front of nursing homes and talking how lost love ones that they couldn’t say goodbye to their Loved Ones!!! And any shit that he did. Keep kicking he’s ass. Keep speaking truth to LIES!!!👍🏻👊🏻💪🏻🇺🇸🇺🇸🇺🇸🇺🇸
Chilling ad...I sent it to about eight friends...two replies received were "Good Lord, frightening and surreal"... and..."God help us"...I think they, at least, got the picture.
Reading Anne Sebba's Les Parisiennes; how the women of Paris lived, loved, and died under Nazis occupation. This book has disturbing insights into the various layers of Parisian life before, during, and after the occupation. Animal hardships are included. We must not be led there.
Chilling ad. On a lighter note… “Bridging the Boonies to the Boroughs”, great title. I could get into a lot of trouble naming small Oregon towns that are absolutely boonified.
If you ever meet a girl named Timber Lee, she might be from Oregon. There’s at least one out there. I wonder what she’s doing now 🤔
Nominative determination. When we moved to Silverton in 1961, there was a policeman name Bill Law. The guy who titled our bathroom is named Brick Mason 🧱
Republicans have chosen pond scum as their candidate but are 100% behind him. Biden is old and getting older, that isn’t news AND democrats Know what is at stake. But we splinter like a dropped box of tooth picks. Yeah something could happen to Biden, he could decline over the next 4 years and Harris is there to pick up where he left off. The confidence is in the team not the figure head. Who is Trump relying on? He tried to kill his last VP and people from his former staff are either in jail or writing a book on how bad he was but I’m sure Leonard Leo and the heritage foundation have someone n mind to take over. We can’t look to ANY of the media for help. FOX is POUNDING Biden and praising Trump. CNN, former employer of RONNA McDANIEL in case you were wondering who they are rooting for, is pounding Biden as well. Democrats look at candidates and if they don’t like them they will simply not vote and wait 4 years for the next election. THAT is EXACTLY what has gotten us into this mess! If we want there to BE a NEXT then it’s vote BLUE all the way! We are in this alone! BOTE BLUE!
Amen, Jeff. I'm a partisan Democrat to my toenails and have been one my entire life, but I _hate_ this about us. We seem to be perpetually clueless to how easily reflective self-doubt can be weaponized against us. It's like we're begging to be concern trolled.
I, for one, will neither put up with it nor let it stand when I see it.
Rick is 1000% right. We need to become like Republicans when it comes to the team. Not ideologically, of course. Tactically. We have to back our team to the hilt the way the GOP has no problem backing a one-man crime wave.
Have you read James Carville’s article in the NYT about his idea for a solution for the Dems? It sounds like a possibility. I have NO idea if it will work. It’s to bring along the voters who may be choosing to sit this one out. I’m in all the way. I don’t care who the candidate is. They also need to pound them on 2025, there are too many people who have never heard of it… you know… like Trump hasn’t heard of it. The media is, for some reason, NOT pushing this to the front in their broadcast. Either way, glad to know there are others out there that feel this way.
There are several things going on with the media right now. First of all, the so-called liberal legacy media (not including independent outlets like Medias Touch) are owned by conservative corporate heads and some of their executive editors are real pieces of work from Murdoch World. They see bending over backwards to be "fair" to Trump as their ticket to access once he gets reelected. Although as Olbermann, Rick and others never fail to point out, Trump doesn't care and Jake Tapper will wind up in a cell next to Rick Wilson in the gulag.
Secondly, the economics of media are evolving rapidly and monetizing social media is much less profitable than getting a stipend from cable bundling fees. In a desperate bid to stanch their flagging ratings, they see the horserace and the psychodrama about Joe's age as more sexy and clicky than unpacking Project 2025, which falls into the category for them of "this is already baked in the cake about Trump" when of course it is not. It's also a big downer, zero way to look in the bright side about it, and dwelling on it will just get them a quicker ticket to the gulag.
