The NY Times columnist Thomas Edsall spares no balderdash in his latest (12/11) piece 'Democrats Have No Easy Way Out'.
He blabs:
"The weakened condition of the Democratic Party leaves it ill prepared to defend itself against a Republican Party determined to eviscerate liberalism and the left."
Huh? What 'weakened condition?' Last I checked the Dems had picked up the last four House seats and now have ensured the slimmest majority for the Pukes in recent history, 217-215, after the three picks Trump nominated for cabinet posts leave in January.
Further, let's get clear Trump did not win a majority (defined as > 50%). He snared 49.8% meaning this is still basically a 50-50 country, not a 90-10 one as Edsall would have us believe. We now know, as with 2020, a barely 300 k switch in votes transpired in the swing states - which created this situation. And one can almost singlehandedly blame Elon Muskrat for pumping some $98 million in targeted ads into those 7 states, to brainwash it minions - enough of them anyway - to vote Dotard.
Examples of his planting the fear bug in susceptible brains:
- Dems secretly letting school kids be subjected to trans surgeries
- Trans kids being allowed to take over school restrooms as well as sports
- Migrants illegally casting ballots in border states.
- Illegal immigrants being allowed to run amuck with gangs in assorted cities (e.g. Aurora, CO) and also killing honest American citizens
-Crime soaring in numerous 'blue' cities, prefiguring what will happen across America should Harris be elected.
- Out of control inflation in food and housing owing to Biden's economic policies ("Bidenomics")
- FOX News (and WSJ, NY Post) incessantly pounding the Dems' "lawfare" - claiming it "victimized" Trump as a candidate.
Muskrat the billionaire knew exactly what he was doing with this barrage of 'micro-targeting' ads, and he knew the demographics which would be most vulnerable to their siren calls, including: suburban white ('Soccer') moms, Hispanics already blessed with citizenship or green cards, Gen Z kids terrified of exploding housing, food costs.
According to The UK Independent:
"From criminal, evil, and crazy to great, strong, and good. Voter perceptions of Donald Trump have gone through an extraordinary transformation during the past six months as the former president moved into a polling lead and then won the election."
Look, I attribute this erosion of just enough brain cells to tilt the election to Dotard to a preponderance of the victimized parties-voters to get their news from podcasts, social media (which often re-posted FOX News material, clips). This in essence is what had snookered significant fractions of key demographics to switch their allegiance and votes to Trump in the past half year or so.
Yet Thomas Edsall seems blissfully dismissive of these corrosive impacts, preferring to scribble:
"Evidence of the fraught state of the party can be found everywhere. Pew Research asked Democrats and Republicans whether they were optimistic or pessimistic about the future of their party after the five presidential and midterm elections from 2016 to 2024. Republicans in 2024 were more optimistic, 86 to 13, than after any of the previous four contests, including Donald Trump’s 2016 victory. Among Democrats, optimism fell to 51 percent, while pessimism rose to 49 percent, well below the 61 to 38 for Democrats after the 2016 election."
Which, of course, proves nothing. Only that party optimism would naturally have taken a dive (as it has in 2024) given the expectation of the first female president being dashed - and instead a self-admitted pussy grabber and felon-traitor won. This also torches Edsall's citing Ken Martin, the chairman of the Minnesota Democratic-Farmer-Labor Party when he fired off a memo to party leaders, reading:
For the first time in modern history, the perception that Americans have of the two major political parties switched. The majority of Americans now believes that the Republican Party best represents the interests of the working class and the poor, and that the Democratic Party is the party of the wealthy and the elites. It’s a damning indictment on our party brand.
Which again, is based on subjective perceptions, not facts. That a "majority" of Americans now believes the Reeps "best represent the interests of the working class" merely proves the extent to which these respondents have been manipulated and swallowed wholesale misinformation and propaganda.
It is not an "indictment of the party brand" but rather of the intelligence of the average American voter. Whose inability to see beyond Trump's lies ('I am your warrior. I am your justice. And for those who have been wronged and betrayed, I am your retribution,') and the barrage of false ads - showed a disarmingly low level of objective recognition - and yes IQ. And no, those Trump words were not 'channeling a nation's rage' as Rahm Emmanuel seems to think. They were rather channeling a gullible segment of the electorate's misplaced rage.
Confirming what one Cambridge University Polysci Prof opined before the election: that he didn't believe Americans had the intelligence not to put Trump back in office. And he was proven correct. Now these political lemmings are rushing to Best Buy and Costco to stock up on goods before Trump unleashes his tariffs. As one goofball quoted in the WSJ put it: "I gotta take the man at his word!" Before high-tailing it to Costco to get 10 pkgs. of Peet's roasted coffee for his wife.
So why didn't you take the man at his word before voting for him, dummy?
Further evidence that this Cambridge U. Prof was spot on emerges in Edsall's next paragraph:
"Polling suggests that Trump is ideologically closer to the median voter than Kamala Harris. Third Way, a centrist Democratic think tank, conducted a post-election survey asking voters to place themselves, Harris and Trump on a scale ranging from zero (very liberal) to 10 (very conservative). The mean response was 2.45 for Harris, 7.78 for Trump and 5.63 for all voters."
