Whatever You Think Of Democrats, The GOP Stands For Limiting Our Freedom
Despite the polling and other signs of momentum for Kamala and Tim, Republicans are trying to convince themselves that it’s just a “honeymoon phase.” Yesterday, neo-fascist Oklahoma Senator, Markwayne Mullin, was on some fringy right-wing cable subscription network assuring his fellow weirdos that Democrats aren’t really ahead: “All this is a little bit of a honeymoon phase with Harris. She still hasn’t taken any questions from media. She’s done no interviews whatsoever, and she’s hiding from her record. You have to answer those questions at some point.” True— but definitely not the way Trump answers them.
Most of the issues Mullin thinks will trip Kamala and Walz up are issues where the progressive perspectives are favored by the public— and certainly by swing voters. And not just abortion, which is a Republican-killer. These, for example, are all good issues for Kamala and Tim to talk about:
And the bipartisan immigration-border bill that Trump and his MAGA puppets— like Mullin— killed is a good way of approaching a tough question. Hopefully they won’t shoot themselves in the foot when it comes to the inevitable questions about Palestine, Israel, Gaza, genocide…
As for taxes and government spending, Mullin, a greed and selfishness multimillionaire and strict Austerity kind of guy, and his party are on the wrong side of what the public wants. Kamala needs to double down, not go in a GOP-lite position. Trump is on the wrong side of every issue; Kamala should be clear she stands with the American people andthat she and Walz will fight for our future.
That’s especially true of health care— from expanding Medicare and negotiating drug prices with Big Pharma to lowering the age of Medicare eligibility, something the Republicans actually admit they plan to raise if they win the White House, Senate and House of Representatives trifecta.
In general, despite what Mullin and the weirdos have convinced themselves, Republican issues are generally unpopular outside of the shriveled MAGA base and Democratic issues are widely popular (outside of that same MAGA base). Last graph of the day:
And, as Sabrina Haake explained yesterday, vibes matter— and Señor Trumpanzee knows it. He’s “is a master of manipulating people with negativity and fear. He built a naked tribalism movement on us vs. them vitriol, with immigration, crime, race, and ‘vermin’ of different political views topping his greatest hits,” wrote Haake. “His running mate JD Vance’s negative divisiveness is next level: Hillbilly vs. Silicon, parent vs. childless, cat ladies vs. this with a proper stake in democracy. Almost overnight, Vance served up new antagonisms between voter categories we didn’t even know existed. Stewing in frustration over Kamala Harris’ meteoric rise, trump can hardly restrain his jealousy. In a revolting pique of petty, confirming that he would destroy America for his own personal gain, Trump insulted American hostages release from Russia, praising Putin instead. He then drooled giddy when the stock market tanked last week, clucking, “TRUMP CASH vs. KAMALA CRASH!” but was silent when the market rebounded. Trump/Vance obviously understand that negativity sells, they recognize fear in particular as our most primal and most powerful motivator. But too many years in the Trump hate machine, amplified by Fox News and similar propaganda, is also making people sick. Not only do negative thoughts lead to aggression and war, but compulsive or repeated negativity makes people physically ill.”
It’s fairly well known that Trump supporters are more likely to die of COVID and gun-related homicides than the general population; less known is that negative thoughts create neural pathways in the brain that lead to illnesses too. Grievance politics in general may be killing its own adherents, as researchers have shown a gap in mortality rates between Republican and Democratic counties in nine out of 10 causes of death.
…“[P]eople with high levels of negativity are more likely to suffer from degenerative brain diseases, cardiovascular problems, digestive issues, and (they) recover from sickness much slower than those with a positive mindset.”
…The outpouring of enthusiasm for Kamala Harris and America’s dad Tim Walz suggests voters have grown tired of political negativity. As vice president, Harris faced relentless Republican criticism over her laugh, spun as unserious and intellectually weak. But now that she is in command, her intellect has become irrefutable, allowing her to embrace her laughter and smile often at the podium.
…Joy, common sense and positivity have emerged as Harris/Walz superpowers.