These dynamics are what is causing them to abandon their journalistic credo.
Great commercial. Problem is it feels possible. Why don’t the MAGAts get it? Be sure to run that over and over in the swing and red states. And the blue states where a good portion of dems have lost their collective mind.
Bravo!
Very, very cogent. Looks a lot like what Hitler did in 1931. Its time to shock people into believing what Trump is telling them. It’s the ONLY path forward. Even some of the Trumpers, I’ll bet, don’t believe Trump’s real plan (as espoused in Project 2025). Wake up!! There is ONLY one option to protect democracy and personal freedom in America and beyond!! VOTE!!!
I need to vent! I am so angry at Merrick Garland for waiting TWO YEARS to begin prosecuting Trump for his many crimes. Just look at the mess we are in now. If Kamala had been AG instead of VP these criminals all would be tried and convicted by now and the Supreme Court would not be granting immunity to convicts so they might continue their criminal enterprises.
Further, now that POTUS has full immunity for all official acts, why not arrest Trump for fomenting violence and insurrection? Is he NOT a clear threat to the government? Is the job of POTUS to protect democracy or not?!! Dems need to realize they are up against a Retrumplican gang that know no rules.
Trump says he will use the Justice Dept to jail his opponents.... is that not license for Dems to do the same?
Thank you! I don't know WTF is wrong with the "Never Trump coalition" because America was all that supposed to matter. If anything could get the coalition to focus, it's this. I am concerned that they weren't who i thought they were. I am still writing postcards, training to register voters, work the polls but this has been demoralizing. Thanks for this slap in the face.
The so-called Never Trumpers outside of Rick's orbit (mostly at The Bulwark) are not Democrats and think they're using the Democratic Party as a means to an end, which is why I liken them to Bernie bros. But they were out to sea a long time ago. Their beau ideal of the modern GOP is Dubya Bush's party, which is kind of a sick joke, considering that the Islamophobia he unleashed (wittingly or not) was just transferred over to undocumented immigrants. They claim to loathe Christian nationalism but they had no problem with Ted Cruz (hello, Amanda Carpenter!). As consultants they liked to back socially liberal media darlings (Jon Huntsman) and big donor favorites (Jeb Bush) and were completely ineffectual at stopping Trump in the '16 primary. That's why watching them try to piddle around in the Democratic Party nominating process is so farcical. They have a small audience and precious little anthropological understanding of voters, despite all of Sarah Longwell's focus groups.
As for your fears and demoralization, Colette, I hope you watched Joe's NATO press conference last night. He hit it out of the park. His command of foreign policy is nothing short of masterful and his vision of America's role in the world is able to unite old cold warriors like Rick with Rachel Maddow. Joe has to avoid the disastrous performance he gave at the debate to be perfectly sure, but he doesn't need to be "perfect" from here on out -- that's media noise. It would be helpful, as Keith Olbermann suggests, to give on-the-fly events like this once a week from now to the election. Because Joe Biden has been damn excellent at presidenting.
Note something: This isn't like Reagan in '80, when the Democrats were terrified of a sabre rattling washed up B-movie actor and backed their damaged incumbent Jimmy Carter. Carter had a lot of good will among Democrats for being such a decent man, but very few people of any ideological stripe thought he was a particularly good president. Joe's been fantastic.
And that will matter to voters. He just has to keep getting the word out.
I'm still at a loss at how to get through to MAGA people. I have several in my family (doesn't everybody) and they are so cult like it's scary. Something you used to see just with small groups has now gone nationwide, even world wide . No wonder Cons love him, he's able to take their poison and make it tasty to tens of millions more people. And then success breeds success and that means millions more fans. A mental and emotional contagion... a mind virus. Once infected with this virus, it is hard to cure. It's like deprogramming any other cult member I guess. But that takes intensive one-on-one therapy. So what I'm looking for is some kind of mass deprogramming tool. And it should be cheap and easy to use. I'm asking a lot here... I know.
