To me the answer is obvious: there won’t be anymore real elections. At most there’ll be Orban-style or Putin-style elections. A charade where the winner is already fixed.
We might have been in there for a while. There were a lot of shenanigans with voting machines, voter rolls etc. The trouble is, DT (I like the sound of this, don’t you? It sounds like something nasty that comes in a bottle🤣) has completely poisoned the water concerning voting machines and tampering. After swearing up and down for years now that the 2020 election was legit (I’m sure it was), it’s impossible to now go, “well, actually, in 2024 we believe such and such might have happened.”
" [When,] in that drive to power, they will commit so many high crimes and unutterable treasons, to add to those already committed, that simple self-preservation demands they can never allow a transfer of power to anyone who might hold them accountable. "
You got that right Andy! Where will Trump end up-East Bloc/Russia! I don't see him leaving the White House except that a rebellion has the military fly him to Russia, Hassad-style!
One can't just say, "Yeah, the midterms!", when the tRump regime is already preparing the groundwork for DOJ and GOPer state AGs to mount severe challenges to not only ballot results, but also challenging voter reg rolls, state voting laws, and state and local election boards who "ignore voter fraud". In NO way will the tRump crowd allow free and unfettered voting next November, and the Dems need to have a huge legal effort to contest the coming fuckery, with teams in every state, Blue and Red, at the ready...it's going to be ugly, people.
I am very skeptical that the 2026 mid-terms much less the 2028 elections will be "free and fair". If Trump thinks there is any chance he could lose his majorities in the House or Senate, he will not hesitate to do any of these things: declare martial law and cancel elections, declare more emergencies, insist that some blue states are so corrupt that they cannot be trusted to conduct fair elections, arrest incumbent Congressional Dems on bogus charges (so they cannot campaign), radically step up voter suppression, station ICE Gestapo goons outside polling stations in Dem districts, launch hundreds of law suits.
It seems implausible that Trump would allow any challenge to his near unlimited powers no matter what he has to do to defeat it. And it seems likely that the Supreme Court will allow his to do anything he wishes to keep Dems out of power.
No. Our Democrats in government have already proven they are not ready for this. They have not been able to stop it. Only nonmagat Republicans can do it.
With all due respect, I think to some extent, you're overthinking this; hating people on Medicaid actually requires having some sort of governing philosophy - Republicans just want the tax cuts that their rich donors paid them to get. That's it.
As for whether democrats can reverse the damage: as crazy as this sounds, I'm actually optimistic, as, ironically, Republicans have shown the way - just DO things, and worry about legality, cost, etc, later. People perceive republicans as better on the economy because they don't sit around and complain that life is too hard; voters rewards decisive action, so if/when we get the majority again in a few years, unleash left wing MAGA on them. Funny enough, it will be THEN that Republicans will go back to pretending about curbing executive power.
I agree. Day 1, repeal the Trump, Bush and Reagan tax cuts. Reinstate the 70% marginal rate that Reagan killed. Day 2, 100% wealth tax on every dollar over $1B. Day 3, Medicare for all. And so on…
Exactly. This brazenness is something I actually admire Republicans for. They don't worry if something is legal or unpopular - just do it, and figure the consequences out later, and if people don't like it, hammer it until they do. Voters want Men/Women of Action.
I hope you don't quite mean this. Even I enjoy a feeling of power when brazen action accomplishes something I want, but it's a trap. Power corrupts absolutely.
I like your thinking. But so far, Democrats have been unwilling to show this force. We wouldn't be heee if they had. How do we force a fair election in '26?
I disagree. As Mr. Waldman says many Republicans have shown nothing but utter disdain for people who need programs like Medicaid and food assistance. They are viewed as lazy, worthless cheats. Don’t forget that was the blatant message of Reagan’s Welfare Queen tales. And that was back when most conservative Christian churches still preached Jesus’s message of compassion for the poor. Today the heretical Prosperity Gospel tells them that if they are really good Christians they will be rich because that is what Jesus wants. It follows logically that the poor are not good, deserving people.
