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It's the only way


A few weeks ago I wrote about how the vibecession was petering off, and I used my friend "M" as an example. 

Now, I want to make this clear: My friend is a firm supporter of Joe Biden. His worry was that the dirty tricks would work against him, because Donald Trump and his cult have no shame, and neither do the media. Like many of us, he fears a second Trump regime.

Yesterday I spoke to him, and he said this: "Trump is heading for a huge loss. I could be wrong, but this is what I'm seeing."

Of course, I agree. We see the evidence. The apoplexy over the Robert Hur report on Pres. Biden's handling of classified documents is proof: a desperation to derail his momentum, after his overwhelming victory in South Carolina showed that Democrats are all-in on his reelection. The story has already begun to fade into the background noise. Meanwhile, Hur has been invited to testify before the House, and has retained personal counsel. Now, why would one do that if he had just been "doing his job"? Because the way Hur did his job contravened quite a few Department of Justice protocols. He may have been hoping that the damage he did to Pres. Biden would have been profound enough to insulate him. I believe he realizes that he's about to be chewed up and spat out by a party and a man which hold loyalty as a strictly one-way street.

And then I came across this yesterday:
I'm a Democrat. I believe that Democratic policies are the best for moving this country forward. I believe that most Republican policies are detrimental to this nation, at best placing a Band-Aid on problems. But that doesn't mean that I believe that all, or even most, Republicans are traitors in the service of a traitor. Are non-MAGA elected Republicans too timorous? Yes, quite evidently. Not saying "yes" to Democratic concessions on immigration because Trump wants to use the issue as a campaign cudgel is simply the most recent and egregious example. As Tom says in the clip above: Republican elected leaders have no moral courage. They have no sense of doing what's right for the country. It doesn't matter than they may personally not be MAGA; their actions make that distinction irrelevant.

As Tom says, the GOP should be very worried. I, like him, believe that there many Republicans are going to vote for Joe Biden and the Democrats because it's the only way to save the country that they, like us, love. MAGA Republicanism is an existential threat to a free Republic. It is a toxic stew of fascism and Christian nationalism which doesn't see America as a broad, pluralistic society. It abhors that notion, and will fight tooth and nail to reverse all the progress we've made over a century. People like Tom might cavil with us about social and economic policy. But they hold that a free and vigorous politics is how to contest a battle of ideas. If MAGA were to win, that free political system would end, or at the least be in grave peril. 

We saw this in New Hampshire. Nikki Haley overwhelmingly won Independents who voted in the primary. How many of these Independents were former Republicans? That won't help her in South Carolina or most of the upcoming contests. But her performance in New Hampshire was a warning shot to the GOP: Independents are not going to vote for Donald Trump, or a party associated with him. As my friend M says: Republican campaign managers thinking that they can make Pres. Biden's age the one issue are whistling past the graveyard. Any concerns about his age pale in comparison to the very real threat posed by Trump and his party. Independents will vote against that; no, not all, but more than enough to deliver a stinging rebuke to a party which has allowed itself over the past decades to be captured by worse and worse people, with Trump being the apotheosis of that political devolution.

The only way for this democracy to survive is for the Republican Party to either expel the fascist element, or be destroyed and replaced by a rational conservative party, one which doesn't traffic in the worst elements of fascist ideology. The GOP should be very afraid of people like Tom. He is its obituary.

Postscript

Speaker Preacher Mike Moses Moshe Musa Johnson declared last night that he would not bring up the Senate aid package to Ukraine, Israel, and Taiwan up for a vote in the House, no matter how many Senate Republicans vote for it, no matter how many of his own caucus wish to vote for it.

Now, Johnson doesn't necessarily have to be compromised by Russia. He is simply the type of "useful idiot" who delighted KGB operatives, because they would do their work for free. However, Lindsey Graham used to be a Russia hawk. Last night he had this to say:


You can't convince me that he doesn't have a closet filled with dead boys.

This is the kind of thing which will spur more people like Tom to abandon the party. The GOP is slitting its own throat. May it rot in hell.

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