ANYONE GOT ANY IDEAS???
Keith,
this might be an even better starting point, especially the section on "hyper nationalism":
https://neofascism.substack.com/p/four-faces-of-neo-fascism
Keith, I've spent almost 2 years trying to answer that very question on my substack newsletter.
First, I don't think there's one answer fits all. There are a range of Trump supporters with different agendas.
Trump understand his supporters' fears and needs, and knows how to exploit them: he amplifies their fear of social and demographic change, gives them someone to blame (Muslims, Mexicans, globalists, elites, ...) presents himself as a demagogic leader (I alone can fix this, I am your voice) and most of all, he satisfies their need for "status as Americans" - which explains why MAGA voters vote against their own economic self-interest; Trump appeals to their self-interest as Americans; it is their Americanism that is threatened and he is the savior of their Americanism. USA, USA, USA. Build the wall, build the wall, build the wall.
I found this explanation in Richard Hofstadter's "The Paranoid Style in American Politics" written in the 1960s (as a response to Sen.Joe McCArthy, Barry Goldwater, the John Birch Society, the rising tide of conservative evangelicalism, etc). Hofstadter's warnings about the "Radical Right" are even more alarming today than they were back then.
Here's my book review of that seminal and timely work:
https://neofascism.substack.com/p/the-paranoid-style-in-american-politics
Thanx... I'll check it out. I have read "The Paranoid Style in American Politics myself. They bundled that long essay with some of his shorter pieces into a reader for college students way back when.
I think you are right, no answer fits all, people go to Trump for a variety of reasons.
But I can't help but think there may be something more to it. The Right has mastered the art of getting people to vote against their own economic interests many years ago. Ronald Reagan got elected on that. Using racial paranoia and sticky sentimentality for a good old days that never really existed. But it did in peoples imaginations. As a Hollywood professional, Reagan was well aware of how to sell fakery. They've made a multi-billion dollar industry out of selling dreams and fantasies after all. And the changing demographics of the country are frightening to a lot of people. Myself included. I prefer my own rather than the other. But I also realize that's just a primitive part of my brain guiding my feelings. And I am heartened by the fact that people of other skin tones and heritages, after being here for a generation or two, are Americans like any other Americans. But it takes some getting used to. But I'm sensing something more at work here. Something that's a part of the human psyche, and for which no one has seemed to find a cure for. And if we don't find a cure for it, may be the end of us yet.
Have you read much of the writings of Edgar Allen Poe. Something more than just the obligatory reading of The Raven (which is a great poem). There are his poetry, his journalism, and the tales of horror. He thought of himself as really being a poet. But did the tales and journalism to make a living. He was very observant and thoughtful and imaginative. Contributed about a dozen new words to American English plus a bunch of other stuff. And was a fast worker, because he accomplished all that by the time he was 40, when he died. Interesting man.
My point: Poe created a character who appeared in several different Tales and in his journalism I think, and was alluded to in some of his poetry. He wrote of it as a character, but really it is an aspect or feature of human nature. The Imp of the Perverse is its name. He described it as something like a short and squat troll or gremlin. Muscular, capable, intelligent, and deadly. A thing which inspires people to commit the most heinous crimes and acts of violence. The Imp contributes nothing good to humanity. Yet he is always with us, in some obscure corner of our hearts and minds. Playing on our fears and desires and greed. Our lust for the destructive. First of others, then of ourselves. Nazi Germany was a regime and then whole country living out the doings of the Imp of the Perverse. He caused unrivaled carnage in other countries. Then ended up bringing disaster down upon the German peoples. The Imperial Japanese regime too. Fascism in general seems an implementation of the spirit of the Imp of the Perverse. And that is very scary. Fascist regimes don't last long. They are much too passionate in their hatred and violence. The fratricide between the Tutsi and Hutu is a more recent example. Despite being only loosely organized militias and posse, the Hutu achieved a kill rate equal to the Nazis for about 3 months. It was a murder spasm. Like the pogroms of Eastern Europe against Jews. And these murder spasms show up in human history repeatedly. They look to be very exciting while they last. People get bored with their ho-hum everyday lives. The Imp will provide some excitement.
