I’m seeing a lot of traditional, DC “bothsides” reporting lately, arguing that this is at some level a “normal” election between a center-left Democratic party and a center-right Republican party.
After I lit up Mike Allen & Jim VandeHei the same day for a sad joke of an article falsely implying the use of psychology, I was informed Axios became part of Cox's corporate media arm in 2022. https://samray.substack.com/p/counter-narcissist-cheat-codes-the
How did you go from a supposed Republican to supporting the far left? I get it Trump gets under your skin. TDS is real. What I don't understand is how you go from Republican - abandon all conservative values & embrace everything far left i.e Biden & his policies? You might have more credibility in critiquing Trump if you criticized Biden & his terrible policies. I find this same stance with your fellow Lincoln project types, MSNBC types ala Joe Scarborough, Michael Steele.
At least Sununu called out what he didn't like about Trump but he realizes Biden is much worse. You might think Trump is worse but you will never criticize Biden & the mess he created
What conservative values does anything MAGA represent? Free will, a conservative value… but MAGA wants to rip away voting rights and women’s rights and force religion into government. Hands off government and conservative spending… tax the poor which can barely get by, while letting the rich pay nothing! Fucking wake up! Conservativism is not a part of the GOP any more. That is exactly how you go from GOP to the left. And it is not far left like your peanut-sized cultist brain labels it!
Problem is you don’t know what you are talking about. You’re simply repeating left wing talking points
1. No one wants to rip away voting rights - you probably still believe the Georgia thing made it harder to vote when it actually made it easier. Some form of voter ID is basic common sense - why would you possibly oppose it?
2. Women’s rights - no one is taking away women’s rights - abortion is a unique issue. If you know of another women’s right being taken away please state it. If all you have is abortion - abortion is not about rights. Happy to debate separately
3. Hands off government spending??? Who wants more government spending? Usually your side.
4. Your tax comment shows you’ve totally drank the koolaide. The rich pay most of the taxes. Look at the actually data. Fairest system is a flat tax
5. Cults? Which side worships at the alter of DEI & worries more about personality than policy?
Based on your posts and repeating the standard debunked left wing talking points it is kind of pointless debating with you. You & I have very different beliefs in the role of government. Yours is more consistent with the nanny state mentality. You want to be taken care of by government, you believe governments role is to strive for equity more so than equality. You want security from government more so than individual freedom. I prefer limited government & government to stay out of my life. The one area where you want freedom is in areas like abortion or drugs or sexual preferences. If the government gives you freedom in those areas then you are fine with them controlling all other aspects
TDS? MAGAt morons are still using that? Sure I give up. You’re right. Trump is a good man and I will vote for him. Not. I am not a fucking moron. I am a literate adult with critical thinking skills that can make an adult decision. I am not in a fucking cult!
You are doing your best to imitate a moron for sure based on your comments. You do have TDS - sorry if reality hurts. The totally disconnected rage your comments display, childish MAGAt nonsense, the irrational belief that Trump poses some absurd threat, etc are all part and parcel of TDS. Very consistent with cultist behavior
Why don’t you try to take a few deep breaths and engage in some intelligent counter arguments instead of hollow talking points
People will rationalize away their vote for the end of the American democratic experiment. Oh, it won’t happen, oh I like his tiny hands, oh I want a tax cut extension, and with that Americans will enslave themselves to a cruel, vile, vindictive, corrupt and evil dictator called Trump.
Part of the issue is that while only one side "wants their president to govern like a dictator", "diving... into culture war cruelty", "backs Americas enemies abroad" **in practice** (in DC), out in the social media trenches, the edgeleft espouses these ideas (Biden should dismiss student loans outside of the legal system, aggressive anti-white anti-male anti-cis rhetoric, pro-Hamas) and for various reasons Democrats are widely conflated with that crowd.
