The day after the victory in Nevada by Catherine Cortez Masto securing the Senate for Democrats is one of those days you don’t even have to read the stories. The headlines spewing the panic on the Right are more than enough: Washington Post: “Republican rivals start plotting a post-Trump future --
I have commented on this earlier but believe it is worth repeating.
Democrats must not assume the Republicans are going to self destruct. The Democrats have an opportunity to put a stake in the heart of the corrupted and co-opted GOP but must be pro active in pushing their own legislative agenda to highlight the differences between Democrat problem solving and GOP inertia.
The GOP has. Dug a grave for itself. now the Democrats need to shovel some dirt on it to bury them.
I hadn't thought ahead that far but a very good point, what to do, what to do... By allowing the far right element to hijack the party they now have a dilemma. Lose them all as you say and try to reconstitute the original Republican party where some decency existed, at least compared to now, or eat crow and kneel before Trump once again. . But to go in that direction seems futile now too, I think people are sick and tired of that old broken record playing over and over about massive voter fraud, That's why a lot of these Trump promoted people lost. So true too about McConnell's probable regret that he cut Trump loose from what m normally would have been a certain impeachment. If any Democratic president had done a fraction of what Trump did the Republicans would have fallen over themselves in a rush to impeach. Another peculiar thing I thought that earned the Republican party that age old "The Stupid Party" label: and that was McCarthy and Johnson announcing just before the mis terms, that once in power they would cut Social Security and Medicare? How dumb was that? Must have cost them a heck of a lot of votes. SCOTUS helped too by the way due to the ROE/Wade decision, Many young women voted and voted Democrat because of that. The Republicans didn't help their case by voting 100% against lowering drug prices, etc., and against other social programs. even the infrastructure bill that would create many jobs and v bring money to their states. As a collective the party really is dumb when you think about it. they Kari Lake may lose too for screaming the big lie over and over, a lie she took out of the mouth of a serial liar. Speaking of Lake, who to me seems a very cold hard woman,. oid of any compassion whatsoever, her her batshit crazy supporters have lost it completely "Kari Lake supporters outside the Maricopa ballot counting center: “We the people are requesting the military to step in and redo our election. It was fake.” 🎥 Reuters
When they began their adventure with their blundering golem, decked out as he was in a baggy suit and an orange fright wig, they must have done so in the confidence that all they had to do was declare said golem a president, and they’d have a big blunt object in the White House that they could easily control. After all, they’re the Masters of Capitol Hill, and he’s a ….golem. Then, as golems are wont to do, their golem went stumbling around the planet, breaking furniture, grabbing body parts that were still attached to their female owners, and generally making a complete ass of himself. Well, Wise Ones. You broke it, you bought it. Oh, look, here comes the golem now. Hey Mitch! Hey Kevin! He’s coming for you!
"The odious J.D. Vance." I believe that is now his name. If he has not legally gone through the process to change it in California (where he really lives), then here's a useful website for him: https://selfhelp.courts.ca.gov/name-change/name-adult
Nov 13, 2022·edited Nov 13, 2022Liked by Lucian K. Truscott IV
The midterms should have showed the GOP "leadership" that ignoring the people is a mistake. Idiots like Lindsey Graham pushed for a total abortion ban, and talked about it in the news for a week, and that's just one example showing the enormous disconnect between these authoritarian idiots and the voting public.
But they're not panicking yet. We're going to see just what they're capable of. Right now, they're going to move heaven and earth to keep Trump from announcing his candidacy (stupidly, they have avoided the obvious, that Trump does what he wants, not what he's told) because they've seen proof that Trump isn't their magic bullet anymore, but a washed up old man who might just find himself under indictment soon, which would certainly not be a good look for a presidential candidate. Trump also was notoriously stingy with the PAC money he claimed he'd raised for the GOP, and it looks like he's using it to pay his personal lawyers, something he cannot legally do once he declares his candidacy. Trump has splintered the GOP, and it's much easier to break something (he's good at it) than to fix it. Chances are, the Republicans won't have a viable 2024 candidate because even DeSantis won't get much support outside Florida.
Nov 13, 2022·edited Nov 13, 2022Liked by Lucian K. Truscott IV
Ever since the election, this has been like walking up out of the dungeon into the light. I know it's premature to think Trump is done but I'm going to take a chance anyway, "this feels different." And my observation is something did get started that will play out and I'm looking for a trend here, and there's a lot of teases to make me keep looking, that now 42% of Republicans want someone else to run but Trump and 35% still want him. That's the flip after the election and as the roll-out continues to change every plan the Republicans hoped to be making about now. That's not my only trend observation but it's a good start.
