Where were all of these loyal-to-the-Constitution Republicans when they were in a position to speak up and help get an impeachment conviction? By failing to stand up to Trump all along the way, we are now standing on the precipice of disaster.
Why would Republicans apologize for Trump? With Trump they hedged their bets on 3 Supreme Court Justices. And won. Now they are hedging their bets on 3 more and Project 2025. This is the coming to fruition of the Republican Southern Strategy and of Ronald Reagan jumping in bed with Ralph Reed. Movement Conservatism in bed with the Religious Right. Republicans hedged their bets on instituting unregulated capitalism and untaxed wealth with the votes of racist and religious extremist populists. And they won. Why would Charles Koch et al apologize? Why would Leonard Leo or Mitch McConnell? Never Trumpers still worship Ronald Reagan. (Max Boot looking at you.) Self blinkered to the fact that Reagan set this wrecking ball rolling. Trump is Reagan writ large and writ vulgar. Same antidemocratic agenda, different style. Tom Nichols writes in the Atlantic that Trump voters revel in his abominations - all the sweeter thumb in the eye of liberals et when Trump wins. I get that valid resentments and actual anxieties can perversely manifest this way. (Much like Jill Stein followers electing Trump to punish the Democratic party.) Then there is the wonderment of people, like two I heard today on CSpan, lauding Trump as "a good family man with a good heart" and a "brilliant humorist, caring man, and accomplished businessman and statesman who will make America greater than it's ever been." The Politics of Faith. No facts need apply.
I’ve never understood why republicans deified Regan. He was the first MAGA president, wasn’t he? His campaign slogan was “Make America Great Again”. He finally uttered the word “AIDS” nearly a decade after it had been identified. Millions died needlessly because of his in action. Sound familiar?
Me either. Having been raised in an evilangelical cult who used the Bible to excuse and even justify incest and to promote extreme violence against children and animals and in the home of a white supremacist pedophile stepfather who enjoyed the physical violence and mental torment he inflicted on my siblings and I, I firmly believe that hell exists right here on earth created by humans in what they willingly, gleefully do to other humans, especially children and animals. If it turns out I’m wrong, oh fucking well. It won’t be worse than what I’ve already endured and in watching my siblings die far too early while running from the damage caused by our forced upbringing in both white supremacy and far right religion.
Are the Republicans that stupid? I guess they must be to support a man clearly unhinged and with so obviously suffering from Dementia! How dare they try to impose him on our country as if he was a normal person and candidate! He’s very clearly not normal by any definition of the word and as far as I am concerned the Republican Party may as well rename themselves the American Nazi party. They are criminals for putting forth Trump as their candidate, as man who is suffering from dementia and is clearly a fascist on steroids! This is the worst thing that has ever happened to this country, how dare the Republican Party put us in such DANGER! They should all resign immediately loose their right to vote, they are trying to cause a revolution of that there is no doubt! Only prison is good enough for their leaders for this attempt to overthrow our government with a DICTATOR!
I feel the same. The Republicans not only nominated this man twice they refused to remove him from power when he clearly presented a danger to our people, our democracy and our country. What he says he wants to do when he is President is clearly out of Hitler’s playbook. Why do they feel this is ok? It’s incredibly disturbing to many of us. I haven’t slept well since he became President in 2016. I have spoken to many people who feel extremely anxious because of him. I can only pray that many more Americans will vote Blue so that we can all sigh a sigh of relief. I believe Kamala will bring sanity, unity, reason and optimism back into our lives.
The answer to your first question, is "yes," definitely. There's a reason Trump "loves the uneducated." And why the Trump administration headed the Dept. of Education with a woman who firmly believes public education should be done away with. The uneducated, uninformed, uncurious are those who love the man the most.
While there is truth to this we can’t blame trump’s ascent solely on the ‘uneducated’. Plenty of highly educated, successful people support him and his beliefs. I know of more than a handful - all working in Silicon Valley - who fully support him. All educated. All rich. All fully aware of trump’s fascist intent. They want more of his tax cuts for themselves (greed, arrogance, a lack of empathy for others & a lack of care for society) and/or they are fully onboard with his racism, bigotry and misogyny.
The self involvement and thoughtlessness you describe is what Hannah Arendt meant when she coined the phrase 'banality of evil' to describe Adolph Eichmann.
It is not that evil was so prevalent as to be banal. But the banality of pursuing everyday tasks, without giving thought to the harm inflicted.
Eichmann's task was the logistics of extermination. By advancing the Nazi agenda, he advanced himself. Without giving any thought to the harm to his victims or even the harm to German society.
We can witness a similar thoughtlessness in Benjamin Netanyahu and his ministers. They do not think about the harm they are doing to Palestinian and Lebanese people, or even to Israelis and Israel itself. For decades Israeli military and intelligence chiefs have opposed The Occupation in part because of its demoralizing effect on the troops and on Israeli society. We see that demoralization personified in Netanyahu and his supporters
Kelly kept quiet until today. Why? Why would he not call him out at or near the same time Milley said he was a fascist? I mean he is a Gold Star parent and Trump made disparaging comments at the area where his son is buried in Arlington. Kelly said Trump doesn’t know history. He should have punched him or better yet, take him to the Holocaust Museum where he could see actual Nazi videos, millions of shoes, prisoner uniforms, gas ovens, etc. Afterward, take him to the African American Smithsonian Museum. The criminal is 78 years old and his mind is so-called in question. What’s not in question is his cruelty.
I don’t honestly think it would affect the man at all because he doesn’t appear to care about any other humans aside from himself. He really doesn’t have an ounce of honest compassion for anyone else. A person like that makes a very, very poor leader.
Brilliant comment! I agree with every word. Watch the documentary “Bad Faith” and then tell me how Reagan, the demented, trickle down ass was a Republican saint.
Bill, I must say that I read an article this evening in the Atlantic that scares the dickens out of me-As we all sit here and logically think, how could this race be so close? Why are people not seeing what’s happening?— The article not to say that these supporters will not be listening to any logic from the rest of us that they actually revel and the thought of Trump coming back in to power-That they feel so put down by those of us who think logically they will rebel in his reelection-I hate to say, but that makes sense to me and I’m scared
Thinking logically is just not in their skill set. "It's just too hard, let someone else do it for me!" is what I'm hearing loud and clear. Talk about "lazy".
I think she's talking about all of the Republicans who are just now coming out against Trump. Liz Cheney voted to impeach the guy and lost her job by doing it.
Very well said. The only quibble I have is that it all started, not with Reagan -who bears plenty of responsibility and blame, but with Nixon bringing together white supremacists & resentment over the civil rights victories in his Southern Strategy platform.
Wondering about and asking for apologies is useless and a waste of energy. As lin* said - why on earth would they apologize? They won. (So far.) That many of them will inevitably be ground under trump’s heel once he gets his fascist overhaul going hasn’t really dawned on them. No one is safe under such rule - not even bootlickers.
Yes, I think many who think a second Trump presidency is going to turn out well for them are gravely mistaken. What good are tax cuts if most of your civil liberties are taken away. Will the extra stuff you can buy really make up for that? And since you can't really trust a single thing the guy says, can you even be sure the tax cuts would actually happen?