The side that wants their President to actually govern like a dictator IS the Dems pushing all the policies you mentioned, increasing bureaucracy & more & more federal power. Trump hasn't actually done squat remotely like a dictator despite being accused of it. For instance his be a dictator comment was completely distorted & taken out of its actual context. He said on Day 1 regarding Drilling & Closing the border specifically.
The normalcy bias is terrifying! Voters across the globe are lulled into weighing policy choices when the overarching issues are fascism versus democracy.
In Canada, for instance, we have a ridiculous electoral choice shaping up:
1. a radically regressive “conservative” party populist allied with and backed by the global cabal of authoritarian regimes,
2. a flawed, corrupt Prime Minister, backed by generations of nepotism and social elites who balk at accountability and play political brinksmanship for the existence of the country,
3. an inept social justice warrior who can’t or won’t play hardball with ALL the political cards he’s given,
4. a Quebec-only political party unable and unqualified to govern the nation.
Our country is sleepwalking into a democratic crisis and nobody is calling this ballgame from the booth! It’s all ads for popcorn and hotdogs and accordion music!
Both sides is a crock of shit! It is a fallacy - false equivalency. One side is free, fair, follows and protects the Constitution. The other side is everything but that with treason in the mix. Two opposite sides. There is no both sides! Are you listening CNN?
Of course. Because you’re a fucking MAGAt moron with an empty profile that supports Russian propaganda and talking points. Go back to Twitter you ignorant moron!
Two likes and five reads…. You’re either a Chinese/Russian propagandist or just a fucking moron. Like sure, you’re gonna change my mind and I’m going to join a bunch of functionally illiterate brain dead cultist morons. Like suddenly we’re all going to wake up and support a loser like Trump. Really? Do you really think that is going to happen?
Let me guess… you’re white, old, high school educated, hardly read books, and you have family members that avoid you.
Grab your walker and go take your medicine you fucking has-been.
You certainly told me off you internet warrior you!! Have a nice life
Maybe work through your anger management issues in your spare time when you’re not busy showing us your intellectual prowess and tough guy act while securely hidden on the internet! Bye
Thank you for ALWAYS being the canaries in the coal-mine, Rick Wilson, Lincoln Project, & Molly Jong-Fast. Without robust, accurate journalism about the authoritarian threat the luxury of stable Democracy is impossible. Keep saying it... I'll keep amplifying it.
Just read the Axios piece. I agree with the writers that social media amplifies the loud mouths at the edges, but they fail to address the insidious effort that’s been underway for two generations to undermine American institutions and the general American public bystanders. Even nice people who help their neighbors can be transformed into informants and assistants when the “black or brown or red” shirts come knocking on doors. As an uncle who lived in Italy under Mussolini recounted: “you support who feeds you”.
We are at this juncture as a nation because elected federal and state officials who wear a Republican Party hat failed to speak up and failed to act each time they had an opportunity to expose the efforts to undermine the American institutions and norms that underpin life and living in the United States. They failed to clearly and publicly state that D. Trump and the MAGA party represented a threat to the Constitution and the rule of law. I hold the Mitch McConnells and John Thunes of the world responsible for the daily onslaught we have experienced for the past 8 years-2,920 days and counting. I can’t imagine what it is like to live with such little self-respect and so much political ambition that you would remain faithful to a loud-mouthed charlatan who got elected to the highest office in the land and proceeded to pillage and disparage wherever and whenever he and his handlers could. I can only assume it because they actually support the agenda to remake America into a nation controlled by the minority. Much as a hope and pray that regular citizens are fed up with these assaults on our sense of fairness and decency, I continue to worry that the American oligarchs and their autocratic political minions will prevail and will wield too much power and influence down to the ballot box.
In 2017 as they lined up to support their newly elected con man, I wrote a letter to Republican leaders expressing my observation that they were creating a “Vichy” government that ignored the threat he posed. Only Senator John McCain responded to me to acknowledge receipt of the letter and shared concerns. Frankly, I was not surprised that Senator McCain responded-he was just that kind of decent American.