Elise is the ultimate MAGA loyalist. I don’t even begin to understand.
“It’s very clear President Trump is the leader of the Republican party,” Stefanik said in a statement.
“I am proud to endorse Donald J. Trump for President in 2024,” she said. “It is time for Republicans to unite around the most popular Republican in America, who has a proven track record of conservative governance.”
I understand that this thought is not original; trump must be the keeper of some mighty powerful secrets. Why else would grown men and women shamelessly grovel?
The GOP is the worst at making a winning bet. They’ve had chance after chance to dump trump from the beginning, i.e. “grab ‘em by the pussy”. He was a scumbag, racist, asshole long before he ran and every one of them knew it. They let their id impulses run their every action since the orange POS showed up on their horizon and blamed it all on pleasing the MAGA imbeciles. The entire party turned into lemmings and bet their reputations and power grab on the worst, ugliest, stupidest, most vile and criminal president. They had chance after chance to exit from his phony grasp since it was never a real danger anyway if they all had joined together at once and powerfully denounced trump. He would be in the rear view mirror years ago and sure, there would be angry voters in their party - but they’re stuck with them anyway because the GOP is full of angry, propaganda fed, ignorant, racist, anti-democracy, fake Christian, power grasping, conspiracy following loons.
"I’d be willing to bet my next paycheck that ol’ Mitch is ruing the day he didn’t rally his Republican troops and push through a conviction of Trump at his second impeachment trial in the Senate in February of last year. The Constitution’s ban on running again for president would have parked Trump permanently on the sidelines of American politics and left an open field to Republicans in the midterms this year. Instead, Trump hung like a black cloud over the elections in the House and the Senate, not to mention down in the state houses the Republicans lost. "
I think I may have to send Mitchy some of my Poison Postcards to echo this sentiment....
There is something awfully reminiscent in the recent election results, with Joe Biden being vilified by the press and by the pundits, and still able to eke out an impressive defensive victory against the MAGAhat Republicans and their ridiculous leadership. The historical analog would be that of Abraham Lincoln, who, during the four years he was president, was vilified from across the entire political spectrum; he seemed to be the object of hate from every point on the political compass. And yet, from the day of his death, Lincoln has been venerated like no other American president. For his part, Joe Biden may yet be venerated in much the same way, and such veneration may not require his death or other departure from office. Politicians always suffer from too much exposure, and Joe Biden has been in the public eye for more than half a century. Of course he is going to be criticized because he took different positions at different times of his life when the conditions of political life itself were different from what they are now. And, Biden is being blamed for conditions and reasons that he has no control or influence over. That one thing he has going in his favor is, ironically, his longevity in high public office. Biden is well deserving of veneration for his constant effort to restore the solemnity, civility, and decorum of politics as it used to be.
Had Abraham Lincoln survived the assassination plot that took his life, one wonders how he would have governed the nation once the South had been forcibly reunited with the nation itself to reject. Instead of having a rabidly anti-Black Southerner at the helm of the nation, we would have had a president whose reasonableness and decency were legendary. If we look to Lincoln's Second Inaugural Address for a hint of the kinds of policies he would have supported, we sense the lost opportunity for a reconciliation between North and South, and between Black and White that never had time to germinate and grow. We might have been spared the bitterness of the Reconstruction era; yet at the same time, we might not be seeing what became the 14th and 15th amendments to the Constitution written in exactly the same way. We get a hint of what Lincoln might have done had he lived to complete his second term of office when we read the words he wrote about the wrongness of slavery, and that every drop of blood drawn from a slave by the lash would be repaid in blood, drop for drop, from those who fought for slavery. But warmaking and peacemaking require complementary powers of foresight and persuasion, and the ability to harmonize differing points of view into a common vision of what is to be accomplished.
Throughout his adult lifetime, Abraham Lincoln was known for his ability to keep his policies as close to the limits of what public opinion would tolerate as he could, while still achieving his overall objectives. In our own lifetime. Lincoln was a natural conciliator and mediator, achieving with persuasion where ever he could, but ready to use force, or the threat of force where he had to, to get contending parties to reason together. The job of the leader is to show his people where he wants them to be at the end of their journey, and to persuade them as to why they ought to follow his vision of how, and where they will go.