Thank you. Your comment offers a reasonable theory to explain what I've been asking myself and others for days now-- hating people on Medicaid, universally, seems to include wheelchair-bound elders who worked long and extremely hard, with great frugality (and occasional untrumpeted acts of sacrificial generosity to help their neighbors in crisis) their entire lives in the small, rural agricultural communitie. Those are the people this administration insists they love more than anyone and anyplace else, no? Yet these elders, who simply want to age in place in their modest, cherished home, so they retain some independence and the dignity that confers, and so they can continue to open their doors to multiple generations of family for treasured gatherings throughout the year, those elders are now, overnight, supposed to figure out how to cover the extremely modest home health care visits previously made possible by Medicaid? Why they would not think twice about harming those elders and their families, all of whom voted for them every time, was not something that made the slightest political sense to me (I left moral sense behind long ago). Your explanation makes it all fit.
i think the maga types can't understand anything beyond the next five minutes, and most of the rest of us can't imagine it happening to us. This includes, by the way, the Democrats and "Social Security Works" people who voted fot the "Social Security Fairness Act" which took money from poor people who paid fo their Social Security and gave it to better-off people who did not. There is a book "Downhill From Here" that describes poverty in America today and how it came to relatively well-off people who thought they were safe, I thought I already knew this, but the author makes it real. More people need to read it...or get out and see it for themselves.
i should warn you..so you can't say I didn't warn you...near the end of the book it sounds a little like an advertisement for a certain unpopular religious group, but persevere, she notes provlems with that group a few pages later. and it would be a shame if we can't learn something from people we don't like for other reasons. the problem would be that most of us don't really want to fix the problem of poverty because we are not ourselves poor and can't imagine it ever happening to us and certainly can't imagine the benefits to us of keeping it from happening to others.
Re: your last remark-- yes. It's been a very long time since a compassion-based case for anti-poverty programs has been enough in my work. The "what's in it for *you*?" data are the ones that close the deal. Self-interest, not compassion. This is not a bad thing at all-- it just feels somehow a bit base if you think the injustice and suffering should be enough (they should; they're not). Economic empowerment that builds household capacity and, in so doing, also contributes to the economy more broadly (sometimes including saving taxpayers a lot of money otherwise spent on public services) is compelling if buttressed with rigorous data. But I guess in our stunningly post-science, post-data, post-truth reality, even this appeoach is on its last legs.
well, i feel frustrated. after recommending Newman's book because it paints a picture of poverty that is more real that the abstractions of pundits she ends her book by offering suggestions for fixing Social Security that would destroy the program. in this she is just repeating the apparent consensus on the left that the "answer" is "Make The Rich"'
The Rich Won't pay, and if they do they will own it, and if they own it they will destroy it one cut at a time. Currently the sane rich do pay their fair share, and they know that SS is worth the price as insurance. But making the rich pay for your groceries and housing when you can no longer work will make even the sane rich decide it's a good idea to cut it.. Worse, s he seems to think that SS has been raided by the government for other purposes. It has not been. and she approves of raising the retirement age..not realizing that even if "we" are going to live longer, we may not be able to work longer, or even get a job. and not all of us are going to live longer. raising the retirement age just means they will work, or starve, until they drop or can no longer make a profit for the boss. we should be able to retire whenever we have paid the actuarial cost of that retirement. we can do that simply by raising the payroll tax an amount no one would notice if not for the screaming of the paid liars.
maybe not, but a Medicare For All bill if designed intelligently might open government run clinics with salaried doctors (who are not working for profit) that would lower the cost of medical care so that we the people could afford to pay for our own needs as well as help those who can't.
M4A would take a generation to fully implement, especially post-DOGE and the OBBB monstrosity. The infrastructure requirements for support staff and IT would be massive. I’m not saying don’t do it, but our eyes should be open to the hugeness of the task.
Paul, i don't see any reason here why i should take your "generation to fully implement" seriously. what basis do you have for such a claim? the hospitals are here, the doctors are here, even the insurance companies are here. they would all do essentialy what they do now without the price gouging. the money would come from a flat tax capped at a level where no one is paying more than the insurance is worth to them... including insurance against one day becoming one of the poor who need help with the "premiums" (because the flat tax on their income would not be enough to cover their per-capita risk of high medical expenses.)