A motor vehicle has the ability to do serious harm to others, if used incorrectly.
So does a firearm
Likewise social media can wreak havoc if used incorrectly.
Undoubtedly the intention in many cases
The first response of the reader,irrespective of their affiliation to a posting-for or against the claimed facts- should be to verify the claim via several independent sources
I think there's a second, more powerful bias at work here. I think that most journalists (like most people) consciously or unconsciously see elections through the capitalistic lens, as if a vote is a purchase, and parties are product brands. It's a terrible, moronic analogy on so many levels.
For example, I believe that's the driving sentiment behind the "Biden is too old" meme, even though Biden's age has proven to be a clear advantage the two main aspects of his job description: 1) getting elected in red states, and 2) twisting Joe Manchin's arm to score record wins. People want their ideal President to be both young AND electable in the same way they want to see the new Ryan Gosling movie at the Multiplex. How confusing it is that we all can't just buy the exact ticket to the exact show that we want, amiright?
With that capitalist lens, Trump is seen as just another product on the shelf. And if he's a product of the free market, he can't be all that bad. He's what millions of voters want. And since the voters are rational actors in a free market economy, so who are we to judge? It's crazy. There's no thought paid to actually protecting the democratic process. It's the ultimate zombie lie, dead-end thinking of Milton Freidman's Capitalism and Freedom.
Meanwhile, I know far too many young people who "can't bring themselves to vote for Biden" because of his support of Israel in Gaza. It's like saying, "I won't drink Coors beer because I won't support Adolf Coors." Again, the capitalist mindset. What they don't seem to realize that there's a can of Coors and a vile of poison, and they'll be forced to drink one or the other, like it or not. Or to go back to the movie analogy - one of two show is going to play, and we'll all be forced to watch it even if we don't buy a ticket.
In short, I believe that almost all of our political stupidity comes from this false equation, from the Muslims willing to boycott the general election, to the MAGA hostage taking, to the journalists unwilling to "take sides" against authoritarianism.
Yep, Mike. I've been arguing against the conflation of political choices with consumer choices for decades now. That we don't have the number of choices in candidates that we have in toasters, toothpaste and energy drinks is a feature of our system, not a bug.
The system worked when it let us select a consummate inside player like Joe Biden.
The system utterly failed when it let people be persuaded that Trump was the New Obama.
Is it enough that people like you are already pointing out where we’re headed if Trump wins, and people like us who follow you agree/see where we’re headed if Trump wins be enough to keep it from happening? Or is it too little too late?
I’m not sure what it will take to get people who think, “It can’t happen here” to pay attention, though maybe something like the AZ supreme court ruling that a law from freaking 1864 has primacy over AZ women’s lives might break through. Post election, perhaps if they see their liberal neighbors being rounded up and disappeared, or see them losing their jobs etc. for not being obsequious to the orange dear leader, they might finally get it.
By then it will be too late. It is probably going to be up to women, women who are furious, to save us.
A trump second term will be horrible for the whole world. How can foreigners interested in protecting democracy help? What are the actions that can be taken. Rick you should consider doing an article and primer on what can be done - legally of course.
Five reads and two likes… fucking Putin Cockholster!
After I lit up Mike Allen & Jim VandeHei the same day for a sad joke of an article falsely implying the use of psychology, I was informed Axios became part of Cox's corporate media arm in 2022. https://samray.substack.com/p/counter-narcissist-cheat-codes-the
How did you go from a supposed Republican to supporting the far left? I get it Trump gets under your skin. TDS is real. What I don't understand is how you go from Republican - abandon all conservative values & embrace everything far left i.e Biden & his policies? You might have more credibility in critiquing Trump if you criticized Biden & his terrible policies. I find this same stance with your fellow Lincoln project types, MSNBC types ala Joe Scarborough, Michael Steele.