Joe Biden is also a natural conciliator, much to the dismay of his hot-blooded Democratic compatriots. It comes as no surprise that within the Democratic Party, Biden's fiercest critics are mostly under the age of 35. For their part, it comes as no surprise that doctrinaire Libertarians and Republican radicals are also under 35 years of age, and whose formative educations and experience come from ideological think tanks. They are trained to win elections by any means necessary, with nary a thought of what to do afterward. Callow youth, and heads full of buzzwords, have left them ill prepared to deal with a political message that is grounded in the human experience that can be summarized in the phrase 'constitutional democracy' in which there is common ground in which the people share in rights and obligations necessary for their continued existence. As one of our elder statesman, President Biden knows both victory and defeat, and his leadership in the Senate has put them in the cockpit of every fight over policy and priorities that is occurred since he was first elected in 1972. Personal pain and loss have tempered him to a degree unlike anyone in public life that comes to mind. When people are in pain, he feels that pain. Consequently, Joe Biden knows what is important to ordinary people, and he deserves their trust.
The Republicans have achieved a Pyrrhic victory. It appears that the Republicans won the House of Representatives by something like five seats, hardly an overwhelming victory. Democrats will still control the Senate. Republicans have garnered enough power to make trouble for themselves and everyone else. Once they organize themselves this coming January, we are likely to see a full throated revanchism that ordinary, thoughtful voters will instinctively reject, as we have seen repeatedly in our history, punitive investigations, like those that were once the fodder of HUAC, the House Un-American Activities Committee, will go nowhere. Donald Trump will still be out there running his carnival sideshow, providing entertainment for all of the remaining crazies in his following, and competition for congressional Republicans as to which of them can outdo the other in creating disruption.People are tired of chaos, and they want to see the needs of the country addressed.
The bottom line is that the Republican conference within the House of Representatives is going to be extremely unstable, and those members of the Republican caucus who hope to accomplish something during their term of office might, just might be tempted to make common cause with the Democrats on matters that are important to the country as a whole. By this time next year, the January 6 committee will have issued its full report, just in time for the upcoming 2024 election, just in time for the full impact of that report to sink into the consciousness of the American electorate. Abraham Lincoln, if he were alive today, would be proud of us.
Nov 13, 2022·edited Nov 13, 2022Liked by Lucian K. Truscott IV
Their predecessors made sure elected federal officials have comfortable retirements. It's telling that the amount of power they wield while serving (themselves and a privileged few) makes most of them—not *just* the leaders—willing to sell their souls to keep that power and accrue more and more and …
I have commented on this earlier but believe it is worth repeating.
Democrats must not assume the Republicans are going to self destruct. The Democrats have an opportunity to put a stake in the heart of the corrupted and co-opted GOP but must be pro active in pushing their own legislative agenda to highlight the differences between Democrat problem solving and GOP inertia.
The GOP has. Dug a grave for itself. now the Democrats need to shovel some dirt on it to bury them.
I hadn't thought ahead that far but a very good point, what to do, what to do... By allowing the far right element to hijack the party they now have a dilemma. Lose them all as you say and try to reconstitute the original Republican party where some decency existed, at least compared to now, or eat crow and kneel before Trump once again. . But to go in that direction seems futile now too, I think people are sick and tired of that old broken record playing over and over about massive voter fraud, That's why a lot of these Trump promoted people lost. So true too about McConnell's probable regret that he cut Trump loose from what m normally would have been a certain impeachment. If any Democratic president had done a fraction of what Trump did the Republicans would have fallen over themselves in a rush to impeach. Another peculiar thing I thought that earned the Republican party that age old "The Stupid Party" label: and that was McCarthy and Johnson announcing just before the mis terms, that once in power they would cut Social Security and Medicare? How dumb was that? Must have cost them a heck of a lot of votes. SCOTUS helped too by the way due to the ROE/Wade decision, Many young women voted and voted Democrat because of that. The Republicans didn't help their case by voting 100% against lowering drug prices, etc., and against other social programs. even the infrastructure bill that would create many jobs and v bring money to their states. As a collective the party really is dumb when you think about it. they Kari Lake may lose too for screaming the big lie over and over, a lie she took out of the mouth of a serial liar. Speaking of Lake, who to me seems a very cold hard woman,. oid of any compassion whatsoever, her her batshit crazy supporters have lost it completely "Kari Lake supporters outside the Maricopa ballot counting center: “We the people are requesting the military to step in and redo our election. It was fake.” 🎥 Reuters
When they began their adventure with their blundering golem, decked out as he was in a baggy suit and an orange fright wig, they must have done so in the confidence that all they had to do was declare said golem a president, and they’d have a big blunt object in the White House that they could easily control. After all, they’re the Masters of Capitol Hill, and he’s a ….golem. Then, as golems are wont to do, their golem went stumbling around the planet, breaking furniture, grabbing body parts that were still attached to their female owners, and generally making a complete ass of himself. Well, Wise Ones. You broke it, you bought it. Oh, look, here comes the golem now. Hey Mitch! Hey Kevin! He’s coming for you!