Health care has been suburbanized—I.e., the hospitals, doctors and nurses are concentrated in particular parts of the country leave what amounts to health care deserts in undeserved rural and urban ore areas. Plus, there’s already an acute shortage of family doctors, nurses, and some important specialties (oncology, for example). In reality, the staff and building aren’t already here.
Moreover, support logistics like basic phone support for existing Medicare were inadequate before DOGE—M4A proposes expanding patient base by over 200M*. Then there’s health care IT, which has been bedeviled by siloing for 50+ years—that would have to be addressed, if for no other reason than telehealth will become critical. (BTW, not everyone has a computer and libraries everywhere have had to cut back on public technology centers.)
Obamacare needed four years to add 20M people to the current “system.” There should be little doubt that transforming what amounts to a sector into an integrated system is a generational undertaking. Dismissing the task as a matter of walking and chewing gum sets it up for failure.
* US population 350M - current Medicare 70M - current Medicaid 70M =229M
All this is a description of what is wrong with current medical care for [profit system. Taking it over while controlling costs will not solve all of those problems at once,but it should solve the price gouging problem pretty quick [note my use of"should": without any backup operational argument is just as empty as yours]. The biggest problem will be the dishonest Congress. After that it will be young people too stupid to see that paying a higher premium while they are young that will cover them when they can no longer work is smarter than skating and then not being able to pay much higher premiums when they are old and need the care.
Seriously ... Lumpys said out loud ...we only need your votes this time .. embedded deep in this criminal bill is that he and he alone and his SCOTUS junkies have giving him free reign ....so don't hold your breath for mid terms ...because as in NC and other states there won't be any mid terms again ......they're already cancelling future elections. It was in the playbook and damn it they just kicked us all in the face .Be aware or beware ...time to try out our survival skills .. I hope you all been planning for what's really getting ready to be our reality . If they don't provide to us ,we have to quit paying taxes to further their comforts . Never in all my 73+ years did I think this time would come . Thank God grandma and grandpa gave me skills ,I and mine will need now
Soon they tout hiring guards and support staff for their concentration camps, as well as enlarging their gestapo as an economy-booming jobs programs. These are the perfect positions for the mediocre whites who made up MAGA, after all.
Foreigner here. Americans are being far too passive about the actions of the Trump administration. The opening this week in Florida of what is effectively a concentration camp is a hair-on-fire moment. It’s happened before: Dachau, the first Nazi Party concentration camp, was opened in March, 1933, about two months after Hitler was appointed chancellor. Learned discussion has its place, but it doesn’t matter how the U.S. got to this moment. And it doesn’t matter that the midterms seem close. All Americans are now, today, the proverbial frog falling asleep in a pot of water sitting over a low flame. If it were my country, I would want tomorrow to be a day of multi-million person marches, to be repeated weekly until the administration resigns.
I believe you are right about Republicans hatred of social assistance programs. What they want as a federal government is a military obedient to the despot, currently the felonpotus; zero social policies to lift up the poor to a middle class or more, zero safety nets for food and healthcare, zero clean energy projects; a justice department targeting people not loyal to the absolute ruler; an ICE police force to rid the country of immigrants now, all black, brown, Asians, and liberals next; a millionaire/billionaire run oligarchy to plunder all resources and labor to further enrich themselves; and a christo-fascist national religion to teach children to accept authoritarianism. That is their agenda.
please be careful you are not being taught to hate "the other". "christo-fascist" seems to imply the enemy is Christianity. I would agree about the so called christian right, but these are not Christians; they are primitive pagans who call themselves christian because the "brand" is popular. real Christanity has been on the side of the people since Jesus taught "love thy neighbor" We need their support. and we even need the support of people who think they are christians and feel threatened to the core of their being by what appears tp them to be an assault on their only hope.
Great work Paul! I think that is the best explanation yet, although I do think the damage to the MAGA individuals is so saturating, that literally the bill affects their states more than blue states!