At least Sununu called out what he didn't like about Trump but he realizes Biden is much worse. You might think Trump is worse but you will never criticize Biden & the mess he created
What conservative values does anything MAGA represent? Free will, a conservative value… but MAGA wants to rip away voting rights and women’s rights and force religion into government. Hands off government and conservative spending… tax the poor which can barely get by, while letting the rich pay nothing! Fucking wake up! Conservativism is not a part of the GOP any more. That is exactly how you go from GOP to the left. And it is not far left like your peanut-sized cultist brain labels it!
Problem is you don’t know what you are talking about. You’re simply repeating left wing talking points
1. No one wants to rip away voting rights - you probably still believe the Georgia thing made it harder to vote when it actually made it easier. Some form of voter ID is basic common sense - why would you possibly oppose it?
2. Women’s rights - no one is taking away women’s rights - abortion is a unique issue. If you know of another women’s right being taken away please state it. If all you have is abortion - abortion is not about rights. Happy to debate separately
3. Hands off government spending??? Who wants more government spending? Usually your side.
4. Your tax comment shows you’ve totally drank the koolaide. The rich pay most of the taxes. Look at the actually data. Fairest system is a flat tax
5. Cults? Which side worships at the alter of DEI & worries more about personality than policy?
GOP after GOP administration has historically left with a crushing deficit… including diaper shitting yam.
Based on your posts and repeating the standard debunked left wing talking points it is kind of pointless debating with you. You & I have very different beliefs in the role of government. Yours is more consistent with the nanny state mentality. You want to be taken care of by government, you believe governments role is to strive for equity more so than equality. You want security from government more so than individual freedom. I prefer limited government & government to stay out of my life. The one area where you want freedom is in areas like abortion or drugs or sexual preferences. If the government gives you freedom in those areas then you are fine with them controlling all other aspects
You’re a poor lonely old lady. Grab your walker, go get your meds and relax…
You are horribly misinformed. A profile with no content and five reads. Chinese? Russian?
I prefer to keep my personal information personal. Not sure why you might have trouble grasping that
I rarely look at this site and in fact haven’t bothered for months. More important things to deal with than arguing with anonymous posters
If you think that makes me some bot so be it. Don’t really care
TDS? MAGAt morons are still using that? Sure I give up. You’re right. Trump is a good man and I will vote for him. Not. I am not a fucking moron. I am a literate adult with critical thinking skills that can make an adult decision. I am not in a fucking cult!
Hey Kirt
Just looking through my old comments.
How are you feeling these days now that Trump is heading back to the White House?
Nice to see I’m living rent free in your head. Quite spacious up here.
You are doing your best to imitate a moron for sure based on your comments. You do have TDS - sorry if reality hurts. The totally disconnected rage your comments display, childish MAGAt nonsense, the irrational belief that Trump poses some absurd threat, etc are all part and parcel of TDS. Very consistent with cultist behavior
Why don’t you try to take a few deep breaths and engage in some intelligent counter arguments instead of hollow talking points
Boo hoo Rick. Both sides are shit and filled with shit people. Quit cowering behind "drumpf"
People will rationalize away their vote for the end of the American democratic experiment. Oh, it won’t happen, oh I like his tiny hands, oh I want a tax cut extension, and with that Americans will enslave themselves to a cruel, vile, vindictive, corrupt and evil dictator called Trump.
Part of the issue is that while only one side "wants their president to govern like a dictator", "diving... into culture war cruelty", "backs Americas enemies abroad" **in practice** (in DC), out in the social media trenches, the edgeleft espouses these ideas (Biden should dismiss student loans outside of the legal system, aggressive anti-white anti-male anti-cis rhetoric, pro-Hamas) and for various reasons Democrats are widely conflated with that crowd.
The side that wants their President to actually govern like a dictator IS the Dems pushing all the policies you mentioned, increasing bureaucracy & more & more federal power. Trump hasn't actually done squat remotely like a dictator despite being accused of it. For instance his be a dictator comment was completely distorted & taken out of its actual context. He said on Day 1 regarding Drilling & Closing the border specifically.