Exactly, he’s not exact well known for telling the truth or keeping promises is he? If he should win it will be a disaster for our country. I don’t understand what voters see in him, he’s got so many things against him it’s shameful that any American who claims to love this country would ever consider voting for a dictator want to be. If he loses he could possibly go to prison that’s not exactly a plus mark on his character. He’s got so many negatives it makes one ashamed of any American who would vote for him. Why would they?
From what I've read, there are a lot of people out there who actually LIKE the fact that he lies and gets away with it. They like the fact that he's a bully. He's seen as a disruptor, and it seems they think the disruption he will bring will be beneficial.
But as Kusumii said, even the bootlickers may find themselves wishing they had voted differently. They'll only round up the people I don't like, right? They'll only bully the bad people, right? But I'LL be fine,since I'm a supporter and one of the good ones...Or so you think.
Ummm.....my two friends who are voting for Stein are doing so because they like her policies, particularly her stance on Gaza and her dedication to mitigating climate change. It has nothing to do with Dems OR the orange man. It actually IS possible to have an ideology that doesn't conform to either Ds or Rs. I admire them for it.
And you can thank them after trump is elected. Jill Stein only believes in her 15 minutes of fame every four years. I have no respect for your friends or my smug friends who tell me they no longer care about politics because they only care about their family. Their families which include young women and granddaughters. They sicken me even more than the stupid trump worshippers.
Your friends are mistaken in confusing voting with an individual exercise in personal expression. Voting is a joint exercise in taking power. Republicans understand this. Your friends prefer to indulge in purity tests, pipe dreams, and an ego tripping Pied Piper.
If yourvfriends cared about Stein's putative policies and particularly Gaza, then your friends would vote Democratic, because Democrats have a better track record and platform than Republicans. And that is the choice. Vote Harris or elect Trump So your friends are effectively voting for "Drill Baby Drill" and "bulldozing the Negev to build camps for Palestinians while developing the very valuable Gaza waterfront property." The Trump camp's words not mine. It is particularly repugnant to see Jill Stein keeping her back-from-the-dead-and-ready-to-party-with-Putin-again campaign alive by swooping in to feed off the desperation and despair of those in mourning over Gaza.
Stein has everything to do with Democrats and Republicans. She reviles Democrats and lets Republicans of the hook. And for this she has been praised by Trump and in the official Russian press, and feted by Putin, along with Mike Flynn
It is actually is possible to have any nonconforming ideology you want. It is actually not possible to escape that we have a two party system in which Jill Stein operates only as a spoiler. She is very open about reveling in her power to punish the Democratic party - no matter the cost and collective damage. Stein understands Vote Harris or Elect Trump. Stein is Putin's "useful idiot". And your friends are Stein's "useful idiots." Hitler came to power because Stalin directed German Communists to split from the German Center Left. Stein is directing putatively Leftish American voters to split from the American Center Left Democratic party. To elect Trump. And you find this admirable?
"This, in essence, means that Stein is in fact a terrorist herself."
Stein is not a terrorist. Stein is a tool. Of Putin, of Trump ... of anyone who will support her in tearing down the US government, rather than helping reclaim and reform it.
Why does Stein have to insert herself into the election in the first place? There is zero chance that she will win and instead she’s giving Trump the election most likely. Of all the elections we have ever had this is by far the most dangerous to our Democracy! We can’t really afford a third party candidate that could throw the election to Trump/ Dictator! You don’t have to listen to him for more than a minute or two to hear all the hate pouring forth and what he’s going to do to various people on his HIT LIST! This is not a normal or well person, far from it. He sounds exactly like Hitler! Hitler responsible for the deaths of millions and millions of peoples deaths due to his hateful rhetoric which is now coming out of Trumps mouth. He’s threatening various people by name as to what he will do to them when he wins. I wouldn’t ignore these threats or take them lightly!
I don’t admire them at all. Do they know that Stein has been courted by Putin? Yes, she has gone to Moscow quite a few times and in what capacity? Maybe she’s a Russian agent.
So true. But they could have exercised their power and authority as a bloc rather than be a group of spineless cowards. As I said in another comment though, Trump served them as a useful idiot until they lost control of him.
Some of them stayed in his administration so they could tell Trump NO on his crazy plans. If he is elected again he will make sure he only has YES men.
They were the "guardrails" talked about, the ones who kept him from doing the outrageous and dangerous things he wanted to do. As you said, if elected, the guardrails will be gone and our democracy may be gone with them.
I totally agree. I feel Trump needed to be stopped right from the beginning. The Democrats saw him as a threat and tried to get him removed from power but the Republicans refused to do it. Yet after Biden won the election in 2020, so many people went out of their way to support Trump’s allegations of fraud. Time and time again the media could have refused to air his false claims or hateful comments but they repeated them excessively for 8 years. After watching To Russia With Lev it seemed to me that he managed to get a group of sleazy characters to do his bidding. It’s obvious to me and many others that he’s been following Hitler’s playbook. Somehow many Americans either fail to see this or are ok with it. I have been beside myself with worry. I wish Biden would call in the military to arrest him or something. This just shouldn’t be happening. He has made it clear that he will do whatever it takes to win. Many people are afraid of what he and his MAGA people might do. He needs to be stopped. I’m afraid.
Before Trump's Big Lie, there was the Noble Lost Cause. Before Kellyanne Conway's "alternative facts" there were the Daughters of the Confederacy elevating Southern Traitors as Heritage Heroes in every town square. Hagiography masquerading as history. While banning actual facts from the public sphere. MAGA are their blood heirs. Fred Trump was arrested marching with the KKK - attacking Irish Catholic NYC cops who dared police 'native born Protestants.'
It will be interesting to see whether Trump's Madison Square Garden rally will feature a portrait of George Washington - as did the Nazi Madison Square Garden rally of 1939.
Red Hats are the new white robes and brown shirts.
Even if we lose this election, and I am thinking we'll win, we have formed a broad and savvy coalition which we can build on to reclaim our democracy. And if we win then we can devote ourselves to erecting stronger guardrails.
Defeating Trump will be relatively easier than derailing Charles Koch et al and their bagman Leonard Leo. That will take an entirely reformed Republican party unwilling to pander to the unmitigated greed of the plutocrats and the unconscionable bigotry of the populists. And one willing to restore the separation of church and state to keep religious creed, absolutism, authoritarianism, anti-science, and irrational habits of mind out of the body politic.
I would bet $100 that all of those Republicans that didn't vote to remove him from Office are quietly regretting it now. They're complicit in his fascist behavior...
I too am terrified and afraid that he will find any of us , just as Hitler did, who have spoken against him, and we may be in great danger. The German people who didn’t go along with The Führer were the first to find themselves in places like Dachau. Many Germans disappeared during those early years. Trump sounds just like him.
I believe the military leaders, at least, were adhering to chain-of-command and deference to the position. From all appearances, they did their jobs and didn't follow illegal orders. Speaking out publicly is anathema to their training, their discipline, and their basic mature. The menace doesn't know when to stop (especially surrounded by yes-men) and has pushed these patriots over the edge.
While I think you have a point, I don't think this is the time for criticism of these people. My main goal at this time is to avoid the 21st-century American version of the Gestapo. And we need all the help we can get. I want to encourage as many people as possible to speak out against Trump, to convince as many voters as possible to flip.