"The odious J.D. Vance." I believe that is now his name. If he has not legally gone through the process to change it in California (where he really lives), then here's a useful website for him: https://selfhelp.courts.ca.gov/name-change/name-adult
The midterms should have showed the GOP "leadership" that ignoring the people is a mistake. Idiots like Lindsey Graham pushed for a total abortion ban, and talked about it in the news for a week, and that's just one example showing the enormous disconnect between these authoritarian idiots and the voting public.
But they're not panicking yet. We're going to see just what they're capable of. Right now, they're going to move heaven and earth to keep Trump from announcing his candidacy (stupidly, they have avoided the obvious, that Trump does what he wants, not what he's told) because they've seen proof that Trump isn't their magic bullet anymore, but a washed up old man who might just find himself under indictment soon, which would certainly not be a good look for a presidential candidate. Trump also was notoriously stingy with the PAC money he claimed he'd raised for the GOP, and it looks like he's using it to pay his personal lawyers, something he cannot legally do once he declares his candidacy. Trump has splintered the GOP, and it's much easier to break something (he's good at it) than to fix it. Chances are, the Republicans won't have a viable 2024 candidate because even DeSantis won't get much support outside Florida.
Ever since the election, this has been like walking up out of the dungeon into the light. I know it's premature to think Trump is done but I'm going to take a chance anyway, "this feels different." And my observation is something did get started that will play out and I'm looking for a trend here, and there's a lot of teases to make me keep looking, that now 42% of Republicans want someone else to run but Trump and 35% still want him. That's the flip after the election and as the roll-out continues to change every plan the Republicans hoped to be making about now. That's not my only trend observation but it's a good start.
Elise is the ultimate MAGA loyalist. I don’t even begin to understand.
“It’s very clear President Trump is the leader of the Republican party,” Stefanik said in a statement.
“I am proud to endorse Donald J. Trump for President in 2024,” she said. “It is time for Republicans to unite around the most popular Republican in America, who has a proven track record of conservative governance.”
I'm just savoring the day. Things look so much brighter than I could have ever imagined. Thank you, Lord Jesus.
I am absolutely savoring today’s post!! Thank you, Lucian 😁
I understand that this thought is not original; trump must be the keeper of some mighty powerful secrets. Why else would grown men and women shamelessly grovel?
When I read this I kept thinking about Monty Python and the tale of "Brave Sir Robin". May Kevin and Mitch both get thrown off the bridge....
Shit or go blind? Shit or go blind?
The GOP is the worst at making a winning bet. They’ve had chance after chance to dump trump from the beginning, i.e. “grab ‘em by the pussy”. He was a scumbag, racist, asshole long before he ran and every one of them knew it. They let their id impulses run their every action since the orange POS showed up on their horizon and blamed it all on pleasing the MAGA imbeciles. The entire party turned into lemmings and bet their reputations and power grab on the worst, ugliest, stupidest, most vile and criminal president. They had chance after chance to exit from his phony grasp since it was never a real danger anyway if they all had joined together at once and powerfully denounced trump. He would be in the rear view mirror years ago and sure, there would be angry voters in their party - but they’re stuck with them anyway because the GOP is full of angry, propaganda fed, ignorant, racist, anti-democracy, fake Christian, power grasping, conspiracy following loons.
"I’d be willing to bet my next paycheck that ol’ Mitch is ruing the day he didn’t rally his Republican troops and push through a conviction of Trump at his second impeachment trial in the Senate in February of last year. The Constitution’s ban on running again for president would have parked Trump permanently on the sidelines of American politics and left an open field to Republicans in the midterms this year. Instead, Trump hung like a black cloud over the elections in the House and the Senate, not to mention down in the state houses the Republicans lost. "
I think I may have to send Mitchy some of my Poison Postcards to echo this sentiment....
