(Another hard-hitting message from TheVORACS so let's all do our part & please do share)...... The GOP & far-right media still under the spell of the orange blob are constantly taking cheap potshots at our current president, questioning everything from his leadership to his policies & even his sanity. To understand the absurdity of their right-wing propaganda, consider the following actual presidential foibles in our recent history:
Did President Biden say?...
*that POW's weren't heroes because they were captured
*that our brave dead soldiers were suckers & losers
*that he also mocked & criticized the likes of various ethnic groups, the disabled, women & Gold Star parents
*that Nazi white supremacists were among the very good people on both sides
*that North Korea was no longer a nuclear threat & our president even exchanged love letters with the brutal dictator Kim Jong un
*that in Helsinki he didn't know why it would be Russia who hacked into our social media platforms & interfered in our elections
*that sending vital military equipment to Ukraine required a "favor though" (demanding they publicly announce contrived dirt on Biden) which was basically bribing & extorting an ally
*that the Saudi crown prince wasn't involved in the murder of an American journalist
*that exiting the Iran deal was smart (though it mainly served to remove prior restraints placed upon their nuclear program)
*that Mexico will pay for the wall
*that kidnapping migrant kids from their parents at the border & locking them in cages (international human rights violations) was somehow a good idea
*that we'll replace Obamacare with something big & beautiful
*that it was fair to give a big tax cut to the wealthy which wasn't paid for & ballooned the deficits
Other monumental blunders...
*got his pockets picked by China with an ill-conceived trade war/tariffs particularly harmful to farmers
*weakened NATO which served to embolden Russia
*confiscated, misplaced, destroyed or flushed classified/top secret documents
*constantly used rhetoric to deliberately divide his country
*used the power of his office to corruptly grift off the people
*credibly accused & investigated for tax & bank fraud, plus pilfering/cheating charities, contractors, university students, campaign contributors & his own inauguration
*credibly accused of sexually assaulting two dozen women
*verifiably lied to us a confirmed 30,000 times as president
*admitted to lying about the dangers of an emerging pandemic which ultimately caused thousands of unnecessary deaths
*opined the new virus will just quickly fade away before the summer of 2020
*suggested drinking bleach or injecting sunshine could treat Covid
*keeps claiming without evidence the 2020 election was stolen
*incited the the Jan. 6th riots by rousing his mob to walk to the Capitol & fight like hell
*claiming the Capitol attackers were peaceful protesters despite the tragic deaths & 150 Capitol police officers injured
*arm-twisted election officials, state legislators, governors, congresspeople, judges, generals, DOJ officials & the VP to change the results of a free & fair presidential election
If Biden ever said or did anything as crazy as any of those, I must have missed it! Had just one of these examples been credibly pinned on our 46th & current president, I might even agree with the right-wing media that he's both incompetent & nuts, totally unfit to hold power! We should rightly be horrified by such leadership, policies & insanity coming from an American president, but believe me when I say Biden was not the one to be alarmed about. The constant chirping against Uncle Joe reverberating throughout the conservative echosphere, although very disingenuous, is hitting its mark & hurting his approval ratings. Let's watch Biden's SOTU on Tuesday night to notice quite a contrast with the former guy, being a current president who actually puts country over selfish interests & the Constitution over authoritarianism. Also compare his address to the extremist nonsense now being heard at what I call the C-CRAP conference (CPAC), which attracts the lunatic fringe of the conservative movement.
It's time to cut Uncle Joe some slack. He is a good man with a big heart who's trying his best to do what's right by the country. It's an incredibly difficult time to be president, with the nation so bitterly divided while much of the conservative base still refuses to acknowledge Biden as our authentic president. Just think how tough that becomes when tens of millions reject everything he attempts to do because they deny his leadership legitimacy. It can certainly be very difficult to get constructive legislation through with an obstructionist opposition party plus as Dems we're basically lacking a majority in Congress. I say that because the Democrats do have a slim majority in the House, but the Senate features 50 GOP, 48 Dems & two straddling the fence. We need stronger majorities to get needed bills passed.