I could probably answer: Anyone retiring for a political appointment or active, stay silent fearing they will not be able to find special employment. So many of them are spinless.
Exactly. Had Mitch and the Senate gone through with a conviction we wouldn't be in the shape we're in now. Donald wouldn't have been able to run for president ever again. I put the blame fully on Mitch and the Republicans in the Senate.
Yeah, we can say all we want about the madman. But the question remains; How was the madman allowed to get into power in the first place? Narcissists like Trump are everywhere and perhaps always will be. George Washington was concerned about this very thing, that some populist would get into power and take over government.
I spread some of that blame to Garland for not doing his job and holding every member of the trump administration, from trump down, legally accountable for their crimes. Especially so for not only allowing the person who created and stoked an actual uprising - an attempted coup! - against our government to get away with it but to continue to foment violence against anyone he dislikes, including government and military officials still in office, and to actually run for the Presidency again. trump should’ve been arrested for this the day garland took office. Instead, it was all ignored. For what? Incompetency or complicity?
Garland is as much to blame as McConnell and the rest of the Republican Fascist Party.
"James Mattis Denounces President Trump, Describes Him as a Threat to the Constitution
In an extraordinary condemnation, the former defense secretary backs protesters and says the president is trying to turn Americans against one another."
What Walsh? As for Flynn and Bannon, you must be high. Flynn was forced to resign because he was a known security risk, Bannon and Kushner didn’t get along. KT McFarland was sent off to Singapore. Priebus lost his job because he couldn’t control the infighting. Don’t remember him saying anything about his boss’s issues. Bossert, Homeland Security Advisor, resigned at John Bolton’s request but said nothing concerning President trump. Dan Coats, former DNI director had the temerity to affirm the Intell Community’s assessment that Russia did interfere with the 2016 election. He also was crosswise with trump concerning the impact of climate change on national security. He was fired via twitter by trump after trumps call to Zelenskyy for which he was impeached.
As for John Bolton, he was and alway will be considered a nasty son of a bitch up to his eyeballs in every republican administration since Nixon and really causing havoc from Reagan until he became National Security Advisor. By the way, it was he who dissolved his Global Health Security team. That went well. Tucker Carlson had strongly suggested that he fire Bolton. Bolton also wrote a book after trump may or may not have fired him. Any criticism of trump by Bolton most likely is because of the problems Bolton had getting his book published because of trump. So there is hostility there between the two men. If anything, Bolton was even more abrasive and far right for trump’s comfort.
There are signs that DeSantis pissed off large groups of voters; abortion is on the ballot which encourages and stimulates large turnout; and some say that there is an accumulation of several million Caribbeans whom he has insulted, threatened and now promised they will be deported (now get this?) along with their children who were born in the US but who project 2025 refuses to recognize as citizens! There are many citizens among them who will be voting against him this time? Put it all together and who knows but it’s possible?
Texas is now mostly Red, too, but I still remember it being quite Blue. Of course, I still remember politicians actually talking to each other, knowing how to compromise, and mostly standing up for democracy and freedom.
Cruz was born in Canada. His mother was born in the US and his father was born in Cuba. He had dual US & Canadian citizenship. He didn’t give up his Canadian citizenship until 2013. He ran for president in 2015.
Lots of Texas voters voting for the first time, probably thanks to Beto. The other urban areas and their suburbs are hitting records for early voting ( except El Paso). It will be a welcome long time coming shocker to see this state show up in the blue column again. It's Abbott Paxton etc that worry me and how they get away with their suppression tactics...
It's easy to forget that as evil as Trump is, there are other Republicans who are almost equally evil, though not as stupid. I'm talking about Abbott and Paxton and DeSantis and all the others who call themselves Republicans because Fascist is a bad look.
The single reason Trump is even in the running is FOX News. Which also includes its' lesser competitors like OANN, Newsmax, etc. That pour out an unending stream of lies and Russian/Chinese Intelligence talking points and deepfakes. Hiding behind their 1st Amendment rights, they pretend to be journalists while acting as a full-time propaganda apparatus for the MAGA wing of the GOP. We need a return to the Fairness Doctrine, and/or UK-style libel laws to ensure that the 4th Estate *informs* American citizens--instead of manipulating and deceiving them.
I also blame mainstream media for not calling him out consistently, and constantly showing his mug and what he says without really identifying what a danger he is. They were trying to be unbiased when the other side was lying their heads off.
It would have to be completely rewritten. The Supreme Court would probably strike it down. It never applied to print media or cable TV. Of course, social media wasn’t a thing then and it wouldn’t have applied to it anyway. It only applied to radio and television “the airwaves.”
I blame all the elected Republicans who know the danger Trump represents and remain silent. I especially blame the “Generals” who are too little too late. They should be on Fox News morning noon and night shouting at the top of their lungs about the dangers of Trump. Apologizing to Americans for their traitorous silence. They should be yelling at all those anchors asking them why they are shilling for a fascist. They should be talking over them and interrupting them, asking why they knowingly publish and air lies in service of the overthrow of our democracy. Every day, every minute, they aren’t doing this they continue to be traitors to our democracy. THEY can actually make a difference, a BIG difference, and what are they doing? Sitting idly by. They disgust me.
I'm equally Dismayed that he is continuing to receive support from Socalled Evangelicals! After his Disastrous first term, I thought his Evangelical support would Atleast Erode....I THOUGHT WRONG!
I believe the majority of people who support him have experienced trauma at some point in their lives and have been living from unconscious Fight or Flight syndrome. Trump has stirred up so much unconscious fear in them that they are willing to ignore any rational and true statements made even when confronted with Trumps own words. Selective hearing. They'll just ignore what anyone but Trump says because it feeds their fear. They have not recognized how to feel safe in their skin. It's really sad, imo.
Agree. I've never felt so ashamed of this country. If the orange guy is successful and continues to be supported, I will be even more ashamed and never find forgiveness for those who facilitated him.
Well he starts off this time allegedly with 74Million who voted for him in 2020? BUT statistically about 5 Million of his most adoring voters over the age of 65 just happened to die in the last 4 years! That. Is true! Plus they have been replaced on the voting rolls by about 2 to 3 Million new registered young voters who reached the age of 18 in the last four years! Stats don’t lie! New ballgame!
My past Trump-supporting family members have surprised me by declaring that they will vote for Kamala! It would be good if there was a similar national swing.
Trump is a tyrant plain & simple. He is like a child who doesn’t get his way. He is the worst person ever to occupy the president of this United States. I have voted & I voted for the Harris / Walz team.
We have got to keep doing something every day!!! We have got to get like minded people to pay attention & VOTE. We’re NOT going back. Thank you Dan & friends
Those in the Steady camp are only too aware of the stakes in this election. We know to take trump at his word and we make NO mistake there. Voted early today and all I can say is, VOTE BLUE.
I long for the “good old days” when you didn’t have someone running for president that admires(openly) dictators, that didn’t use words describing their opponents that wouldn’t you want a child to hear, that wasn’t fixated on the size of a man’s body parts, not convicted of sexual assault, not convicted of 34 counts of fraud, that when he gave a speech you actually knew what they were talking about. And yet a large percentage of the population think they would be better off with him as president. Don’t they have any memory of what he was like.?