And I just can't shake the feeling that the Imp of the Perverse is involved with America right now. Especially MAGA of course. Though maybe with some others too. After all, why spend all that money on guns and training if you're never going to use them??? After much observing of Trump and his cronies. And conversating with MAGA people, some of whom are family members, I can't shake the feeling that they know, as individuals, that Trump is bad. Sometimes the worse he is the better they like him.
An urge to destruction, first of others then of themselves.
What do you think???
very thought-provoking; the opposite of Lincoln's "better angels" - at work today.
Madelien Albright said "there's always been an undercurrent of fascism in American politics" - and it's on the ascendant right now.
https://neofascism.substack.com/p/fascism-a-warning-by-madeleine-albright
That's why it's so important to flush Trumpism right now with a massive Blue wave, but sadly, one stubborn old man may bungle the one last chance to kill the imp, or at least send him back under his rock.
I believe Women have a magic power of life and nurture and fruition, and I hope the Women of America collectively stand up (ie Vote Blue) to kill this evil cancer before it spreads any further. Because as Historian Tim Snyder says, "any election can be the last"
https://neofascism.substack.com/p/on-tyranny-by-timothy-snyder
I'm adding links from my newsletter because I'm thinking of shutting it down:
2 years and 40+ articles raising the alarm of Trump and neo-fascism, and now I'm watching the Democrat party (the only chance of beating Trump) stuck with a stubborn old man, lost in a delusional bubble of denial, driven by pride and ego, clinging to power, completely blowing our last chance to stop fascism from taking over America.
I think, what's the use; sound the alarm of a 5-alarm red-alert danger, and the fire department sends out an old veteran with dementia who doesn't listen to anyone and leads us over the cliff instead of fighting the fire of fascism.
Hubris indeed.
Too depressing. But thanks for the Poe references. A wise and prescient man indeed. Where's our wise men now? Who can read the writing on the wall?
Reminds me of Yeats' "Second Coming":
"Things fall apart; the centre cannot hold;
Mere anarchy is loosed upon the world,
The blood-dimmed tide is loosed, and everywhere
The ceremony of innocence is drowned;
The best lack all conviction, while the worst
Are full of passionate intensity.
...
And what rough beast, its hour come round at last,
Slouches towards Bethlehem to be born?
Explain fascism.
I call it "neo"-fascism, but it's the same old poison in a new red-white-and-blue bottle
https://neofascism.substack.com/p/four-faces-of-neo-fascism
Other changes:
Government contracts go to “Christian” companies willing to praise dear leader and pay the kickbacks.
Federal highway funds go directly to GOP governors to distribute to their donors.
Military contractors will be obliged to kick back a percentage of contract amounts or face retaliation.
All this has been legalized by SCOTUS.
@RickWilson this ad needs to be in every market
Theres a real firing squad and doom feeling coming over me
Collective Amnesia, America in Denile
Trump's greatest swings and misses
A MAGA Operarette series
Rick a light don on Marble head here. You guys should start putting videos of Dead Americans in freezers trucks and lined up in front of nursing homes and talking how lost love ones that they couldn’t say goodbye to their Loved Ones!!! And any shit that he did. Keep kicking he’s ass. Keep speaking truth to LIES!!!👍🏻👊🏻💪🏻🇺🇸🇺🇸🇺🇸🇺🇸
Chilling ad...I sent it to about eight friends...two replies received were "Good Lord, frightening and surreal"... and..."God help us"...I think they, at least, got the picture.
Powerful and important. Thank you for all you do to Open People's Eyes!