I think if the Democrats keep exposing "the lie" that Trump is breaking every promise and cares about nobody, especially their wallets, the chance of holding onto anything in the mid-terms is grim! We will have to have another Jan. 6 dragging Trump and staff from the White House, except this time the police will help!!
i am a little surprised to find that I agree with almost everyone who has commented so far: don't count on free and fair elections in the future. i'd add don't count on Democrats doing anything even if they win the elections. Moreover there is some truth that it is NOT all about the money: There is a great deal of hate driving the MAGA revolution: from the always-be-with-us racist hate, and hate for "welfare cheats" or just poor people in general, to hate of "government regulation," whether environmental protections or just speed limits....but added to that we have the real deep hatred of all things beautiful, hatred of good itself, that drives some people.whose names you know.
No more institutionalists. We need Democratic leadership that will add 4 more Supreme Court justices on day 1, along with term limits and an IRS and DOJ investigation into corruption and graft on that court.
They made Presidents kings? Fine. Then use the power, dammit. The Dems must wield power if they ever regain control.
They’re betting this will all be forgotten. They’re betting their constituents are too stupid or uninformed to know. They’re betting that Faux news has brainwashed them into irrational hatred of Democrats. They’re betting that their republican colleagues at the state level have passed enough voter suppression and gerrymandering laws that will ensure their reelection.
And you know what? They’re probably right.
Anyone here think Alabama, Arkansas, Mississippi, Kansas, South Carolina, etc etc will see the error of their ways and vote out these spineless, soulless, blood sucking republicans?
ANYONE?
No. These imbecilic voters will allow the leopard to eat their faces and then ask for more.
To me the answer is obvious: there won’t be anymore real elections. At most there’ll be Orban-style or Putin-style elections. A charade where the winner is already fixed.
Commonly known as "competitive authoritarianism".
or "illiberal democracy"
We might have been in there for a while. There were a lot of shenanigans with voting machines, voter rolls etc. The trouble is, DT (I like the sound of this, don’t you? It sounds like something nasty that comes in a bottle🤣) has completely poisoned the water concerning voting machines and tampering. After swearing up and down for years now that the 2020 election was legit (I’m sure it was), it’s impossible to now go, “well, actually, in 2024 we believe such and such might have happened.”
" [When,] in that drive to power, they will commit so many high crimes and unutterable treasons, to add to those already committed, that simple self-preservation demands they can never allow a transfer of power to anyone who might hold them accountable. "
The Birmingham Principle
You got that right Andy! Where will Trump end up-East Bloc/Russia! I don't see him leaving the White House except that a rebellion has the military fly him to Russia, Hassad-style!
I'm a little surprised that you discount the possibility that they think they may be able to rig future elections so as not to lose quite so badly...
One can't just say, "Yeah, the midterms!", when the tRump regime is already preparing the groundwork for DOJ and GOPer state AGs to mount severe challenges to not only ballot results, but also challenging voter reg rolls, state voting laws, and state and local election boards who "ignore voter fraud". In NO way will the tRump crowd allow free and unfettered voting next November, and the Dems need to have a huge legal effort to contest the coming fuckery, with teams in every state, Blue and Red, at the ready...it's going to be ugly, people.
Even the best left-leaning mainstream journalists treat election manipulation by the right like it’s not a thing. I’m continually mystified.
I am very skeptical that the 2026 mid-terms much less the 2028 elections will be "free and fair". If Trump thinks there is any chance he could lose his majorities in the House or Senate, he will not hesitate to do any of these things: declare martial law and cancel elections, declare more emergencies, insist that some blue states are so corrupt that they cannot be trusted to conduct fair elections, arrest incumbent Congressional Dems on bogus charges (so they cannot campaign), radically step up voter suppression, station ICE Gestapo goons outside polling stations in Dem districts, launch hundreds of law suits.
It seems implausible that Trump would allow any challenge to his near unlimited powers no matter what he has to do to defeat it. And it seems likely that the Supreme Court will allow his to do anything he wishes to keep Dems out of power.
Are Dems ready for this?
Nope. They can’t even agree on a message. It’s time for new leadership
No. Our Democrats in government have already proven they are not ready for this. They have not been able to stop it. Only nonmagat Republicans can do it.
Are there any non-Maga Republicans?
With all due respect, I think to some extent, you're overthinking this; hating people on Medicaid actually requires having some sort of governing philosophy - Republicans just want the tax cuts that their rich donors paid them to get. That's it.