The normalcy bias is terrifying! Voters across the globe are lulled into weighing policy choices when the overarching issues are fascism versus democracy.
In Canada, for instance, we have a ridiculous electoral choice shaping up:
1. a radically regressive “conservative” party populist allied with and backed by the global cabal of authoritarian regimes,
2. a flawed, corrupt Prime Minister, backed by generations of nepotism and social elites who balk at accountability and play political brinksmanship for the existence of the country,
3. an inept social justice warrior who can’t or won’t play hardball with ALL the political cards he’s given,
4. a Quebec-only political party unable and unqualified to govern the nation.
Our country is sleepwalking into a democratic crisis and nobody is calling this ballgame from the booth! It’s all ads for popcorn and hotdogs and accordion music!
Both sides is a crock of shit! It is a fallacy - false equivalency. One side is free, fair, follows and protects the Constitution. The other side is everything but that with treason in the mix. Two opposite sides. There is no both sides! Are you listening CNN?
I agree with you if you are referring to the Dems as the party that ignores the Constitution
Of course. Because you’re a fucking MAGAt moron with an empty profile that supports Russian propaganda and talking points. Go back to Twitter you ignorant moron!
You’re a real TDS deranged ass wipe. Tough guy poster
Two likes and five reads…. You’re either a Chinese/Russian propagandist or just a fucking moron. Like sure, you’re gonna change my mind and I’m going to join a bunch of functionally illiterate brain dead cultist morons. Like suddenly we’re all going to wake up and support a loser like Trump. Really? Do you really think that is going to happen?
Let me guess… you’re white, old, high school educated, hardly read books, and you have family members that avoid you.
Grab your walker and go take your medicine you fucking has-been.
You certainly told me off you internet warrior you!! Have a nice life
Maybe work through your anger management issues in your spare time when you’re not busy showing us your intellectual prowess and tough guy act while securely hidden on the internet! Bye
Living in your head rent free…
Fool
You come back with a second comment 12 hours later?
Nice to know I am living rent free in your head. Really fucking spacious in here!
It’s call having a life and not focusing my time on idiots like you
Really? You seem to respond every time. Nice to know I am living rent free in your head. Quite spacious in here. Go read a book you fucking moron!
Yeah… sure. Like I’m going to join the ignorant and gullible crowd.
I’ll do what Ivanka and Melania do: stay the fuck away!
LMAO you communist Marxist asshole. You talk real tough you pussy
Thank you for ALWAYS being the canaries in the coal-mine, Rick Wilson, Lincoln Project, & Molly Jong-Fast. Without robust, accurate journalism about the authoritarian threat the luxury of stable Democracy is impossible. Keep saying it... I'll keep amplifying it.
Just read the Axios piece. I agree with the writers that social media amplifies the loud mouths at the edges, but they fail to address the insidious effort that’s been underway for two generations to undermine American institutions and the general American public bystanders. Even nice people who help their neighbors can be transformed into informants and assistants when the “black or brown or red” shirts come knocking on doors. As an uncle who lived in Italy under Mussolini recounted: “you support who feeds you”.
We are at this juncture as a nation because elected federal and state officials who wear a Republican Party hat failed to speak up and failed to act each time they had an opportunity to expose the efforts to undermine the American institutions and norms that underpin life and living in the United States. They failed to clearly and publicly state that D. Trump and the MAGA party represented a threat to the Constitution and the rule of law. I hold the Mitch McConnells and John Thunes of the world responsible for the daily onslaught we have experienced for the past 8 years-2,920 days and counting. I can’t imagine what it is like to live with such little self-respect and so much political ambition that you would remain faithful to a loud-mouthed charlatan who got elected to the highest office in the land and proceeded to pillage and disparage wherever and whenever he and his handlers could. I can only assume it because they actually support the agenda to remake America into a nation controlled by the minority. Much as a hope and pray that regular citizens are fed up with these assaults on our sense of fairness and decency, I continue to worry that the American oligarchs and their autocratic political minions will prevail and will wield too much power and influence down to the ballot box.