Unfortunately, the economy did well under Trump. Disgusts me to admit this as I loath the man more than I do the hard-bodied flying palmetto bugs, down here in West Central FL.
Recall, however, that the world economy dropped from the pandemic which Trump failed to handle well. The news media failed to shout out how well President Biden helped our economy.
Continuing: No longer are they saving by not going to the office. No longer is there so much disposable income- probably not that much different than pre pandemic. But they all got used to their “stuff”. Got used to elaborate family vacations. Credit card debt has skyrocketed. Economy to many is how much more they can own and do compared to neighbors and friends. They are voting “with their pocketbooks!”
If T rump succeeds, let’s see how they feel in a year.
Absolutely! No one mentions the Pandemic years 2020-2022. No one went to the office. No one had transportation costs, clothing and laundry, day care, and on. People had extra cash. They got used to ordering anything they wanted on line. They drank wine after lunch and had groceries delivered at an inflated price. Fast forward two years: food prices stuck at the inflated prices even if you went to the market. Shrinkflation set in and manufacturers spent megabucks reengineering packaging to make less appear to be the same as usual. A quart of mayo became 30 ounces. Prices rose weekly for no good reason. Now certain demographics think the economy is bad
I suspect that some of his former cabinet officials went in there thinking that tRump would grow into the job... What they found there was someone who, as VP Harris says, is not a serious person. They stayed for whatever reason, to apply some breaks and guardrails to him. In a second term, there will bo no such people. His transactional, I-win, You-lose mentality will go unchecked and his baser instincts, the lying and gaslighting will reign supreme. The damage this awful, evil 78 year old enfant terrible can and will do is going to be astonishing to behold.
I'm truly ashamed of the people on our country who support and are voting for Trump. It's disturbing, to say the least, that people admire him. I'm confident that we will defeat him at the ballot box. We'll have to deal with him and his followers causing mayhem and chaos after he loses, but President Biden is in charge and he won't put up with the craziness we witnessed on January 6th, 2021. He will stop those people in their tracks. I'm looking forward to Kamala Harris and Tim Walz handily winning this election.
Look no further than the last Trump term. Impeached twice, the second time for a quid pro quo. He deliberately incited a riot on January 6. He has stolen and probably compromised some of our Nations most closely held secrets. Finally he lies incessantly. About the vote, about his “accomplishments” and about almost everything else you can imagine.
The troubling part however isn’t Trump himself. It’s the entire office holding Republican Party. It’s the men and women who blindly follow him and worship him. It’s every single “conservative” news outlet. We now have the FOREIGN OWNER of the LA Times ordering his editorial staff NOT to endorse Harris!
We’re in serious trouble as a Nation. In normal times this election would NEVER have been this close.
Schiff was not the chairman of the January 6 committee as you stated in your excellent piece. He was a member of that committee. He was also the House impeachment manager in Drumpf’s second impeachment trial.
The image of Trump is perfect. A semi-silhouette and black shadow. He doesn’t deserve facial features because that would make him human.
I am still gobsmacked that we are at this point. It seems crystal clear that he is vulgar, demented and power crazy. But do people recognize this. I hear some men think he is manly talking about Arnold Palmer. That many people still think the economy will do better under DT. I want proof. Yes things cost more. Everything does….except mass electronics which always get cheaper. And I heard that men are scared that Kamala, as a female, can’t stand on the same stage as male foreign leaders. Shall I name the female leaders from numerous parts on the world did so. Gentlemen, look around. Except for a couple of slight differences we have the same body parts you do. And for you women, I still hear stories that women vote the way their husbands, boyfriends tell them. We have not come this far if this is still what’s happening. One man. One woman. Same one vote. The majority should win. But the electoral college relegates us to 7 states. We all should have moved 6 months ago.
Janis D., you are a very well informed, excellent speaker/writer here. One who could do well by our country would you run for public office; please consider doing so.
I thank you for the endorsement, Catherine, but that career move has passed me by. But I love to write about and think about and would love to put something together in that genre.
Where were all of these loyal-to-the-Constitution Republicans when they were in a position to speak up and help get an impeachment conviction? By failing to stand up to Trump all along the way, we are now standing on the precipice of disaster.
That’s what I want to know. Have any of them ever apologized to the American people for not speaking up earlier?
Why would Republicans apologize for Trump? With Trump they hedged their bets on 3 Supreme Court Justices. And won. Now they are hedging their bets on 3 more and Project 2025. This is the coming to fruition of the Republican Southern Strategy and of Ronald Reagan jumping in bed with Ralph Reed. Movement Conservatism in bed with the Religious Right. Republicans hedged their bets on instituting unregulated capitalism and untaxed wealth with the votes of racist and religious extremist populists. And they won. Why would Charles Koch et al apologize? Why would Leonard Leo or Mitch McConnell? Never Trumpers still worship Ronald Reagan. (Max Boot looking at you.) Self blinkered to the fact that Reagan set this wrecking ball rolling. Trump is Reagan writ large and writ vulgar. Same antidemocratic agenda, different style. Tom Nichols writes in the Atlantic that Trump voters revel in his abominations - all the sweeter thumb in the eye of liberals et when Trump wins. I get that valid resentments and actual anxieties can perversely manifest this way. (Much like Jill Stein followers electing Trump to punish the Democratic party.) Then there is the wonderment of people, like two I heard today on CSpan, lauding Trump as "a good family man with a good heart" and a "brilliant humorist, caring man, and accomplished businessman and statesman who will make America greater than it's ever been." The Politics of Faith. No facts need apply.
I’ve never understood why republicans deified Regan. He was the first MAGA president, wasn’t he? His campaign slogan was “Make America Great Again”. He finally uttered the word “AIDS” nearly a decade after it had been identified. Millions died needlessly because of his in action. Sound familiar?
Grover Norquist suggested a statue of Reagan in every town square.
Redistribution of the nation's wealth through inequitable taxation favoring the wealthy.
Union busting.
Slashing public education.
Slashing Federal support for essential and emergency services.
Deregulation.
Embrace of racism and bigotry.
Tearing down wall between church and state.
For starts.
What's not for a Republican to love?
Sheesh…the mere mention of Norquist sends shivers down my spine!
Me too
You know, I love his son, Ron Reagan. He is an atheist and spread the word about Christian Nationalism. He says he’s “not afraid of burning in hell”. https://www.google.com/gasearch?q=ron%20reagan,%20the%20son&source=sh/x/gs/m2/5#fpstate=ive&vld=cid:355c531c,vid:m7T2xtSgKoI,st:0
Me either. Having been raised in an evilangelical cult who used the Bible to excuse and even justify incest and to promote extreme violence against children and animals and in the home of a white supremacist pedophile stepfather who enjoyed the physical violence and mental torment he inflicted on my siblings and I, I firmly believe that hell exists right here on earth created by humans in what they willingly, gleefully do to other humans, especially children and animals. If it turns out I’m wrong, oh fucking well. It won’t be worse than what I’ve already endured and in watching my siblings die far too early while running from the damage caused by our forced upbringing in both white supremacy and far right religion.
I’m a member
You answered your own question. That's why he's St. Ronald. And the AIDS thing is why Republicans have hated Dr. Fauci, for the last 4+ decades.
