Adam Kinzinger-- Not Quite An Ertuğrul... Even If Señor Trumpanzee IS This Century's Sadettin Kopek

Have you watched Ertuğrul on Netflix? It's 5 long seasons-- about 100 episodes per season (45 minute episodes generally)-- all of it during the late 1200s in an Anatolia where Turkish tribes are besieged by Mongols coming in from the east and Byzantines attacking from the west. The series is one of the biggest Turkish TV shows ever, a kind of Turkish Game of Thrones, and is immensely popular in many other countries as well, particularly Pakistan, Malaysia, Albania, Bangladesh, India, and Azerbaijan and has been banned by Egypt and the Saudis. It won 5 Turkish Golden Palm Awards in 2016 and 2017 including TV series of the year and awards for best actors and directors. It portrays Ertuğrul, father of Osman, who founded the Ottoman empire, as an intrepid fighter for Justice. At one point, when one of the villains gets Ertuğrul fired as Seljik margrave (a kind of warrior-governor) of western Turkey, Ertuğrul remains fiercely loyal to the country and prevents a rebellion and tells them they have a broader fight against evil. (He does finally kill that particular villain though; see video below.)

This morning Adam Kinzinger was on This Week with George Stephanopoulos. Like Ertuğrul he's a leader who got his start as a warrior. And like Ertuğrul, he sees himself as a fighter for Justice. This morning, when Stephanopoulos asked him how he's going to take on his own broader fight, Kinzinger, who announced he's not going to run for Congress again in a newly gerrymandered district, replied that "You can fight to try to tell the truth; you can fight against the cancer in the Republican Party of lies, of conspiracy, of dishonesty. And you ultimately come to the realization that basically it's me, Liz Cheney and a few others that are telling the truth. And there are about 190 people in the Republican Party that aren't going to say a word, and there's a leader of the Republican caucus that is embracing Donald Trump with all he can." Like the Seljuks in the late 1200s, the political system, said Kinzinger, "is failing the American people right now., the Republicans in particular."

He really seems to hate Kevin McCarthy, who he didn't name but who he referred to as "a leader of the Republican caucus that is embracing Donald Trump with all he can." Adam, come on out to Bakersfield and campaign with Bruno Amato, the progressive Democrat running for the Kern County seat McCarthy represents.

Bruno and Kinzinger have almost nothing in common politically besides a shared disdain for Trump and his puppets, like McCarthy. Bruno is pro-Choice, favors LGBTQ rights, backs increasing the minimum wage, Medicare for All and seriously tackling Climate Change. Kinzinger opposes Choice, opposes LGBTQ equality, opposes increasing the minimum wage, opposes expanding Medicare, let alone Medicare-for-All and has stuck with the GOP in denying the urgency of the Climate Crisis. Still... I'm, betting Bruno would welcome him to Bakersfield to talk about why McCarthy is unfit to lead the Republican Party. He seemed furious that McCarthy has continued to "breath live" into Trump's miserable and dangerous political aspirations. He challenged the House GOP caucus to take on McCarthy while acknowledging they "haven't said a dang word about it [and] put their head in the sand and hope somebody else comes along and does something." (You can contribute to Bruno's campaign to replace McCarthy here or by clicking on the Bluer California thermometer above.)

On This Week just a few hours ago, Kinzinger then noted that "it's been obvious over the last 10 months that nobody... I haven't seem any momentum in the party to move away from lies and towards truth. He denounced his careerist colleagues pointing out how many of them are "in politics solely to be in politics, not to fight for something broader... If the Republicans take the majority, they will kill this committee. They killed an independent commission; they've killed any attempt to get to the truth."