As for whether democrats can reverse the damage: as crazy as this sounds, I'm actually optimistic, as, ironically, Republicans have shown the way - just DO things, and worry about legality, cost, etc, later. People perceive republicans as better on the economy because they don't sit around and complain that life is too hard; voters rewards decisive action, so if/when we get the majority again in a few years, unleash left wing MAGA on them. Funny enough, it will be THEN that Republicans will go back to pretending about curbing executive power.
I agree. Day 1, repeal the Trump, Bush and Reagan tax cuts. Reinstate the 70% marginal rate that Reagan killed. Day 2, 100% wealth tax on every dollar over $1B. Day 3, Medicare for all. And so on…
Exactly. This brazenness is something I actually admire Republicans for. They don't worry if something is legal or unpopular - just do it, and figure the consequences out later, and if people don't like it, hammer it until they do. Voters want Men/Women of Action.
Andrei
I hope you don't quite mean this. Even I enjoy a feeling of power when brazen action accomplishes something I want, but it's a trap. Power corrupts absolutely.
I like your thinking. But so far, Democrats have been unwilling to show this force. We wouldn't be heee if they had. How do we force a fair election in '26?
I disagree. As Mr. Waldman says many Republicans have shown nothing but utter disdain for people who need programs like Medicaid and food assistance. They are viewed as lazy, worthless cheats. Don’t forget that was the blatant message of Reagan’s Welfare Queen tales. And that was back when most conservative Christian churches still preached Jesus’s message of compassion for the poor. Today the heretical Prosperity Gospel tells them that if they are really good Christians they will be rich because that is what Jesus wants. It follows logically that the poor are not good, deserving people.
Theodora
thank you. i am glad to know there are still people like you out there.
Thank you. Your comment offers a reasonable theory to explain what I've been asking myself and others for days now-- hating people on Medicaid, universally, seems to include wheelchair-bound elders who worked long and extremely hard, with great frugality (and occasional untrumpeted acts of sacrificial generosity to help their neighbors in crisis) their entire lives in the small, rural agricultural communitie. Those are the people this administration insists they love more than anyone and anyplace else, no? Yet these elders, who simply want to age in place in their modest, cherished home, so they retain some independence and the dignity that confers, and so they can continue to open their doors to multiple generations of family for treasured gatherings throughout the year, those elders are now, overnight, supposed to figure out how to cover the extremely modest home health care visits previously made possible by Medicaid? Why they would not think twice about harming those elders and their families, all of whom voted for them every time, was not something that made the slightest political sense to me (I left moral sense behind long ago). Your explanation makes it all fit.
Shari
i think the maga types can't understand anything beyond the next five minutes, and most of the rest of us can't imagine it happening to us. This includes, by the way, the Democrats and "Social Security Works" people who voted fot the "Social Security Fairness Act" which took money from poor people who paid fo their Social Security and gave it to better-off people who did not. There is a book "Downhill From Here" that describes poverty in America today and how it came to relatively well-off people who thought they were safe, I thought I already knew this, but the author makes it real. More people need to read it...or get out and see it for themselves.
Thank you-- I appreciate the reference.
shari
author is Katherine Newman
i should warn you..so you can't say I didn't warn you...near the end of the book it sounds a little like an advertisement for a certain unpopular religious group, but persevere, she notes provlems with that group a few pages later. and it would be a shame if we can't learn something from people we don't like for other reasons. the problem would be that most of us don't really want to fix the problem of poverty because we are not ourselves poor and can't imagine it ever happening to us and certainly can't imagine the benefits to us of keeping it from happening to others.
Re: your last remark-- yes. It's been a very long time since a compassion-based case for anti-poverty programs has been enough in my work. The "what's in it for *you*?" data are the ones that close the deal. Self-interest, not compassion. This is not a bad thing at all-- it just feels somehow a bit base if you think the injustice and suffering should be enough (they should; they're not). Economic empowerment that builds household capacity and, in so doing, also contributes to the economy more broadly (sometimes including saving taxpayers a lot of money otherwise spent on public services) is compelling if buttressed with rigorous data. But I guess in our stunningly post-science, post-data, post-truth reality, even this appeoach is on its last legs.
