By Political Editor David Bloviator with Correspondents Nellie Bly in Cleveland, Ida Tarbell in Phoenix, Jenny Birk in Tampa, Florida, and Mike Connor in Harrisburg, New Jersey [Are you sure about that one? – Ed.]
The midterm elections are “right before” us, as noted by a Florida sex offender and target of multiple criminal investigations (Actually, they are almost three months away), so we thought it was time to rev up the ace Spy Political Team to hit the hustings and give us the low down on how things are going.
Actually, not too badly. The disastrous campaign of famous New Jersey snake oil salesman Mehmet Oz is, like the victims of his ridiculous body cleanse programs, sh***ing all over itself. Not doing much better is venture capitalist and sock puppet for fascist financier J.D. Vance in Ohio, once thought of as a sure Republican hold. The House still looks like an uphill fight but there are reasons for hope.
Unfortunately for those with a shred of empathy, the hope is based on Sullen Sam Alito's principle-free reversal of Roe and subsequent Red State outrages like forcing women to give birth to severely defective fetuses with no chance of meaningful life. Amazingly enough (to Republicans, that is) the unspeakably cruel assault on desperate women is not going too well, at least among women.
Here's some recent polling from of all places, Fox ‘News’ (to be fair, their polling unit unlike their anchors deals in reality) in the hotly-contested Wisconsin Senate race:
Almost a fifth of the electorate names abortion as their number one issue. In that cohort, the breakdown looks not too terrific for Republican dimwit Ron “Take my fake electors, please” Johnson:
For decades Republicans have been able to gin up their white supremacist/Christian extremist base by bravely opposing abortion rights, safe in the knowledge that those rights were protected by the Supreme Court. Now the dog has caught the car and the results don't look too good.
But as the poll itself properly suggests, there are other issues on the ballot as well, like the future if any of American democracy. Here Republicans have taken a clear and forthright stand: they're against it.
They make their views plain in all sorts of ways. This week, when anti-democratic Ron DeathSantis (R – Pandemic) decided to lend a hand to the floundering finagler in Ohio, J.D. Vance, the sponsors of their little get-together decided the last thing they needed was a free press covering the event.
Here's how the editor of the Cleveland Plain Dealer, the last remaining newspaper in Northeast Ohio [Louise, please check – Ed.] , put it:
Those pesky reporters – what are they whining about this time?
The worst of the rules was one prohibiting reporters from interviewing attendees not first approved by the organizers of the event for DeSantis and Vance. When we cover events, we talk to anyone we wish. It’s America, after all, the land of free speech. At least that’s America as it exists today. Maybe not the America that would exist under DeSantis and Vance.
Think about what they were doing here. They were staging an event to rally people to vote for Vance while instituting the kinds of policies you’d see in a fascist regime. A wannabe U.S. Senator, and maybe a wannabe president.
Another over-the-top rule was one reserving the right to receive copies of any video shot of the event for promotional use. That’s never okay. News agencies are independent of the political process. We do not provide our work product to anyone for promotional use. To do so would put us in league with people we cover, destroying our credibility....
Anyway, we didn’t accept the limitations, because they end up skewing the facts. If we can speak only with attendees chosen by the candidate, we don’t get a true accounting of what people thought of the event. You get spin from the most ardent supporters.
Isn't stealing private property (like photos and video footage) what they do in Socialist dictatorships like Venezuela and Cuba?
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| The Republicans didn't invent demonizing the press |
But these tactics are right out of DeathSantis's anti-democracy playbook. While not persecuting people for thinking they could vote merely because Florida voters passed a referendum allowing them to (or the registrar said they could), he's been shutting the independent media out of covering his Huey Long-like Reign of Terror in Florida (although to be fair to Huey Long, he tried to make his constituents healthier, not sicker):
When Gov. Ron DeSantis signed a new bill Thursday morning to change mail-in voting in Florida, the only television cameras allowed to capture the moment belonged to FOX News.
Outside, reporters and videographers from local news outlets were told the ceremonial bill signing was an “exclusive” for FOX & Friends, the conservative network’s morning show. DeSantis confirmed as much later in the day.
So the Miami Herald, the largest newspaper in the state, couldn't attend a public function. And if you're a member of an opposition party who dares to attend a public event at which a public official is speaking, well...
Jackboot autocrat. Orban wannabe. https://t.co/GGag0r6fgj
— Norman Ornstein (@NormOrnstein) August 21, 2022
Norman Ornstein? We're so old we remember when Norman Ornstein was considered a mainstream figure. Guess the mainstream, like the Colorado River, has shrunk to a puddle.