Old name tag for him: "Ronald-Rayguns".
And, we, the forever deluded American Voters continue to "bend-over"...
Are the Republicans that stupid? I guess they must be to support a man clearly unhinged and with so obviously suffering from Dementia! How dare they try to impose him on our country as if he was a normal person and candidate! He’s very clearly not normal by any definition of the word and as far as I am concerned the Republican Party may as well rename themselves the American Nazi party. They are criminals for putting forth Trump as their candidate, as man who is suffering from dementia and is clearly a fascist on steroids! This is the worst thing that has ever happened to this country, how dare the Republican Party put us in such DANGER! They should all resign immediately loose their right to vote, they are trying to cause a revolution of that there is no doubt! Only prison is good enough for their leaders for this attempt to overthrow our government with a DICTATOR!
They're traitors to our country. All of them. Anyone supporting Trump and who are complicit in getting him elected are NOT patriots!!
I feel the same. The Republicans not only nominated this man twice they refused to remove him from power when he clearly presented a danger to our people, our democracy and our country. What he says he wants to do when he is President is clearly out of Hitler’s playbook. Why do they feel this is ok? It’s incredibly disturbing to many of us. I haven’t slept well since he became President in 2016. I have spoken to many people who feel extremely anxious because of him. I can only pray that many more Americans will vote Blue so that we can all sigh a sigh of relief. I believe Kamala will bring sanity, unity, reason and optimism back into our lives.
Yes, but Republicans will still be there. It‘s all a nightmare.
The answer to your first question, is "yes," definitely. There's a reason Trump "loves the uneducated." And why the Trump administration headed the Dept. of Education with a woman who firmly believes public education should be done away with. The uneducated, uninformed, uncurious are those who love the man the most.
While there is truth to this we can’t blame trump’s ascent solely on the ‘uneducated’. Plenty of highly educated, successful people support him and his beliefs. I know of more than a handful - all working in Silicon Valley - who fully support him. All educated. All rich. All fully aware of trump’s fascist intent. They want more of his tax cuts for themselves (greed, arrogance, a lack of empathy for others & a lack of care for society) and/or they are fully onboard with his racism, bigotry and misogyny.
The self involvement and thoughtlessness you describe is what Hannah Arendt meant when she coined the phrase 'banality of evil' to describe Adolph Eichmann.
It is not that evil was so prevalent as to be banal. But the banality of pursuing everyday tasks, without giving thought to the harm inflicted.
Eichmann's task was the logistics of extermination. By advancing the Nazi agenda, he advanced himself. Without giving any thought to the harm to his victims or even the harm to German society.
We can witness a similar thoughtlessness in Benjamin Netanyahu and his ministers. They do not think about the harm they are doing to Palestinian and Lebanese people, or even to Israelis and Israel itself. For decades Israeli military and intelligence chiefs have opposed The Occupation in part because of its demoralizing effect on the troops and on Israeli society. We see that demoralization personified in Netanyahu and his supporters
We are now paying the price for the decades-long dumbing-down of the general electorate.
Read the article in the Atlantic this evening. It is scary. It makes more sense to me as to why this election is so close.
Kelly kept quiet until today. Why? Why would he not call him out at or near the same time Milley said he was a fascist? I mean he is a Gold Star parent and Trump made disparaging comments at the area where his son is buried in Arlington. Kelly said Trump doesn’t know history. He should have punched him or better yet, take him to the Holocaust Museum where he could see actual Nazi videos, millions of shoes, prisoner uniforms, gas ovens, etc. Afterward, take him to the African American Smithsonian Museum. The criminal is 78 years old and his mind is so-called in question. What’s not in question is his cruelty.
I don’t honestly think it would affect the man at all because he doesn’t appear to care about any other humans aside from himself. He really doesn’t have an ounce of honest compassion for anyone else. A person like that makes a very, very poor leader.
Ask Tiffany if she thinks he's a good family man with a good heart.
Brilliant comment! I agree with every word. Watch the documentary “Bad Faith” and then tell me how Reagan, the demented, trickle down ass was a Republican saint.
Never could stand the guy, he should have stayed in Holly weird.
Bill, I must say that I read an article this evening in the Atlantic that scares the dickens out of me-As we all sit here and logically think, how could this race be so close? Why are people not seeing what’s happening?— The article not to say that these supporters will not be listening to any logic from the rest of us that they actually revel and the thought of Trump coming back in to power-That they feel so put down by those of us who think logically they will rebel in his reelection-I hate to say, but that makes sense to me and I’m scared
Thinking logically is just not in their skill set. "It's just too hard, let someone else do it for me!" is what I'm hearing loud and clear. Talk about "lazy".
I believe they were talking about the Liz Cheneys etc. who supported trump before.
I think she's talking about all of the Republicans who are just now coming out against Trump. Liz Cheney voted to impeach the guy and lost her job by doing it.
Very well said. The only quibble I have is that it all started, not with Reagan -who bears plenty of responsibility and blame, but with Nixon bringing together white supremacists & resentment over the civil rights victories in his Southern Strategy platform.
Wondering about and asking for apologies is useless and a waste of energy. As lin* said - why on earth would they apologize? They won. (So far.) That many of them will inevitably be ground under trump’s heel once he gets his fascist overhaul going hasn’t really dawned on them. No one is safe under such rule - not even bootlickers.
Yes, I think many who think a second Trump presidency is going to turn out well for them are gravely mistaken. What good are tax cuts if most of your civil liberties are taken away. Will the extra stuff you can buy really make up for that? And since you can't really trust a single thing the guy says, can you even be sure the tax cuts would actually happen?
Exactly, he’s not exact well known for telling the truth or keeping promises is he? If he should win it will be a disaster for our country. I don’t understand what voters see in him, he’s got so many things against him it’s shameful that any American who claims to love this country would ever consider voting for a dictator want to be. If he loses he could possibly go to prison that’s not exactly a plus mark on his character. He’s got so many negatives it makes one ashamed of any American who would vote for him. Why would they?
From what I've read, there are a lot of people out there who actually LIKE the fact that he lies and gets away with it. They like the fact that he's a bully. He's seen as a disruptor, and it seems they think the disruption he will bring will be beneficial.
But as Kusumii said, even the bootlickers may find themselves wishing they had voted differently. They'll only round up the people I don't like, right? They'll only bully the bad people, right? But I'LL be fine,since I'm a supporter and one of the good ones...Or so you think.
Yes. ThankYou. You are correct. The Southern Strategy began with Nixon. Reagan moved it forward.
lin, great comment. Thanks.
Ummm.....my two friends who are voting for Stein are doing so because they like her policies, particularly her stance on Gaza and her dedication to mitigating climate change. It has nothing to do with Dems OR the orange man. It actually IS possible to have an ideology that doesn't conform to either Ds or Rs. I admire them for it.
And you can thank them after trump is elected. Jill Stein only believes in her 15 minutes of fame every four years. I have no respect for your friends or my smug friends who tell me they no longer care about politics because they only care about their family. Their families which include young women and granddaughters. They sicken me even more than the stupid trump worshippers.
She comes across to me as a would-be martyr who enjoys the public spectacle of her own self-flagellation.
And the Republican and Russian money that flows her way.
