The GOP is terrified of the power Democratic voters have at the ballot box.
Democrats handed Trump the most humiliating moment of his life when he lost his bid for reelection in 2020 and he won’t let them forget it for moment.
The entire party exists for Trump to seek revenge and retribution for the perceived slights, which in reality are merely evidence-based criminal inquires, and investigations and a rejection of his incredibly incompetent, inept and venal administration.
It’s always personal with Donald Trump and it’s always fueled by his resentments. That’s how people in active addiction operate and make no mistake, Donald Trump is very well acquainted with the bedevilments so many of us who have dealt with our demons know all too well.
The entire insurrection was launched to appease and assuage the ego of one very damaged man.
They lined-up to help him cover for his crimes, 147 Republicans even voted to overturn the election results a mere hours after his MAGA goons attacked the US Capitol and killed a police officer and literally defecated in the Halls of Democracy.
That is how low an entire party has sunk and what motivates people like Ronna McDaniel to appear on CNN the Sunday before the 2022 Midterm Elections and lay the ground work for election challenges unless they win.
They are making outright treachery their new normal and much of the media landscape seems to be playing right into their hands.
It helps to look at where this codependency begins, and to do that you never get too far from the malignant personality of Donald Trump and his newly minted henchmen.
Men and women like Dr Oz who clearly have no good intentions for our democracy and certainly no concern for the people most vulnerable to the lack of compassion and civility in our public discourse.
The marginalized have become a target for the campaigns of the Kari Lake’s and Ron DeSantis types on the Republican candidate roster.
Folks who eschew compassion in place of cruelty and toxic iconography designed to manipulate men and women who should know better but don’t. It’s cheap and easy and as a political strategy is beyond criminal, its anti-Democratic and fundamentally anti-American and we need to make sure it stops working.
They are running on platforms of misinformation and accusations of election misconduct while intimidating, and in Florida’s case, arresting their own citizens for exercising their right to vote. They fear a level playing field as much as they fear the truth.
The GOP is trafficking in hate speech and antisemitism.
Mehmet Oz’s home state of New Jersey received FBI reports of threats to synagogues on Friday night forcing many families to disrupt their Sabbath plans. Imagine having to explain that to your children. In 2022, no less.
Yet the Republican candidate for Governor of PA was backed by the same radical online group that inspired the Tree of Life Synagogue shooting.
Mastriano has trafficked in antisemitic tropes, attacked the media and was one of the MAGA insurrections who stormed the US Capitol on January 6th, 2021 and he is the GOP’s candidate for office in the state where the US Constitution was written.
Dr Oz & Doug Mastriano signs pollute the landscape of central Pennsylvania, their signage is ubiquitous now as are the personal attacks on their Democratic opponents and the incessant fear mongering to their base.
Because his most important asset to the infrastructure of the modern conservative movement, which at this point is basically fascism redux, is to deny the existence of a free and fair election in 2020 and going forward. An appeasement to Trump’s big lie is now baked-in to the GOP’s charter.
It’s a litmus test for all future Republican candidates and a terrifying prospect for anyone who appreciates the rule of law in a functioning democracy.
Republicans aim and overarching goal is to take away your ability exercise your power at the polls to deliver another knockout blow to the ego of its supreme leader.
It is a cult of personality every bit as dangerous as any number of foreign autocracies serving the needs of narcissistic despots the world over.
Many of whom Trump shared instant kismet with and even went so far to break the law to steal US classified documents and correspondence which detailed his efforts at cementing these blossoming relationships, most especially with the comely Kim Jong-un.
None of which were in the service of democracy by the way.
Trump didn’t steal the translator’s notes in Helsinki and meet with Putin out of the reach of State Department ears at several international events such as the Latin American Summit and Asia-Pacific Summit where they happened to cozy up at the dinner table together for a chat to further the aims of the American voter-you can count on that.
Trump had surreptitious meetings five times with Putin during his presidency and to this day nobody knows what was discussed.
At least not in the USA, I am sure the Kremlin knew instantly the results of their conversations and it doesn’t take John le Carré to surmise Ukraine must have featured prominently in their tet à tete’s among other strategic interests.
How else does one explain Trump bending the knee for Putin at each Geo-political opportunity.
The consolidation of power is always a key motivator but in Trump’s case you cannot over look the insatiable need to appease such a clownish and thirsty broken excuse for a human being and the complete and utter obsequiousness of the GOP in service of those needs as a driving factor.