In 2017 as they lined up to support their newly elected con man, I wrote a letter to Republican leaders expressing my observation that they were creating a “Vichy” government that ignored the threat he posed. Only Senator John McCain responded to me to acknowledge receipt of the letter and shared concerns. Frankly, I was not surprised that Senator McCain responded-he was just that kind of decent American.
A motor vehicle has the ability to do serious harm to others, if used incorrectly.
So does a firearm
Likewise social media can wreak havoc if used incorrectly.
Undoubtedly the intention in many cases
The first response of the reader,irrespective of their affiliation to a posting-for or against the claimed facts- should be to verify the claim via several independent sources
Not difficult,is it?
Thanks for this, Rick.
I think there's a second, more powerful bias at work here. I think that most journalists (like most people) consciously or unconsciously see elections through the capitalistic lens, as if a vote is a purchase, and parties are product brands. It's a terrible, moronic analogy on so many levels.
For example, I believe that's the driving sentiment behind the "Biden is too old" meme, even though Biden's age has proven to be a clear advantage the two main aspects of his job description: 1) getting elected in red states, and 2) twisting Joe Manchin's arm to score record wins. People want their ideal President to be both young AND electable in the same way they want to see the new Ryan Gosling movie at the Multiplex. How confusing it is that we all can't just buy the exact ticket to the exact show that we want, amiright?
With that capitalist lens, Trump is seen as just another product on the shelf. And if he's a product of the free market, he can't be all that bad. He's what millions of voters want. And since the voters are rational actors in a free market economy, so who are we to judge? It's crazy. There's no thought paid to actually protecting the democratic process. It's the ultimate zombie lie, dead-end thinking of Milton Freidman's Capitalism and Freedom.
Meanwhile, I know far too many young people who "can't bring themselves to vote for Biden" because of his support of Israel in Gaza. It's like saying, "I won't drink Coors beer because I won't support Adolf Coors." Again, the capitalist mindset. What they don't seem to realize that there's a can of Coors and a vile of poison, and they'll be forced to drink one or the other, like it or not. Or to go back to the movie analogy - one of two show is going to play, and we'll all be forced to watch it even if we don't buy a ticket.
In short, I believe that almost all of our political stupidity comes from this false equation, from the Muslims willing to boycott the general election, to the MAGA hostage taking, to the journalists unwilling to "take sides" against authoritarianism.
Yep, Mike. I've been arguing against the conflation of political choices with consumer choices for decades now. That we don't have the number of choices in candidates that we have in toasters, toothpaste and energy drinks is a feature of our system, not a bug.
The system worked when it let us select a consummate inside player like Joe Biden.
The system utterly failed when it let people be persuaded that Trump was the New Obama.
Is it enough that people like you are already pointing out where we’re headed if Trump wins, and people like us who follow you agree/see where we’re headed if Trump wins be enough to keep it from happening? Or is it too little too late?
I’m not sure what it will take to get people who think, “It can’t happen here” to pay attention, though maybe something like the AZ supreme court ruling that a law from freaking 1864 has primacy over AZ women’s lives might break through. Post election, perhaps if they see their liberal neighbors being rounded up and disappeared, or see them losing their jobs etc. for not being obsequious to the orange dear leader, they might finally get it.
By then it will be too late. It is probably going to be up to women, women who are furious, to save us.
A trump second term will be horrible for the whole world. How can foreigners interested in protecting democracy help? What are the actions that can be taken. Rick you should consider doing an article and primer on what can be done - legally of course.
MAGA - Make America Gilead Already
M-anipulating
A-merica's
G-ullible
A-ssholes
Excellent!