well, i feel frustrated. after recommending Newman's book because it paints a picture of poverty that is more real that the abstractions of pundits she ends her book by offering suggestions for fixing Social Security that would destroy the program. in this she is just repeating the apparent consensus on the left that the "answer" is "Make The Rich"'
The Rich Won't pay, and if they do they will own it, and if they own it they will destroy it one cut at a time. Currently the sane rich do pay their fair share, and they know that SS is worth the price as insurance. But making the rich pay for your groceries and housing when you can no longer work will make even the sane rich decide it's a good idea to cut it.. Worse, s he seems to think that SS has been raided by the government for other purposes. It has not been. and she approves of raising the retirement age..not realizing that even if "we" are going to live longer, we may not be able to work longer, or even get a job. and not all of us are going to live longer. raising the retirement age just means they will work, or starve, until they drop or can no longer make a profit for the boss. we should be able to retire whenever we have paid the actuarial cost of that retirement. we can do that simply by raising the payroll tax an amount no one would notice if not for the screaming of the paid liars.
Thing is, parts of this bill are close to irreversible. For example, Medicare for All won’t reopen a rural hospital that has closed.
Paul G
maybe not, but a Medicare For All bill if designed intelligently might open government run clinics with salaried doctors (who are not working for profit) that would lower the cost of medical care so that we the people could afford to pay for our own needs as well as help those who can't.
M4A would take a generation to fully implement, especially post-DOGE and the OBBB monstrosity. The infrastructure requirements for support staff and IT would be massive. I’m not saying don’t do it, but our eyes should be open to the hugeness of the task.
Paul, i don't see any reason here why i should take your "generation to fully implement" seriously. what basis do you have for such a claim? the hospitals are here, the doctors are here, even the insurance companies are here. they would all do essentialy what they do now without the price gouging. the money would come from a flat tax capped at a level where no one is paying more than the insurance is worth to them... including insurance against one day becoming one of the poor who need help with the "premiums" (because the flat tax on their income would not be enough to cover their per-capita risk of high medical expenses.)
Health care has been suburbanized—I.e., the hospitals, doctors and nurses are concentrated in particular parts of the country leave what amounts to health care deserts in undeserved rural and urban ore areas. Plus, there’s already an acute shortage of family doctors, nurses, and some important specialties (oncology, for example). In reality, the staff and building aren’t already here.
Moreover, support logistics like basic phone support for existing Medicare were inadequate before DOGE—M4A proposes expanding patient base by over 200M*. Then there’s health care IT, which has been bedeviled by siloing for 50+ years—that would have to be addressed, if for no other reason than telehealth will become critical. (BTW, not everyone has a computer and libraries everywhere have had to cut back on public technology centers.)
Obamacare needed four years to add 20M people to the current “system.” There should be little doubt that transforming what amounts to a sector into an integrated system is a generational undertaking. Dismissing the task as a matter of walking and chewing gum sets it up for failure.
* US population 350M - current Medicare 70M - current Medicaid 70M =229M
All this is a description of what is wrong with current medical care for [profit system. Taking it over while controlling costs will not solve all of those problems at once,but it should solve the price gouging problem pretty quick [note my use of"should": without any backup operational argument is just as empty as yours]. The biggest problem will be the dishonest Congress. After that it will be young people too stupid to see that paying a higher premium while they are young that will cover them when they can no longer work is smarter than skating and then not being able to pay much higher premiums when they are old and need the care.
No, but initiatives to rebuild and reopen will.
This case would require federal/state/local ownership and operation hundreds of times over.
it's a big country. we can walk and chew gum at the same time.
Like I said, just do things, and worry about that later. Thats how the GOP operates, and it seems to have worked out well for them.
Andrei
yes..as long as the things we "just do" are decent and well thought-out, and careful of the rights of others.
Seriously ... Lumpys said out loud ...we only need your votes this time .. embedded deep in this criminal bill is that he and he alone and his SCOTUS junkies have giving him free reign ....so don't hold your breath for mid terms ...because as in NC and other states there won't be any mid terms again ......they're already cancelling future elections. It was in the playbook and damn it they just kicked us all in the face .Be aware or beware ...time to try out our survival skills .. I hope you all been planning for what's really getting ready to be our reality . If they don't provide to us ,we have to quit paying taxes to further their comforts . Never in all my 73+ years did I think this time would come . Thank God grandma and grandpa gave me skills ,I and mine will need now
Soon they tout hiring guards and support staff for their concentration camps, as well as enlarging their gestapo as an economy-booming jobs programs. These are the perfect positions for the mediocre whites who made up MAGA, after all.