The mere fact Biden did win the election makes him one of the most important presidents America has ever had, sparing us (at least for the time being) of having the former guy remain in the White House, an orange menace who by virtue of his coup attempt & inciting an insurrection has been shown to be a wannabe autocratic dictator (that's not hyperbole, since we're learning more & more about an elaborately-planned plot with a variety of illegal strategies that would have allowed Trump to remain in office despite losing the election). Fully expect that here in 2022, the Jan. 6th congressional committee will reveal overwhelming evidence of crimes approaching treason! And be forewarned what Trump & his loyalists did (which was indeed a coup attempt), they are still trying to achieve by continuing to challenge the 2020 election results, plus they have similar plans to steal future elections. In addition, despite an apparent setback in the Manhattan DA's criminal case, there are other civil & criminal probes closing in on the orange mob boss.
I've read polls over this past year since the Jan. 6th insurrection showing two-thirds of the Republican base actually believe "the big lie" that the 2020 election was stolen from Trump. And roughly half of them have indicated violence might be necessary to correct their perceived injustices. These numbers are truly terrifying. It suggests if our nation cannot convince the existing poisoned conservative mindset to acknowledge facts & escape their alternate reality, our democracy could be compromised to the point of soon being eviscerated. It might happen with a bang as their collective rage launches a new civil war, or steadily crumble over time as our longstanding differences are deemed irreconcilable. It's simply a sad reality, in that a free society cannot viably function for long when a substantial portion of their population becomes accepting of unrelenting lies & conspiracies. I would highly recommend we spread messages like this in conversations, emails, social media & whatever forms of communication we can, including referring others to this geaugadems.com blog, assuming those who've been snookered by the far-right media machine can have their twisted thinking salvaged when confronted with the truth.
Many on the right are still inexplicably looking back on 2020 without looking ahead, such as the indicted Steve Bannon & featherhead Mike Lindell, following the lead of their orange cult master. The Trumpist wing of their party have even convinced themselves that a violent insurrection against our seat of power was somehow "legitimate political discourse." And with this major political party now flawed still letting the orange demagogue lead them around by the nose, they're not even paying attention to potential solutions for our myriad of problems, since the GOP is now all about woe-is-me grievances, denialism of despicable/radicalized behavior from their own leadership, nihilistic & vitriolic outrage, resentful revenge & obtaining unbridled power by any means necessary. It's become a party gone off the rails in recent years by putting rabid tribal interests above country, seemingly made up of mostly political partisans willing to sacrifice their moral compass for lawlessness.
Full disclosure...I was a lifelong Republican until my transformation over this past decade, being horrified at what has become of my former party. My experience is the opposite of Reagan's, since I didn't so much leave the GOP as the GOP left me. This current version is not our father's Republican Party...not even close! I'm just stunned & disheartened that more moderates/conservatives have failed to recognize the very dark path the party has chosen. If voters choose such far-right extremism for our nation, it is truly the path to self-destruction. The best way to break their cult mentality is to send their GOP leadership packing by energizing the votes for Democrats, so we can send a message loud & clear come November that Americans still favor democracy over fascism. Granted, not all GOP politicians have joined the Trumpist cult, but they represent a party which has become so toxic & dangerous that it's imperative we vote against them until the evil spell breaks.
And we do need stronger congressional majorities to pass a legislative agenda favored by the majority of Americans, such as more affordable healthcare, prescription drugs, child care & college tuition costs. These initiatives would be largely paid for by getting wealthy oligarchs to pay their fair share of taxes, the same ones who've helped rig the system in their favor for decades with the assistance of GOP puppet-politicians, while denying the ability of millions of hard-working American families to earn a secure/livable wage. As for immediate concerns, inflation has become an intractable worldwide challenge brought on mostly by pent-up demand coming out of a pandemic, supply-chain interruptions, labor shortages, corporate profit-taking & yes, stimulus spending during the depths of the pandemic to help keep struggling people & businesses afloat. But there are signs of hope with the virus finally showing indications of subsiding into endemic status (while hoping & praying the new BA.2 Omicron subvariant doesn't ravage us), which could help put the economy back on a path towards normalcy & begin alleviating the troubles brought on by a deadly two-year pandemic.