Your friends are mistaken in confusing voting with an individual exercise in personal expression. Voting is a joint exercise in taking power. Republicans understand this. Your friends prefer to indulge in purity tests, pipe dreams, and an ego tripping Pied Piper.
If yourvfriends cared about Stein's putative policies and particularly Gaza, then your friends would vote Democratic, because Democrats have a better track record and platform than Republicans. And that is the choice. Vote Harris or elect Trump So your friends are effectively voting for "Drill Baby Drill" and "bulldozing the Negev to build camps for Palestinians while developing the very valuable Gaza waterfront property." The Trump camp's words not mine. It is particularly repugnant to see Jill Stein keeping her back-from-the-dead-and-ready-to-party-with-Putin-again campaign alive by swooping in to feed off the desperation and despair of those in mourning over Gaza.
Stein has everything to do with Democrats and Republicans. She reviles Democrats and lets Republicans of the hook. And for this she has been praised by Trump and in the official Russian press, and feted by Putin, along with Mike Flynn
It is actually is possible to have any nonconforming ideology you want. It is actually not possible to escape that we have a two party system in which Jill Stein operates only as a spoiler. She is very open about reveling in her power to punish the Democratic party - no matter the cost and collective damage. Stein understands Vote Harris or Elect Trump. Stein is Putin's "useful idiot". And your friends are Stein's "useful idiots." Hitler came to power because Stalin directed German Communists to split from the German Center Left. Stein is directing putatively Leftish American voters to split from the American Center Left Democratic party. To elect Trump. And you find this admirable?
This, in essence, means that Stein is in fact a terrorist herself.
"This, in essence, means that Stein is in fact a terrorist herself."
Stein is not a terrorist. Stein is a tool. Of Putin, of Trump ... of anyone who will support her in tearing down the US government, rather than helping reclaim and reform it.
A vote for any 3rd party candidate is a vote for trump. I hope your friends get their heads out of the sand before they’re crying about project 2025.
Why does Stein have to insert herself into the election in the first place? There is zero chance that she will win and instead she’s giving Trump the election most likely. Of all the elections we have ever had this is by far the most dangerous to our Democracy! We can’t really afford a third party candidate that could throw the election to Trump/ Dictator! You don’t have to listen to him for more than a minute or two to hear all the hate pouring forth and what he’s going to do to various people on his HIT LIST! This is not a normal or well person, far from it. He sounds exactly like Hitler! Hitler responsible for the deaths of millions and millions of peoples deaths due to his hateful rhetoric which is now coming out of Trumps mouth. He’s threatening various people by name as to what he will do to them when he wins. I wouldn’t ignore these threats or take them lightly!
I don’t admire them at all. Do they know that Stein has been courted by Putin? Yes, she has gone to Moscow quite a few times and in what capacity? Maybe she’s a Russian agent.
I don‘t think it‘s a clever choice to make in this election. Not when democracy is at stake.
Electing Trump to punish democrats is like using a nuclear bomb to stop a hurricane.
That needs to be repeated over and over and over until Election Day.
YES! Repeat it everyday!!!
Nope, not a snowballs chance in hell. Apologies and MAGA aren't in the same universe and never will be.
Where are they? Out of office. The ones holding office are either WORSE than Trump or cowards. The Republican Party disgusts me.
So true. But they could have exercised their power and authority as a bloc rather than be a group of spineless cowards. As I said in another comment though, Trump served them as a useful idiot until they lost control of him.
Some of them stayed in his administration so they could tell Trump NO on his crazy plans. If he is elected again he will make sure he only has YES men.
They were the "guardrails" talked about, the ones who kept him from doing the outrageous and dangerous things he wanted to do. As you said, if elected, the guardrails will be gone and our democracy may be gone with them.
Otherwise we would of had nukes in hurricanes 🌀.
They are all like the Good Germans of 90 years ago. See no evil, hear no evil. Speak no evil.
Very, very frightening a statement for being true.
I totally agree. I feel Trump needed to be stopped right from the beginning. The Democrats saw him as a threat and tried to get him removed from power but the Republicans refused to do it. Yet after Biden won the election in 2020, so many people went out of their way to support Trump’s allegations of fraud. Time and time again the media could have refused to air his false claims or hateful comments but they repeated them excessively for 8 years. After watching To Russia With Lev it seemed to me that he managed to get a group of sleazy characters to do his bidding. It’s obvious to me and many others that he’s been following Hitler’s playbook. Somehow many Americans either fail to see this or are ok with it. I have been beside myself with worry. I wish Biden would call in the military to arrest him or something. This just shouldn’t be happening. He has made it clear that he will do whatever it takes to win. Many people are afraid of what he and his MAGA people might do. He needs to be stopped. I’m afraid.
Before Trump's Big Lie, there was the Noble Lost Cause. Before Kellyanne Conway's "alternative facts" there were the Daughters of the Confederacy elevating Southern Traitors as Heritage Heroes in every town square. Hagiography masquerading as history. While banning actual facts from the public sphere. MAGA are their blood heirs. Fred Trump was arrested marching with the KKK - attacking Irish Catholic NYC cops who dared police 'native born Protestants.'
It will be interesting to see whether Trump's Madison Square Garden rally will feature a portrait of George Washington - as did the Nazi Madison Square Garden rally of 1939.
Red Hats are the new white robes and brown shirts.
Even if we lose this election, and I am thinking we'll win, we have formed a broad and savvy coalition which we can build on to reclaim our democracy. And if we win then we can devote ourselves to erecting stronger guardrails.
Defeating Trump will be relatively easier than derailing Charles Koch et al and their bagman Leonard Leo. That will take an entirely reformed Republican party unwilling to pander to the unmitigated greed of the plutocrats and the unconscionable bigotry of the populists. And one willing to restore the separation of church and state to keep religious creed, absolutism, authoritarianism, anti-science, and irrational habits of mind out of the body politic.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1939_Nazi_rally_at_Madison_Square_Garden
Maybe the Republican Party should be outlawed for trying to overthrow our democracy? They are supporting a wanna be Dictator!
I would bet $100 that all of those Republicans that didn't vote to remove him from Office are quietly regretting it now. They're complicit in his fascist behavior...
I too am terrified and afraid that he will find any of us , just as Hitler did, who have spoken against him, and we may be in great danger. The German people who didn’t go along with The Führer were the first to find themselves in places like Dachau. Many Germans disappeared during those early years. Trump sounds just like him.
I was just thinking that same exact thought…
I believe the military leaders, at least, were adhering to chain-of-command and deference to the position. From all appearances, they did their jobs and didn't follow illegal orders. Speaking out publicly is anathema to their training, their discipline, and their basic mature. The menace doesn't know when to stop (especially surrounded by yes-men) and has pushed these patriots over the edge.
Perfectly stated!
They appear to care only about themselves and proximity to power and money
I never liked The Donald and I have always spoken out against him. I will continue to do so.
While I think you have a point, I don't think this is the time for criticism of these people. My main goal at this time is to avoid the 21st-century American version of the Gestapo. And we need all the help we can get. I want to encourage as many people as possible to speak out against Trump, to convince as many voters as possible to flip.
I could probably answer: Anyone retiring for a political appointment or active, stay silent fearing they will not be able to find special employment. So many of them are spinless.