Reading Anne Sebba's Les Parisiennes; how the women of Paris lived, loved, and died under Nazis occupation. This book has disturbing insights into the various layers of Parisian life before, during, and after the occupation. Animal hardships are included. We must not be led there.
Chilling ad. On a lighter note… “Bridging the Boonies to the Boroughs”, great title. I could get into a lot of trouble naming small Oregon towns that are absolutely boonified.
If you ever meet a girl named Timber Lee, she might be from Oregon. There’s at least one out there. I wonder what she’s doing now 🤔
Nominative determination. When we moved to Silverton in 1961, there was a policeman name Bill Law. The guy who titled our bathroom is named Brick Mason 🧱
Near our home there's a guy who runs 2 businesses out of his garage.
The sign says "Cheese and Taxidermy"
😂
Chuck Roast and his girlfriend Patty Melt ;)
🤣
Republicans have chosen pond scum as their candidate but are 100% behind him. Biden is old and getting older, that isn’t news AND democrats Know what is at stake. But we splinter like a dropped box of tooth picks. Yeah something could happen to Biden, he could decline over the next 4 years and Harris is there to pick up where he left off. The confidence is in the team not the figure head. Who is Trump relying on? He tried to kill his last VP and people from his former staff are either in jail or writing a book on how bad he was but I’m sure Leonard Leo and the heritage foundation have someone n mind to take over. We can’t look to ANY of the media for help. FOX is POUNDING Biden and praising Trump. CNN, former employer of RONNA McDANIEL in case you were wondering who they are rooting for, is pounding Biden as well. Democrats look at candidates and if they don’t like them they will simply not vote and wait 4 years for the next election. THAT is EXACTLY what has gotten us into this mess! If we want there to BE a NEXT then it’s vote BLUE all the way! We are in this alone! BOTE BLUE!
Amen, Jeff. I'm a partisan Democrat to my toenails and have been one my entire life, but I _hate_ this about us. We seem to be perpetually clueless to how easily reflective self-doubt can be weaponized against us. It's like we're begging to be concern trolled.
I, for one, will neither put up with it nor let it stand when I see it.
Rick is 1000% right. We need to become like Republicans when it comes to the team. Not ideologically, of course. Tactically. We have to back our team to the hilt the way the GOP has no problem backing a one-man crime wave.
Have you read James Carville’s article in the NYT about his idea for a solution for the Dems? It sounds like a possibility. I have NO idea if it will work. It’s to bring along the voters who may be choosing to sit this one out. I’m in all the way. I don’t care who the candidate is. They also need to pound them on 2025, there are too many people who have never heard of it… you know… like Trump hasn’t heard of it. The media is, for some reason, NOT pushing this to the front in their broadcast. Either way, glad to know there are others out there that feel this way.
There are several things going on with the media right now. First of all, the so-called liberal legacy media (not including independent outlets like Medias Touch) are owned by conservative corporate heads and some of their executive editors are real pieces of work from Murdoch World. They see bending over backwards to be "fair" to Trump as their ticket to access once he gets reelected. Although as Olbermann, Rick and others never fail to point out, Trump doesn't care and Jake Tapper will wind up in a cell next to Rick Wilson in the gulag.
Secondly, the economics of media are evolving rapidly and monetizing social media is much less profitable than getting a stipend from cable bundling fees. In a desperate bid to stanch their flagging ratings, they see the horserace and the psychodrama about Joe's age as more sexy and clicky than unpacking Project 2025, which falls into the category for them of "this is already baked in the cake about Trump" when of course it is not. It's also a big downer, zero way to look in the bright side about it, and dwelling on it will just get them a quicker ticket to the gulag.
These dynamics are what is causing them to abandon their journalistic credo.
Great commercial. Problem is it feels possible. Why don’t the MAGAts get it? Be sure to run that over and over in the swing and red states. And the blue states where a good portion of dems have lost their collective mind.