Again, this merely shows the affected voters' brains were mutated away from a standard of normal political recognition that would confer a modicum of intelligence. To actually believe a 34- times convicted felon, and twice impeached insurrectionist, adjudicated rapist could be 'placed' within the spectrum of a median voter is insanity. It shows either: a) Most voters now side with a criminal scum, or (b) most voters have such low IQs (<80-85) they are unable or unwilling to see Trump for what he is.
Then we have Edsall going on to cite another set of hog swill from Matthew Dallek, a political historian at George Washington University. This so-called historian: "voiced serious doubts by email about the ability of the Democratic Party to compete successfully with the Republican Party". The doofus actually wrote;
"A party whose base consists of culturally liberal, largely well-educated white Americans and a shrinking share of voters of color is almost by definition going to find it impossible to defend American democracy."
The "shrinking share of voters of color" to which Dallek refers is actually a distortion. The share shrunk - as numerous postmortems revealed- because a significant sliver (9-10%) of black males decided to change their votes for Trump. Why? Because: a) they were more enamored of his 'macho' patina, especially after getting shot, and (b) they absolutely did not want to see a woman president. These reflect a defect and dysfunction in the voters themselves, not in the party or candidate. The shrinking share of voters of color then, is largely a matter of their own prejudices which are beyond the bounds of reason to control.
Further, Dallek omits that both white and black non-college educated males played the major role in the slide to Trump. But what would one expect of half-educated simpletons? And yet, what? He fulminates about the Dem party having "largely well-educated voters". Well fuck, I'd rather have them than poorly educated! (Trump already bragged in the 2016 campaign he 'loves the poorly educated'. Well sure, because they can be more easily bamboozled!)
But Edsall then quotes more Dallek bunkum:
The Democratic Party is perhaps more rudderless than at any time since Bill Clinton’s presidency. Its leadership is aging. The party seems culturally out of touch to many Americans. Its brand is associated with championing niche interests, and the party — despite some crucial electoral victories — has ultimately failed its overarching mission since 2015 of defeating and defanging the MAGA movement.
In fact, the Dems are not "rudderless". Look, large fractions of voters were bitching about Biden's age in polls right up to when he bowed out. Kamala Harris then entered the campaign and excitement reigned for a brief time as this younger candidate (by 2 plus decades), also clobbered Trump in their first and only debate, e.g.
In ABC Debate Kamala Devastatingly Shows Only One Candidate Is Sane and Fit to Be President.
WTF happened? Well, despite Kamala Harris "knocking Trump for six", his distortion and agitprop machine went into overdrive to misrepresent Kamala and the Dems - with no small help from Muskrat's $200 + million in campaign support ads ($98m to swing states alone). By the time the dust settled, just on the eve of Nov. 5th, the Trumpsters had convinced enough swing state voters to cast ballots for a 34x convicted felon and traitor. As one Denver Post comment writer put it in yesterday's paper:
"In November this country elected a man to be president - a convicted criminal - who cares only about himself. This country has lost its soul and the only letters that matter now are M and E."
Which pretty well nailed it in my opinion.
Another Dallek quote is worthy of attention:
"The Democratic Party faces a heavy burden: It has to defend democratic institutions in a time when these institutions are reviled by a large majority of the American electorate. Its message to the public that it is a bulwark of democracy failed to resonate with voters in November. "
Why is this? It helps to recall Thomas Jefferson's words in his Notes on Virginia, i.e.
"Every government degenerates when trusted to the rulers of the people alone. The people themselves therefore are its only safe depositories. AND TO RENDER THEM SAFE, THEIR MINDS MUST BE IMPROVED"
Jefferson knew every government did disintegrate if the "rulers" alone determined its fate. There would always be tyrants, kings etc, seeking to impose their will. This is why he expected the PEOPLE had to become its safe depositories, i.e. in protecting their democratic Republic. Also, this had to go beyond "bread and butter" issues which were bound to vary year by year. So Jefferson's words meant the voters being attentive to the nation's politics and political dynamics. But NOT being misinformed by bogus political ads and propaganda networks. Again, it's all on the voters to be educated and responsible.
One last quote from Thomas Edsall factors into the mix:
"Forbes reported on Nov. 29 that “MSNBC’s prime-time audience has dipped 53 percent since the week before the election,” closely followed “by a 47 percent drop by CNN — while Fox News has largely held on to its audience since President-elect Donald Trump’s victory.”
Again, in the "DUH" category. Of course, MSNBC's prime time audience would crater given its intelligent viewers remain in a state of shock. Shock that so many fellow citizens could be driven down a rabbit hole of insanity to vote for a proven criminal, felon and traitor- who promised retribution on political "enemies". But I do expect viewership will pick up as Trump and the Reeps suffer a succession of losses, starting with his ghastly nominations of terror apes crapping out. (Mitch McConnell has already warned Trump that none of them will be "automatic" in terms of confirmation.)