Spineless
There's an edit button 👍
Exactly. Had Mitch and the Senate gone through with a conviction we wouldn't be in the shape we're in now. Donald wouldn't have been able to run for president ever again. I put the blame fully on Mitch and the Republicans in the Senate.
Yeah, we can say all we want about the madman. But the question remains; How was the madman allowed to get into power in the first place? Narcissists like Trump are everywhere and perhaps always will be. George Washington was concerned about this very thing, that some populist would get into power and take over government.
I spread some of that blame to Garland for not doing his job and holding every member of the trump administration, from trump down, legally accountable for their crimes. Especially so for not only allowing the person who created and stoked an actual uprising - an attempted coup! - against our government to get away with it but to continue to foment violence against anyone he dislikes, including government and military officials still in office, and to actually run for the Presidency again. trump should’ve been arrested for this the day garland took office. Instead, it was all ignored. For what? Incompetency or complicity?
Garland is as much to blame as McConnell and the rest of the Republican Fascist Party.
It would’ve taken Republican senators to convict tRump, and they were absolutely NOT going to do that.
They spoke up to him all the time. Then he fired them.
Most spoke about it immediately after.
You and many others refused to listen.
I remember Rex Tillerson calling him an effing moron but who else spoke up that he fired? He fired so many for so many different reasons.
2020.
"James Mattis Denounces President Trump, Describes Him as a Threat to the Constitution
In an extraordinary condemnation, the former defense secretary backs protesters and says the president is trying to turn Americans against one another."
https://www.theatlantic.com/politics/archive/2020/06/james-mattis-denounces-trump-protests-militarization/612640/
Walsh, Flynn, McFarland, Priebus, Bannon, Bossert, Coats, Kelly, Bolton all told him that his impulses were crazy and were forced to resign.
They spoke up to him then, and most spoke about him after.
What Walsh? As for Flynn and Bannon, you must be high. Flynn was forced to resign because he was a known security risk, Bannon and Kushner didn’t get along. KT McFarland was sent off to Singapore. Priebus lost his job because he couldn’t control the infighting. Don’t remember him saying anything about his boss’s issues. Bossert, Homeland Security Advisor, resigned at John Bolton’s request but said nothing concerning President trump. Dan Coats, former DNI director had the temerity to affirm the Intell Community’s assessment that Russia did interfere with the 2016 election. He also was crosswise with trump concerning the impact of climate change on national security. He was fired via twitter by trump after trumps call to Zelenskyy for which he was impeached.
As for John Bolton, he was and alway will be considered a nasty son of a bitch up to his eyeballs in every republican administration since Nixon and really causing havoc from Reagan until he became National Security Advisor. By the way, it was he who dissolved his Global Health Security team. That went well. Tucker Carlson had strongly suggested that he fire Bolton. Bolton also wrote a book after trump may or may not have fired him. Any criticism of trump by Bolton most likely is because of the problems Bolton had getting his book published because of trump. So there is hostility there between the two men. If anything, Bolton was even more abrasive and far right for trump’s comfort.
The country, Democrats, some Republicans and Independents have looked to MAGA to get some guts and stand up against this mad man.
The lines to vote are long in Texas!! Maybe we'll get a sane senator at minimum!! :)
I sure hope you do!!! Maybe Florida as well!!!
FL is predominantly a RED state - breaks my heart in having lived here for so long.
There are signs that DeSantis pissed off large groups of voters; abortion is on the ballot which encourages and stimulates large turnout; and some say that there is an accumulation of several million Caribbeans whom he has insulted, threatened and now promised they will be deported (now get this?) along with their children who were born in the US but who project 2025 refuses to recognize as citizens! There are many citizens among them who will be voting against him this time? Put it all together and who knows but it’s possible?
Texas is now mostly Red, too, but I still remember it being quite Blue. Of course, I still remember politicians actually talking to each other, knowing how to compromise, and mostly standing up for democracy and freedom.
Be good if Cruz could go back to Cancun
Wish they would all go to Russia and stay. Take all the deplorables with them!
Beware of Cubans from Canada who run for office in the US.
We don't want him back in Canada, either ! Tell him to move to Russia !
A real immigration problem
They have to be American citizens in order to run for office. At least I pray that I'm correct.
Cruz was born in Canada. His mother was born in the US and his father was born in Cuba. He had dual US & Canadian citizenship. He didn’t give up his Canadian citizenship until 2013. He ran for president in 2015.
Someone sued when Cruz ran for president. The judge determined since his mom is American, he was American.
Record turnout here in Travis County
Lots of Texas voters voting for the first time, probably thanks to Beto. The other urban areas and their suburbs are hitting records for early voting ( except El Paso). It will be a welcome long time coming shocker to see this state show up in the blue column again. It's Abbott Paxton etc that worry me and how they get away with their suppression tactics...
It's easy to forget that as evil as Trump is, there are other Republicans who are almost equally evil, though not as stupid. I'm talking about Abbott and Paxton and DeSantis and all the others who call themselves Republicans because Fascist is a bad look.
I've been working on Beto's gotv campaign!!
Doesn't Texas allow Absentee or Mail In Ballots?
Under strict circumstances. And the deadline in Oct 25 to request one.
Yeah but the lines are moving fast, thank goodness!
The single reason Trump is even in the running is FOX News. Which also includes its' lesser competitors like OANN, Newsmax, etc. That pour out an unending stream of lies and Russian/Chinese Intelligence talking points and deepfakes. Hiding behind their 1st Amendment rights, they pretend to be journalists while acting as a full-time propaganda apparatus for the MAGA wing of the GOP. We need a return to the Fairness Doctrine, and/or UK-style libel laws to ensure that the 4th Estate *informs* American citizens--instead of manipulating and deceiving them.
I also blame mainstream media for not calling him out consistently, and constantly showing his mug and what he says without really identifying what a danger he is. They were trying to be unbiased when the other side was lying their heads off.
The Fairness Doctrine is so needed.
It would have to be completely rewritten. The Supreme Court would probably strike it down. It never applied to print media or cable TV. Of course, social media wasn’t a thing then and it wouldn’t have applied to it anyway. It only applied to radio and television “the airwaves.”
Amen! I blame Fox News for Trump 100%
I think your post is excellent, NubbyShober. And now I’m done for today. A little telly then bedtime.
I blame all the elected Republicans who know the danger Trump represents and remain silent. I especially blame the “Generals” who are too little too late. They should be on Fox News morning noon and night shouting at the top of their lungs about the dangers of Trump. Apologizing to Americans for their traitorous silence. They should be yelling at all those anchors asking them why they are shilling for a fascist. They should be talking over them and interrupting them, asking why they knowingly publish and air lies in service of the overthrow of our democracy. Every day, every minute, they aren’t doing this they continue to be traitors to our democracy. THEY can actually make a difference, a BIG difference, and what are they doing? Sitting idly by. They disgust me.
So true and so sad. Why does he still have so many 'followers'? He is one sick puppy!
Unfortunately it says a lot about the citizens in this country. What has happened to us - maybe I’m just too old but I am completely baffled
I'm equally Dismayed that he is continuing to receive support from Socalled Evangelicals! After his Disastrous first term, I thought his Evangelical support would Atleast Erode....I THOUGHT WRONG!