The demonizing of a free press has been a Republican talking point since before 2016, despite the legions of Republican shills who whine otherwise. Remember Agnew inveighing against “nattering nabobs of negativism” in between trousering thick envelopes of dirty money? Or flacks for George W. Bush boasting about they refused The New York Times' request for a Presidential interview for eight years?
But undermining a free press isn't just a cute Republican affectation that you can forget about in your post-Bush career as an adorable anchor for MSNBC. There's no democracy without a free press because voters can't decide for whom to vote unless they know what tf is going on.
As the illustration above suggests, undermining and attacking a free press isn't the only analogue between 1932 and 2022. There's also ... the Jewish Question.
A standard Republican attack on any Democratic candidate or idea is that they are it are backed by...George Soros. George Soros is a rich guy and Hungarian Holocaust survivor who supports Democrats. To Republicans, he's Jewy Jewison, according to the Forvitz:
Florida governor Ron DeSantis suspended state attorney Andrew Warren and mocked him as a “Soros-backed state attorney” on Thursday over Warren’s refusal to prosecute charges related to abortion and gender affirming care for minors.
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| Typical Democrat |
A prolific political donor, Soros is connected to Warren through his donations to the Florida Democratic party, which the party in turn disperses to its candidates, possibly including Warren. ...
During the 2016 race, per the Times, supporters of Warren’s Republican opponent spread rumors about the extent of Soros’ involvement on Warren’s behalf in an effort to damage his campaign.
Conspiracy theories about Soros, the Forward noted in 2020, “seem to be born of the antisemitic trope that there is some rich, shadowy Jewish figure who is responsible for the country’s perceived problems.”
In addition to DeSantis’ comments, Arizona gubernatorial candidate Kari Lake this week suggested on Steve Bannon’s far-right podcast that diplomat Cindy McCain and Soros are co-conspiring to “destroy America.” ...
So the Republican mainstream's brightest hope for a post-Tangerine-Faced Traitor renaissance hates not only democracy and free press, but Jews. Seems like kind of a loser in Florida, but what do we know?
Hatred of Jews seems to be popping up all over the Republican Party. Let's go to Pennsylvania, where insurrectionist whack job Doug Mastriano is counting on anti-Semites to get him over the line. And guess who's right there with him:
Mr. Mastriano...is a prominent proponent of conspiracy theories about the 2020 election. His campaign was recently swept by controversy over efforts to recruit supporters on the social media site Gab, a haven for white nationalists and antisemites.
Mr. Mastriano’s Democratic opponent, Josh Shapiro, began airing ads this week invoking the man accused of killing 11 worshipers at the Tree of Life synagogue in Pittsburgh in 2018, after posting antisemitic vitriol on Gab. Mr. Mastriano distanced himself from Gab last month, saying he rejected “antisemitism in any form.”
Jewish Democratic leaders in Florida criticized Mr. DeSantis’s planned appearance with Mr. Mastriano in the same city as the Tree of Life synagogue.
“When Ron DeSantis goes to Pennsylvania to campaign for Mastriano, what he’s doing is he’s encouraging all of the bigotry,” said Rabbi Mark Winer, the president of the Florida Democratic Party Jewish Caucus.
Of course, you can expect the good mainstream Republicans in moderate Pennsylvania to reject anyone who embraces anti-Semitic extremists, right?
Wrong, according to the often-reliable New York Times:
And here's one more pogrom in the making, from deep in America's thirsty hellscape, also known as Arizona:
Arizona will seldom have moments of clarity like this, so let’s get to the brutal facts.
One of our two-major party candidates for governor has just endorsed a man who hates Jewish people, despises gay people and wants no Black or brown immigrants in this country.
Jarrin Jackson is no casual bigot. He has produced such a stream of internet bile he can only be seen as a committed anti-Semite, homophobe and racist – one of the most vile people in political life, unfit for government and unwelcome in polite society.
And yet Jarrin Jackson, Republican candidate for the Oklahoma state Senate, tweeted on Wednesday that he has won the endorsement of Kari Lake, Arizona Republican candidate for governor. There he was photoshopped together with the smiling Lake, two peas in a tweet.
"I am honored to be endorsed by the #AmericaFirst (and Trump-endorsed) warrior who drained the McCain swamp in Arizona and is now the GOP nominee for governor in Arizona – Kari Lake. She is a rising star and her endorsement is a big deal! Thank you, Kari!"
That comment appeared in the far-left rag, The Arizona Republic. It is not owned by George Soros.
It's almost as if anti-Semitism is as Republican as their other passions: insurrection, racism, and torturing women.
So if it's beginning to sound like a German election in 1932, remember the lesson of that history: whether the Jew-hating insurrectionists doing business as the Republican Party prevail or not is matter of whose will is stronger: theirs.
Or yours.
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