Let me be blunt: A cable news network - like FOX - that earns its mass audience via brainwashing and propaganda- to undermine Jefferson's advice - isn't worth an ounce of doggie lickspittle. Further, the recent glorification of the murdering punk Luigi Mangione - to the extent of even creating deranged 'Christlike' images of the imp:
Falls in the same category as the glorification of the psychotic traitor and felon Trump - e.g.
"This is an escalation of an existing political trend: public bloodlust for destruction and retribution. Americans are rejecting leaders who propose solutions for their problems in favor of antiheroes who want to burn everything down — figuratively or literally."
Needless to say this is an ill omen, which may presage the destruction and dissolution of our democracy that so many have fought to protect - and even died for. But when too many lose sight of the path of reality, and are sucked down rabbit holes of gibberish and lies, this is what can happen.
On that note, the biggest pile of balderdash to yet emerge in parsing the post-election results emanated from a piece by Schoen and Cooperman (The Hill), blabbing:
"Our poll suggests that Democrats ran the wrong campaign. Whereas they ran a “values campaign,” focused on a government Americans could trust, what voters really wanted was an effective government, and on that, they preferred Donald Trump. "
In other words, these dumb, clueless voters actually believed a twice-impeached traitor, egomaniacal felon, congenital liar and braggart would be more "effective" in meeting their needs, and screw the values (honesty, decency, truth) in total opposition to Jefferson's words. But it does explain why a majority of these numbnuts approve of Trump's derelict nominations. Picks that former Georgia Lt. Governor Geoff Duncan recently skewered, i.e.
Ex-GOP Official Shreds Donald Trump’s Picks With Withering Metaphor
To wit:
“If you told me that Donald Trump was building an administration to run a frat house, I’d believe you,”
We are in parlous waters indeed if so many voters think it's cool to have our nation run by a bunch of frat house Bozos.
See Also:
And:
by David Badash | December 13, 2024 - 6:43am | permalink
As a candidate, Donald Trump campaigned—and won—this year on the promise he would lower prices for Americans angry after the COVID pandemic’s inflation brought steep price increases, but now he’s backtracking, saying he’s not sure he will actually be able to fulfill those vows. Outrage at Trump, and the people who voted for him based on that pledge, was palpable on Thursday.
As recently as Sunday, MSNBC reports, Trump insisted, “We’re going to bring those prices way down.”
On Monday, Fox News reported: “Pointing to high grocery prices, Trump says, ‘I won an election based on that'”
But in his TIME magazine “Person of the Year” interview, Trump suggested he might not be able to lower prices as he promised to do. Appearing to remove himself from the equation, he declared: “It’s hard to bring things down once they’re up. You know, it’s very hard.”
And:
Donald Trump | Elon Musk | Social Security
by Robert Reich | December 10, 2024 - 7:05am | permalink— from Robert Reich's Substack
Sorry to intrude on your inbox for a second time today, but Elon Musk has revealed the truth about what he plans to do with his so-called Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE): Gut Social Security and Medicare.
Musk retweeted a series of posts by Utah’s Republican Senator Mike Lee, who dubbed Social Security “deceptive” and called for its dismantling. “Interesting thread,” Musk added.
President Joe Biden should not only pardon Anthony Fauci, Liz Cheney, and the entire January 6th congressional panel, but hundreds more who are potentially in the crosshairs of Trump, Musk, Patel and his other malevolent henchmen.
If you think the chances of Trump’s enemies getting prosecuted are small because, after all, none of them have committed crimes of any consequence, I refer you to Hunter Biden, who was pursued by David C. Weiss, a rightwing inquisitor appointed by the Trump administration under Bill Barr to take Biden down.
Hunter bought a gun and checked the box that said words to the effect of “I am not using illegal drugs” on federal Form 7743. So did millions of other Americans who possess and smoke pot, a federal crime even though it may be legal in their state.
As Jacob Sullum, writes for Reason, the “survey data suggest that millions of American gun owners are illegal drug users, meaning they are guilty of the same felony that Hunter Biden committed by possessing a firearm.”
A quiet panic has broken out within immigrant communities across the United States ahead of Donald Trump’s inauguration on January 20, 2025. Mixed-status families are expecting to be separated, DACA recipients foresee their status being revoked, those with Temporary Protected Status are pessimistic about the program remaining valid, and asylum seekers fear the worst. Indeed, if Project 2025’s anti-immigrant agenda is fully enacted, the horrors of family separation that the nation witnessed in 2018 under Trump’s first term will pale in comparison to what’s coming.
And yet, Trump might claim that this time, he’s merely following the public’s desires. The prevailing story of the 2024 presidential election is that voters were so fed up with immigration upending their lives that they picked a leader who promised to do something about it. Headlines such as this New York Times piece on Election Day claimed, “Voters Were Fed Up Over Immigration. They Voted for Trump.” Indeed, polls showed likely voters ranking immigration as either the top issue, or second only to the economy.
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