The Republican Party loves to make Americans hate a government of the people.
The worse they make the government, the more people will be dependent on big business.
For Republicans, it isn't about the people. It's about the corporations.
Since the first corporations and the Boston Tea Party, there has been a dynamic of government for the people, or a government for the corporations.
Foreigner here. Americans are being far too passive about the actions of the Trump administration. The opening this week in Florida of what is effectively a concentration camp is a hair-on-fire moment. It’s happened before: Dachau, the first Nazi Party concentration camp, was opened in March, 1933, about two months after Hitler was appointed chancellor. Learned discussion has its place, but it doesn’t matter how the U.S. got to this moment. And it doesn’t matter that the midterms seem close. All Americans are now, today, the proverbial frog falling asleep in a pot of water sitting over a low flame. If it were my country, I would want tomorrow to be a day of multi-million person marches, to be repeated weekly until the administration resigns.
We Americans are a very fat, lazy, complacent lot. Not too much gets us off our couches.
I believe you are right about Republicans hatred of social assistance programs. What they want as a federal government is a military obedient to the despot, currently the felonpotus; zero social policies to lift up the poor to a middle class or more, zero safety nets for food and healthcare, zero clean energy projects; a justice department targeting people not loyal to the absolute ruler; an ICE police force to rid the country of immigrants now, all black, brown, Asians, and liberals next; a millionaire/billionaire run oligarchy to plunder all resources and labor to further enrich themselves; and a christo-fascist national religion to teach children to accept authoritarianism. That is their agenda.
rain
please be careful you are not being taught to hate "the other". "christo-fascist" seems to imply the enemy is Christianity. I would agree about the so called christian right, but these are not Christians; they are primitive pagans who call themselves christian because the "brand" is popular. real Christanity has been on the side of the people since Jesus taught "love thy neighbor" We need their support. and we even need the support of people who think they are christians and feel threatened to the core of their being by what appears tp them to be an assault on their only hope.
Right on, Paul.
It’s insane that a country of your size is now just shrugging off that there will be no elections, and this is just life, now. 😳
This is more than disturbing. Come to Canada! Help us resist! 🇨🇦
Great work Paul! I think that is the best explanation yet, although I do think the damage to the MAGA individuals is so saturating, that literally the bill affects their states more than blue states!
I think if the Democrats keep exposing "the lie" that Trump is breaking every promise and cares about nobody, especially their wallets, the chance of holding onto anything in the mid-terms is grim! We will have to have another Jan. 6 dragging Trump and staff from the White House, except this time the police will help!!
i am a little surprised to find that I agree with almost everyone who has commented so far: don't count on free and fair elections in the future. i'd add don't count on Democrats doing anything even if they win the elections. Moreover there is some truth that it is NOT all about the money: There is a great deal of hate driving the MAGA revolution: from the always-be-with-us racist hate, and hate for "welfare cheats" or just poor people in general, to hate of "government regulation," whether environmental protections or just speed limits....but added to that we have the real deep hatred of all things beautiful, hatred of good itself, that drives some people.whose names you know.
No more institutionalists. We need Democratic leadership that will add 4 more Supreme Court justices on day 1, along with term limits and an IRS and DOJ investigation into corruption and graft on that court.
They made Presidents kings? Fine. Then use the power, dammit. The Dems must wield power if they ever regain control.
Bingo.
They’re betting this will all be forgotten. They’re betting their constituents are too stupid or uninformed to know. They’re betting that Faux news has brainwashed them into irrational hatred of Democrats. They’re betting that their republican colleagues at the state level have passed enough voter suppression and gerrymandering laws that will ensure their reelection.
And you know what? They’re probably right.
Anyone here think Alabama, Arkansas, Mississippi, Kansas, South Carolina, etc etc will see the error of their ways and vote out these spineless, soulless, blood sucking republicans?
ANYONE?
No. These imbecilic voters will allow the leopard to eat their faces and then ask for more.