The religious lunatic fringe has gone mainstream/
I believe the majority of people who support him have experienced trauma at some point in their lives and have been living from unconscious Fight or Flight syndrome. Trump has stirred up so much unconscious fear in them that they are willing to ignore any rational and true statements made even when confronted with Trumps own words. Selective hearing. They'll just ignore what anyone but Trump says because it feeds their fear. They have not recognized how to feel safe in their skin. It's really sad, imo.
WPA, I have wondered that also.
Agree. I've never felt so ashamed of this country. If the orange guy is successful and continues to be supported, I will be even more ashamed and never find forgiveness for those who facilitated him.
Me too…
He has followers because the Right Wing inspired campaign to Dumb Down America has been a Huge Success!
Yes, "Dumb Down America as well as Numb Down America. Craziness and downright evil have been normalized to an alarming extent.
I’m personally pretty perplexed myself 🧐
I wouldn't use the word "puppy" when referring to him, but I too wonder how he can have so many voters.
Well he starts off this time allegedly with 74Million who voted for him in 2020? BUT statistically about 5 Million of his most adoring voters over the age of 65 just happened to die in the last 4 years! That. Is true! Plus they have been replaced on the voting rolls by about 2 to 3 Million new registered young voters who reached the age of 18 in the last four years! Stats don’t lie! New ballgame!
My past Trump-supporting family members have surprised me by declaring that they will vote for Kamala! It would be good if there was a similar national swing.
Trump is a tyrant plain & simple. He is like a child who doesn’t get his way. He is the worst person ever to occupy the president of this United States. I have voted & I voted for the Harris / Walz team.
He is one of the worst persons in the entire world, and aiming to be #1.
I’m going to share this on all social media platforms to get more engagement with new people in the middle of this battle with lunacy…
We have got to keep doing something every day!!! We have got to get like minded people to pay attention & VOTE. We’re NOT going back. Thank you Dan & friends
Those in the Steady camp are only too aware of the stakes in this election. We know to take trump at his word and we make NO mistake there. Voted early today and all I can say is, VOTE BLUE.
Thank you Dan, I truly appreciate your voice! Hoping it succeeds in convincing people to vote for democracy and Kamala Harris.
I long for the “good old days” when you didn’t have someone running for president that admires(openly) dictators, that didn’t use words describing their opponents that wouldn’t you want a child to hear, that wasn’t fixated on the size of a man’s body parts, not convicted of sexual assault, not convicted of 34 counts of fraud, that when he gave a speech you actually knew what they were talking about. And yet a large percentage of the population think they would be better off with him as president. Don’t they have any memory of what he was like.?
Unfortunately, the economy did well under Trump. Disgusts me to admit this as I loath the man more than I do the hard-bodied flying palmetto bugs, down here in West Central FL.
Recall, however, that the world economy dropped from the pandemic which Trump failed to handle well. The news media failed to shout out how well President Biden helped our economy.
Continuing: No longer are they saving by not going to the office. No longer is there so much disposable income- probably not that much different than pre pandemic. But they all got used to their “stuff”. Got used to elaborate family vacations. Credit card debt has skyrocketed. Economy to many is how much more they can own and do compared to neighbors and friends. They are voting “with their pocketbooks!”
If T rump succeeds, let’s see how they feel in a year.
Absolutely! No one mentions the Pandemic years 2020-2022. No one went to the office. No one had transportation costs, clothing and laundry, day care, and on. People had extra cash. They got used to ordering anything they wanted on line. They drank wine after lunch and had groceries delivered at an inflated price. Fast forward two years: food prices stuck at the inflated prices even if you went to the market. Shrinkflation set in and manufacturers spent megabucks reengineering packaging to make less appear to be the same as usual. A quart of mayo became 30 ounces. Prices rose weekly for no good reason. Now certain demographics think the economy is bad
The economy? We should not forget that Trump left office with a raging pandemic, for which his incompetence added fuel to the fire.
I suspect that some of his former cabinet officials went in there thinking that tRump would grow into the job... What they found there was someone who, as VP Harris says, is not a serious person. They stayed for whatever reason, to apply some breaks and guardrails to him. In a second term, there will bo no such people. His transactional, I-win, You-lose mentality will go unchecked and his baser instincts, the lying and gaslighting will reign supreme. The damage this awful, evil 78 year old enfant terrible can and will do is going to be astonishing to behold.
I am sickened by the Republican politicians who are willingly participating in Trump's erosion of American democracy.
I'm truly ashamed of the people on our country who support and are voting for Trump. It's disturbing, to say the least, that people admire him. I'm confident that we will defeat him at the ballot box. We'll have to deal with him and his followers causing mayhem and chaos after he loses, but President Biden is in charge and he won't put up with the craziness we witnessed on January 6th, 2021. He will stop those people in their tracks. I'm looking forward to Kamala Harris and Tim Walz handily winning this election.
Look no further than the last Trump term. Impeached twice, the second time for a quid pro quo. He deliberately incited a riot on January 6. He has stolen and probably compromised some of our Nations most closely held secrets. Finally he lies incessantly. About the vote, about his “accomplishments” and about almost everything else you can imagine.
The troubling part however isn’t Trump himself. It’s the entire office holding Republican Party. It’s the men and women who blindly follow him and worship him. It’s every single “conservative” news outlet. We now have the FOREIGN OWNER of the LA Times ordering his editorial staff NOT to endorse Harris!
We’re in serious trouble as a Nation. In normal times this election would NEVER have been this close.
Vote!
"Normal times"? Been so long.....
…true but I’m old.
DaveP - Exactly!
Schiff was not the chairman of the January 6 committee as you stated in your excellent piece. He was a member of that committee. He was also the House impeachment manager in Drumpf’s second impeachment trial.
The image of Trump is perfect. A semi-silhouette and black shadow. He doesn’t deserve facial features because that would make him human.
I am still gobsmacked that we are at this point. It seems crystal clear that he is vulgar, demented and power crazy. But do people recognize this. I hear some men think he is manly talking about Arnold Palmer. That many people still think the economy will do better under DT. I want proof. Yes things cost more. Everything does….except mass electronics which always get cheaper. And I heard that men are scared that Kamala, as a female, can’t stand on the same stage as male foreign leaders. Shall I name the female leaders from numerous parts on the world did so. Gentlemen, look around. Except for a couple of slight differences we have the same body parts you do. And for you women, I still hear stories that women vote the way their husbands, boyfriends tell them. We have not come this far if this is still what’s happening. One man. One woman. Same one vote. The majority should win. But the electoral college relegates us to 7 states. We all should have moved 6 months ago.
I am sorry to say but mind boggling to convert these “” thick headed men”.
Golda Meir, Srimavo Bandernaike, Indira Gandhi, Margaret Thatcher to name a few.
And of course I am not including the lady with a huge collection of shoes from Philippines, lol.
Thank you
Janis D., you are a very well informed, excellent speaker/writer here. One who could do well by our country would you run for public office; please consider doing so.
I thank you for the endorsement, Catherine, but that career move has passed me by. But I love to write about and think about and would love to put something together in that genre.
Incisive commentary about a unique threat to our American way of life. Thank you, Dan.