The contrast between Trump/Vance vitriol and Harris/Walz joy seems to be resonating with voters. Partly, it’s relief. Our political discourse has been poisoned with Trump’s hate-filled spittle for nearly a decade. We have watched Trump bully so many people that watching Harris/ Walz laugh at him delivers a catharsis. Everyone likes to see a bully get his comeuppance, seeing him get laughed at is a special treat. When the laughter comes from his would-be victim- eg, the one he tries hardest to dominate and bully— it’s delicious.
Walz first tapped the psychological power of calling Trump/Vance “weird” instead of dangerous. The terms aren’t mutually exclusive, but, Walz intuits, repeatedly warning about how Trump threatens our 250-year-old democracy gives him too much power. Walz advised, “Don’t lift these guys up like they’re some kind of heroes. Everybody in this room knows— I know it as a teacher— a bully has no self-confidence. A bully has no strength. They have nothing.”
… Like most unhealthy habits in life, negative thoughts can become addictive and can kill you. The good news is, this particular addiction can be broken. It’s been said that it takes 21 days to truly break a habit. We have almost 90 days.
John Nichols reminded his readers that “[W]hen Walz first ran for Minnesota’s governorship in 2018, he recorded a stirring call to action that argued for an expansive view of the state’s potential. While some politicians talked about cutting programs, lowering expectations, and accepting despair and division, Walz declared, ‘If Washington won’t lead, we will. In this state, we don’t fear the future. We create the future. And when we stand together, we win.’ To prove his point, the former high school social studies teacher invoked the state’s history: ‘Our blood saved the Union at Gettysburg. Our iron forged the tanks that liberated Europe. Our farmers sparked a green revolution that fed the world. Our imagination transformed medicine. What many describe as the Minnesota miracle, that’s just what we do here.’”
…Harris has made freedom a watchword for her campaign against the authoritarian threat posed by Trump and his running-mate, right-wing Ohio Senator J.D. Vance. To that end, she has employed Beyoncé’s song “Freedom” as rally music. On Wednesday, however, it was an older, yet no less appropriate call for freedom, that echoed across the farm fields of the upper Midwest. “Oh, we’ll rally round the flag, boys, we’ll rally once again, shouting the battle cry of freedom,” sang [Bon Iver’s Justin] Vernon. “And we’ll rally from the hillside, we’ll gather from the plain, Shouting the battle cry of freedom.”
Americans like what Walz is saying about minding your own damn business. And, outside the MAGA bubble no one likes anything Vance is saying. Aaron Blake made the case last week that things have continued to get worse for him with every passing day! He started out as “a historically unpopular running mate… A half-dozen polls have now tested views of Vance more than once in the last few weeks. In each of them, his already-underwhelming image ratings have deteriorated— sometimes significantly.” Too bad no one asked Mullin about that. His approval ratings have continued declining among women, educated voters, young voters, Black voters and independent voters.
And the Swifties are organizing to make sure Kamala and Tim win and Trump and his weirdo running mate lose in November. The answer, for all of us— Taylor Swift fans, Beyoncé fans, Bon Iver fans, fans of positive thoughts and mental health, fans of Truth, Justice and the American way... and UAW members— is solidarity:
For the past 60 years, the nazis have stood for repealing rights and oppressing voters. And they've been spectacularly successful. Why? Because you elect democraps who stand for nothing.
"All that is required for evil to flourish is for the (less evil) people to do nothing"
get it now?
All this issue polling is little different than it was 30 years ago. Most americans are in favor of their lives being enhanced and rights being upheld.
But the reason all this polling STILL shows what it does is because NOBODY has done jack shit about them for decades. Some of them for 6 decades.
And the nazis have won far more than your democraps during that 6 decades. AND while the majority of voters have favored all those things, the nazis have reversed many of them.
So, yeah, kamatim should say they want all those things too. But don't expect anything to be done. The money would be displeased.
The goal here is merely to prevent trump from having…
"Grievance politics in general may be killing its own adherents, as researchers have shown a gap in mortality rates between Republican and Democratic counties in nine out of 10 causes of death." Maybe, or maybe Republicans don't trust science or experts, and think self-reliance is next to godliness. Or maybe they're poorer. Or maybe they live further away from quality healthcare. For whatever reason, I'd guess that poor and middle-class Republicans get less quality healthcare than poor and middle-class Democrats.