So to rehash, there are quintessential reasons to spread this message & inspire others to vote Dem. We're the only major political party left in America committed to being proactive in solving a litany of economic problems, rather than taking the GOP's entrenched do-nothing approach. But let's please be strategic/discerning enough to exercise caution about going too progressive on cultural issues, since maintaining power requires a big tent to win elections. We're also the only major party still on the side of preserving our constitutional democracy & free society while repelling the danger of fascist tyranny now knocking on our doorstep, as it's critically important to uphold free & fair elections where the people decide who our elected leaders will be. Even those with more conservative ideologies, policy positions should be largely irrelevant compared to that bigger threat from the right. In seeing our current predicament objectively, patriotic Americans who want to uphold the Constitution should be repulsed by the GOP!
So by all rights the Dems should win the midterms in a landslide, but the mere fact they won't is a testament to the power of Fox fake news & the rest of that far-right disinformation media. To truly make America great again we must find a way to be more united, but that can only be achieved by first repudiating the onslaught of lies & conspiracies coming from that deceptive echo-chamber, especially with tens of millions of our fellow citizens regularly falling for their delusional & highly-destructive rhetoric. I'll give you a recent perilous example, especially with the Russian invasion of Ukraine now dominating headlines. Among numerous despicable things a certain highly-rated TV host says on an ongoing basis, this smug schmuck has also become a talking-head stooge for Putin that empowers Russian expansion, so I've come to think Tucker Carlson is even more insane than insanity Hannity!: https://www.businessinsider.com/tucker-carlson-echoes-putin-ukraine-talking-points-fox-2022-2. There is no justification for excusing imperialists, as that sets a precedent imperiling free societies. The fascist-loving American right-wing & Russian propaganda seem to be working together in tandem.
Did you hear Trump's disgusting comments this week as he still gushes over & elevates his good ol' buddy Putin? And yes, that extremist alternate universe has followed the lead of their orange tyrant with verbiage sabotaging democratic nations in favor of rogue dictatorships, giving the Russia-China partnership far greater influence on the international stage at the expense of America. International freedom & human rights research groups have even warned democracies have declined throughout the world in favor of repressive rule, in part due to slippage in American democracy which was always counted on to be the great example/protector of free societies. The expansionism by these authoritarian regimes has taken by force & denied free states their autonomy in places like Crimea, Hong Kong & now Ukraine is under attack, so could Taiwan be far behind?
Putin has proven he is what we've always known him to be, a murderous thug dictator. Biden has done everything he reasonably can to deter Russia, rallying NATO while imposing sanctions, but Putin had his mind made up & threatens to unleash carnage with "weapons that have no equal in the world." Yet for emphasis I'll say it again, just listen to all the irresponsible Putin cheerleading coming from the orange kompromat & some of his sycophant pundits, who all serve as useful idiots for the Russian dictator. Could the reason be the Trumpist GOP welcomes Russia's continued interference in our elections that helps with their coup attempts, even at the risk of encouraging a cataclysmic war in Europe? This is the first outside attack against a sovereign nation in Europe since WWII, so any American with the gall to defend & praise Putin should be denounced in the harshest terms!
In conclusion, make no mistake, the stakes could not be higher for the U.S. & the world! The danger goes far beyond the war breaking out in Ukraine, as the fascist mindset lives among us right here in the U.S. A GOP takeover of Congress could set the stage for the next coup attempt to become successful, while a win in 2024 by President Trump or like-minded GOP candidate antithetical to democracy would be an unmitigated catastrophe! Most Americans are dismissing &/or ignoring the threat from the far-right, so by the time we realize the grave mistake made which undermines our freedoms & our future, it may become too late to undo the damage. None of us have ever experienced the internal risk we now face as a nation, since this right-wing autocratic movement is the biggest threat to our constitutional republic since the Civil War. I've often warned do not think fascism could never come to America, as putting the current rendition of the GOP back in power could be a big first step towards realizing such a dystopian nightmare. The Dems are now the only viable pro-democracy option we have left. Let's rally behind our party, since this is no time for being complacent, inattentive, passive or timid!