It’s gross, it’s aberrant and it’s icky, it looks and feels strange because it is, and we need to stop it.
It’s clinical and demented and has very dangerous and violent consequences which we are seeing out in the real world on a daily basis.
It appeals to the base instincts and borderline personalities of the lunatic fringe and ensnares them into a toxic cult of personality.
They become weaponized in way that makes them powerless over his increasing exhortations to violence, which make no mistake, is the brand message of MAGA.
The underlying threat of ‘there will be hell to pay if we don’t get our way’.
The chaos that has ensued on Twitter after Elon Musk’s takeover is part of that equation.
The one thing of true value to the forces of autocracy and dark money-backed chaos agents is the snark farmers and laugh emoji bros who constantly flood the replies of progressive posts with the lack of empathy and ‘cry more’ sentiments.
The ’f*ck your feelings’ crowd they first rode to fame on and which has become a key demographic for the GOP along with the dreaded, and hypocritical and often mired-in sex scandals, Christian conservatives.
They keep regurgitating the same odious dirges, it’s as if Nickelback went into political messaging and hired Joe Rogan’s guest list as a writers room.
They constantly mine the same toxic, nearly adolescent in their maturity level and cultural sophistication, vein of the American white suburban/exurban male.
Dudes who play ‘Call of Duty’ but also like to tell you why crypto currencies will save you from being a pawn in global banking system and how elk meat is a nutritionally rich source of protein for alpha males such as themselves while watching UFC fights in their mom’s basement and bitching about gas prices and driving Ford F250’s to their telemarketing jobs.
Almost unwittingly, their podcast subscriptions and TV viewing choices have them being placed in an ecosystem of self-affirming nonsense and now that we’re several election cycles in to this dynamic, the ignorance and outrage are growing increasingly outrageous and undemocratic.
How many beard bros are ‘protecting ballot boxes’ in Arizona right now because they have been fully indoctrinated into white supremacist causes and Q-Anon craziness pushed on them by the GOP? Most of them, one can assume.
They were micro-targeted for this aggression and it has festered and grown in their online chats and Facebook groups, not to mention the gun store parking lots and MAGA rallies.
It’s as if the messaging is ‘It’s ok to be an asshole’ and here’s some nifty sound bites so you can sound smart to other dumb guys while doing it.
Elon Musk surely enjoys the privilege of not paying his fair share of taxes and running his businesses without union protections for his workers. So the perks of returning Trump to power and helping a GOP ticket that is long on cons and short on oversight could likely be a boon to his various businesses.
Musk was very tactical once his narcissism had tricked his ego into buying Twitter.
What started as a stupid tweet he authored in his seemingly perpetual moment of online attention seeking and the affirmations of his online bot army. Always a staggering reality that the head of at least three major companies has time for such frivolity.
He would do well to study the case of Carlos Ghosn who tried to run both Renault and Nissan simultaneously and ended up an international fugitive. (For the record I have predicted all along that Elon’s business entities will ultimately end with him fleeing the country)
Overpaying to the tune of 44 billion for a social media platform that his quickly turning into a digital dumpster fire thanks to his capriciousness and lack of a plan or compassion for its employees, jettisoning half of Twitter’s workforce as we head into the holiday season being just one example.
Firing the entire ‘Human Rights Team’ tells you everything you need to know about Elon’s intentions for Twitter.
So what can we do in the face of such seeming calamity at least when it comes to how we receive our news and voice our opinions in the public square?
We can vote, as the great Barack Obama has said recently on the campaign trail, ‘they can’t hear you boo, but they can hear you vote’.
They can also hear you volunteer and phone-bank and certainly they can hear you knocking on doors. Do it now, if you can, get out there. It matters.
These aren’t minor actions, these are steps warriors take when saving democracy and we are all in a battle now for the soul of this nation and how we can best protect this planet for future generations. It has never mattered more, do all you can to get out the vote and help your neighbors remember to vote for Democrats over Republican lies.
We can hold on to the progress of the Biden Administration and send packing the insurrections and grifters appealing to our darker angels, that is a fact, just like it’s a fact that your vote counts, (a US House race was lost for the Democrats in Iowa last time by 6 votes).
You can’t go big wave surfing without a team. Get on Board. Vote Blue.
Noel. On top of everything else I admire and appreciate about you--you're a damn, damn, damn good writer. You surprise me at every turn. In my opinion, you're a national treasure. Thank you for what you're doing and thank you for expanding it.