There is something awfully reminiscent in the recent election results, with Joe Biden being vilified by the press and by the pundits, and still able to eke out an impressive defensive victory against the MAGAhat Republicans and their ridiculous leadership. The historical analog would be that of Abraham Lincoln, who, during the four years he was president, was vilified from across the entire political spectrum; he seemed to be the object of hate from every point on the political compass. And yet, from the day of his death, Lincoln has been venerated like no other American president. For his part, Joe Biden may yet be venerated in much the same way, and such veneration may not require his death or other departure from office. Politicians always suffer from too much exposure, and Joe Biden has been in the public eye for more than half a century. Of course he is going to be criticized because he took different positions at different times of his life when the conditions of political life itself were different from what they are now. And, Biden is being blamed for conditions and reasons that he has no control or influence over. That one thing he has going in his favor is, ironically, his longevity in high public office. Biden is well deserving of veneration for his constant effort to restore the solemnity, civility, and decorum of politics as it used to be.
Had Abraham Lincoln survived the assassination plot that took his life, one wonders how he would have governed the nation once the South had been forcibly reunited with the nation itself to reject. Instead of having a rabidly anti-Black Southerner at the helm of the nation, we would have had a president whose reasonableness and decency were legendary. If we look to Lincoln's Second Inaugural Address for a hint of the kinds of policies he would have supported, we sense the lost opportunity for a reconciliation between North and South, and between Black and White that never had time to germinate and grow. We might have been spared the bitterness of the Reconstruction era; yet at the same time, we might not be seeing what became the 14th and 15th amendments to the Constitution written in exactly the same way. We get a hint of what Lincoln might have done had he lived to complete his second term of office when we read the words he wrote about the wrongness of slavery, and that every drop of blood drawn from a slave by the lash would be repaid in blood, drop for drop, from those who fought for slavery. But warmaking and peacemaking require complementary powers of foresight and persuasion, and the ability to harmonize differing points of view into a common vision of what is to be accomplished.
Throughout his adult lifetime, Abraham Lincoln was known for his ability to keep his policies as close to the limits of what public opinion would tolerate as he could, while still achieving his overall objectives. In our own lifetime. Lincoln was a natural conciliator and mediator, achieving with persuasion where ever he could, but ready to use force, or the threat of force where he had to, to get contending parties to reason together. The job of the leader is to show his people where he wants them to be at the end of their journey, and to persuade them as to why they ought to follow his vision of how, and where they will go.
Joe Biden is also a natural conciliator, much to the dismay of his hot-blooded Democratic compatriots. It comes as no surprise that within the Democratic Party, Biden's fiercest critics are mostly under the age of 35. For their part, it comes as no surprise that doctrinaire Libertarians and Republican radicals are also under 35 years of age, and whose formative educations and experience come from ideological think tanks. They are trained to win elections by any means necessary, with nary a thought of what to do afterward. Callow youth, and heads full of buzzwords, have left them ill prepared to deal with a political message that is grounded in the human experience that can be summarized in the phrase 'constitutional democracy' in which there is common ground in which the people share in rights and obligations necessary for their continued existence. As one of our elder statesman, President Biden knows both victory and defeat, and his leadership in the Senate has put them in the cockpit of every fight over policy and priorities that is occurred since he was first elected in 1972. Personal pain and loss have tempered him to a degree unlike anyone in public life that comes to mind. When people are in pain, he feels that pain. Consequently, Joe Biden knows what is important to ordinary people, and he deserves their trust.
The Republicans have achieved a Pyrrhic victory. It appears that the Republicans won the House of Representatives by something like five seats, hardly an overwhelming victory. Democrats will still control the Senate. Republicans have garnered enough power to make trouble for themselves and everyone else. Once they organize themselves this coming January, we are likely to see a full throated revanchism that ordinary, thoughtful voters will instinctively reject, as we have seen repeatedly in our history, punitive investigations, like those that were once the fodder of HUAC, the House Un-American Activities Committee, will go nowhere. Donald Trump will still be out there running his carnival sideshow, providing entertainment for all of the remaining crazies in his following, and competition for congressional Republicans as to which of them can outdo the other in creating disruption.People are tired of chaos, and they want to see the needs of the country addressed.
The bottom line is that the Republican conference within the House of Representatives is going to be extremely unstable, and those members of the Republican caucus who hope to accomplish something during their term of office might, just might be tempted to make common cause with the Democrats on matters that are important to the country as a whole. By this time next year, the January 6 committee will have issued its full report, just in time for the upcoming 2024 election, just in time for the full impact of that report to sink into the consciousness of the American electorate. Abraham Lincoln, if he were alive today, would be proud of us.
Their predecessors made sure elected federal officials have comfortable retirements. It's telling that the amount of power they wield while serving (themselves and a privileged few) makes most of them—not *just* the leaders—willing to sell their souls to keep that power and accrue more and more and …