I agree with everything Jennifer Rubin writes here. Ask Vladimir Putin how grandfatherly PoJo is toward fascists. Gloves off, call a fascist a fascist, on the offensive always, attack! attack! attack! And it IS the TRUTH and they just think it’s hell. They ARE fascists, they do use violence, they are anti-democracy.
I part company with AOC and Bernie here. They want to appeal to MAGA Republicans, you know, on economic grounds. Man, I'll tell ya, socialists: they see every issue from the pov of the pocketbook. Congresswoman, Senator, MAGGATS never gave a shit about 45th's stands on any one issue or constellation of issues. As Olivia Nuzzi wrote back before the Orange mammal was elected, "They don't care!" It's identity politics all the way down. You can call it "false consciousness" if you wish, but it is conscious and you will never understand that they cannot be debated. You won't understand this either because you are empathetic and good people: MAGA Republicans should not be appealed to, they must be crushed, ostracized, stigmatized, shunned and unemployed. I know you want as close to full employment as possible, as do I—with the exception of MAGGATS. They should not be talked to or attempted to be understood, or hired, but crushed, to repeat myself. You don't like that I dehumanize humans. I do with fascists, and I make no apologies for it. You can apologize for me and my ilk. You can distance yourself from those like me and from the President and you will remain the Squad of four plus the Vermont Socialist, irrelevant. You're either for 'em or you're agin' 'em and if you want to talk to them more you're for 'em. Make your choice and take the consequences. In a word, we don't want the MAGGATS, you do, and that's your blind spot.
For Democrats, democrats, and non-MAGGAT Republican democrats Biden is testing the basis for a realignment of American politics. He is bringing this new realignment into focus now: There’s the pro-democracy party, which includes Democrats and non-MAGA Republicans, and there is the pro-fascist party. Which party do you belong to, Mitch? Mitt? And you, Congresswoman and Senator? We need you to make your choice clear too and be done with "talking to" the MAGGATS.
I wrote to my ex that Biden's “semi-fascist” message flips the entire political script and Biden and the Dems ought to incorporate it in the strongest language in their messaging. Nobody can accept being called fascistic and coming from an 80 year-old centrist the charge can’t be defeated by attacking the messenger as a frothing idiot blogger or a socialist. When POTUS says it, and when centrist, octogenarian Joe Biden is the POTUS and says it the MAGGATS are put on the defensive. That's what we've seen.
In every congressional and Senate race the Dem ought to ask his opponent where the Merriam-Webster definition of fascism does not apply to him or her, as the White House press spokesperson did in reading it to reporters.
Biden is right, this election, again, is about Democracy in America or the end of the American Experiment. Where do you stand Congresswoman Ocasio-Cortez, Senator Sanders?
…on Thursday we got feisty Joe Biden, pugnacious Joe Biden and MAGA-condemning Joe Biden in a speech in Rockville, Md., marking his start to midterm campaigning. For all the hand-wringing about his negative polling (which seems to be improving) and his drag on Democratic candidates, Biden reminded us how he got elected in 2020. When he gets his dander up, he can be an effective campaigner.
Biden seemed to channel Harry S. Truman, who, to a voter shouting “Give ’em hell, Harry!” declared, “I don’t give them hell. I just tell the truth about them, and they think it’s hell.” And did Biden ever give it to the MAGA radicals.
“In 2020, you and 81 million Americans voted to save our democracy,” he reminded the crowd. “That’s why Donald Trump isn’t just a former president. He is a defeated former president.” As for the midterms, Biden declared, “Your right to choose is on the ballot this year. The Social Security you paid for from the time you had a job is on the ballot. The safety of your kids from gun violence is on the ballot, and it’s not hyperbole, the very survival of our planet is on the ballot.” He added, “Your right to vote is on the ballot. Even the democracy. Are you ready to fight for these things now?”
…his strongest words came in a blunt assault on the MAGA movement, something Democrats and other democracy defenders have been pining to hear.
“The MAGA Republicans don’t just threaten our personal rights and economic security,” Biden said. “They’re a threat to our very democracy. They refuse to accept the will of the people. They embrace — embrace — political violence. They don’t believe in democracy.”
His harshest language came earlier at a separate fundraiser, where he told donors, “What we’re seeing now is either the beginning or the death knell of an extreme MAGA philosophy.” He continued, “It’s not just Trump, it’s the entire philosophy that underpins the — I’m going to say something — it’s like semi-fascism.”
No one should be shocked by the president calling the movement — one that tried to overthrow a democratic election, continues to threaten violence, spews the racist Great Replacement theory, operates in a universe of delusion and disinformation and seeks to redefine America as a White Christian nation — semi-fascist. (Pro-fascist or just fascistwould have worked as well.)
…
No more talk that “Biden was elected to lower the temperature.” No more blather that “voters want to stop the partisan fighting.” After ceding rhetorical ground to an unhinged opponent never interested in “unity,” Biden has decided to tell the truth — and let the GOP think it’s hell.
…
Biden’s message now is simple: Republicans’ free ride is over. Let’s call them out for what they are. That Joe Biden is the one who could recapture the hearts of Democrats as he considers a second term.
…on Thursday we got feisty Joe Biden, pugnacious Joe Biden and MAGA-condemning Joe Biden in a speech in Rockville, Md., marking his start to midterm campaigning. For all the hand-wringing about his negative polling (which seems to be improving) and his drag on Democratic candidates, Biden reminded us how he got elected in 2020. When he gets his dander up, he can be an effective campaigner.
Biden seemed to channel Harry S. Truman, who, to a voter shouting “Give ’em hell, Harry!” declared, “I don’t give them hell. I just tell the truth about them, and they think it’s hell.” And did Biden ever give it to the MAGA radicals.
“In 2020, you and 81 million Americans voted to save our democracy,” he reminded the crowd. “That’s why Donald Trump isn’t just a former president. He is a defeated former president.” As for the midterms, Biden declared, “Your right to choose is on the ballot this year. The Social Security you paid for from the time you had a job is on the ballot. The safety of your kids from gun violence is on the ballot, and it’s not hyperbole, the very survival of our planet is on the ballot.” He added, “Your right to vote is on the ballot. Even the democracy. Are you ready to fight for these things now?”
…his strongest words came in a blunt assault on the MAGA movement, something Democrats and other democracy defenders have been pining to hear.
“The MAGA Republicans don’t just threaten our personal rights and economic security,” Biden said. “They’re a threat to our very democracy. They refuse to accept the will of the people. They embrace — embrace — political violence. They don’t believe in democracy.”
His harshest language came earlier at a separate fundraiser, where he told donors, “What we’re seeing now is either the beginning or the death knell of an extreme MAGA philosophy.” He continued, “It’s not just Trump, it’s the entire philosophy that underpins the — I’m going to say something — it’s like semi-fascism.”
No one should be shocked by the president calling the movement — one that tried to overthrow a democratic election, continues to threaten violence, spews the racist Great Replacement theory, operates in a universe of delusion and disinformation and seeks to redefine America as a White Christian nation — semi-fascist. (Pro-fascist or just fascistwould have worked as well.)
…
No more talk that “Biden was elected to lower the temperature.” No more blather that “voters want to stop the partisan fighting.” After ceding rhetorical ground to an unhinged opponent never interested in “unity,” Biden has decided to tell the truth — and let the GOP think it’s hell.
…
Biden’s message now is simple: Republicans’ free ride is over. Let’s call them out for what they are. That Joe Biden is the one who could recapture the hearts of Democrats as he considers a second term.
