With midterms approaching, the evil of the right is on full display

With the midterms fast approaching, and the prospect of both houses of Congress, as well as several statehouses, potentially flipping, Republicans across the country are becoming increasingly desperate. And, as you might imagine, this desperation is manifesting itself in truly terrible ways.

In Texas, with the young, dynamic Beto O’Rourke gaining momentum, Ted Cruz has decided to go full MAGA, surrendering himself completely to Donald Trump, the man who, during the 2016 Republican primary, had called his wife as ugly and suggested that his father may have participated in the assassination of John F. Kennedy. Cruz, at the time, said that Trump was completely unfit for office, but apparently he, as you can see in the above photo, has come to embrace our new reality, which is that there is no more Republican party, just the party of Donald Trump. And, in order to win as a Republican in today’s world, it’s becoming incredibly difficult to thread the needle and attain national office without donning a MAGA hat and groveling for favor at the swollen, orange feet of Donald Trump. And Cruz, it would seem, has neither the character nor the courage to stand up and fight on his own, like, say, Lisa Murkowski. I’m sure there’s historical precedent, and other well-known politicians have chosen to publicly debase themselves in such ways in order to curry favor, but I can’t remember seeing anything even remotely this grotesque in my lifetime.

And yet, as Texas filmmaker Richard Linklater points out in his brilliant new ad, Cruz, in his campaign materials, continues to position himself as being as “tough as Texas.” The irony is absolutely laughable.

Here, by the way, is something else that Trump said of Cruz back in 2016. It’s been following the incumbent Senator through Texas these past several weeks.

[Give to Beto O’Rourke.]

In Georgia, it’s even worse. Brian Kemp, the Republican candidate for Governor, isn’t just selling his soul. He’s doing everything in his power, as Georgia’s sitting Secretary of State, to stop non-white voters from casting ballots for his Democratic challenger, Stacey Abrams. Kemp, over the past several weeks, has suspend over 53,000 voter applications for failing to meet the state’s “exact match” verification standard. And, it should be noted, 70 percent of these applications were filed by black Georgians. And it’s clear that Kemp and his people are doing this out of fear. As we just heard Kemp say in leaked audio of a speech given to a group of wealthy campaign donors, “(the Abrams turnout operation) continues to concern us, especially if everybody uses and exercises their right to vote.”

For what it’s worth, when your party, in order to win, requires that people on the other side not exercise their right to vote, you should probably reevaluate your alliances. Maybe it’s just me, but I can’t help but think, if the only way a party can stay in power is through gerrymandering, lying, and suppressing the vote, then it should probably be driven out of existence.

[Give to Stacey Abrams.]

And, in Florida, we have racist robocalls referring to gubernatorial candidate Andrew Gillum as a “negro” and a “monkey”, and social media campaigns suggesting that he’s just a puppet being controlled by an evil, Jewish George Soros.

Speaking of Soros, and these anti-Semitic attacks against him from the right, did you happen to see yesterday that a pipe bomb was found in his mailbox? One wonders what the civility police on the right, who are always up in arms about “Democratic mobs” keeping them from enjoying dinners out, will say about this… Call me crazy, but it seems to me like a bigger deal than Sarah Huckabee Sanders being given a free cheese plate at a restaurant and then asked to leave.

Is it a coincidence that this bomb was left at the home of George Soros after Trump and others have made it a point to repeatedly suggest that he’s conspiring behind the scenes to destroy America? If I had to guess, I’d say no… I’d also say that this, according to Hannah Arendt, is what happens as countries approach fascism. And we are, without a doubt, sliding toward fascism. If you don’t believe me, just watch video of Donald Trump praising Greg Gianforte for body-slamming a reporter to the ground, and the cheers he receives in response.

[Give to Andrew Gillum.]

And, as all of this is going on, we also have Donald Trump lying and fear mongering, telling the American people, among other things, that the Republicans are going to pass a 10% tax cut for the middle class, and that the Democrats want to allow terrorists into our country.

First, let’s talk about the 10% tax cut which Trump is saying will be passed before the election. It won’t be. Congress, as members of the press made our President aware, won’t be back in session prior to the election. So there’s no way in the world this could happen. And, if the Republicans really wanted to pass a middle class tax bill, they had every opportunity to do so. Instead, however, as you know, they chose to give over one trillion dollars to America’s most wealthy. And, by the way, they’re now talking about cutting Medicare and Medicaid in order to pay for it, just like those of us on the left said that they would.

Second, I know Trump said a few days ago that, tanks to his leadership, we have the “best jobs numbers in the history of our great country,” and that the Democrats could “never do even nearly as well,” but that too is simply a lie. As Dan Pfeifer just pointed out, 3.58 million jobs were added in the first 19 months of the Trump administration, whereas 3.96 million jobs were added in the last 19 months of the Obama administration. “Job growth,” as Pfeifer pointed out, “has technically slowed since Trump became President.”

Third, I know Trump is saying that a caravan of 7,000 bloodthirsty killers, including terrorists from the Middle East, are, at this very moment, making their way to our southern border, and that the Democrats want to welcome them into the country, but that’s simply not the case. These are poor people fleeing the crime and poverty of Central American countries like El Salvador, Guatemala, Nicaragua, and Honduras, and they’re still over 1,000 miles from our border, traveling on foot. They are not hardened criminals looking to sneak into our country, but people motivated by hunger and death, seeking asylum in the United States in accordance with our laws. And no evidence exists that Middle Eastern terrorists are among them, regardless of what Donald Trump, Mike Pence, and members of their administration say.

Mike Pence defends Trump's evidence-free claim that there are "Middle Easterners" in the migrant caravan traveling through Mexico.

"It's inconceivable that there are not people of Middle Eastern descent in a crowd of more than 7k people advancing towards our border," he says. pic.twitter.com/XAb7ltRpkY

— Aaron Rupar (@atrupar) October 23, 2018

But this was never about a real threat to our nation. It was never really about a caravan of criminals that the Mexican authorities couldn’t stop. It was always about the midterms. The Republican agenda, as we know, is not popular with American voters, who want good health insurance, good schools, protections for people with preexisting medical conditions, and middle class jobs. So, here we are, talking about the only thing the Republican party now has, which are lies created to stoke fear and racism.

As Republican columnist Bill Kristol wrote today, “Hondurans are no danger to our freedoms, our democracy, or our well-being. We are. As Lincoln said in his Lyceum Address, the danger won’t come from abroad. It will ‘spring up amongst us’.”

Fourth, no matter what Trump may say, there is no voter fraud, at least not in the sense that he’s referring to when he warns of efforts on the part of liberals to change the outcome of these midterm elections. While he has said repeatedly that millions voted illegally for Hillary Clinton in 2016, no evidence has ever been offered to substantiate that claim, and several independent investigations have proven that mass voter fraud does not exist in America.

As for why Trump is talking about this again, I hope I’m wrong, but I suspect it’s possible that he’s not only trying to keep people who might not want to run the risk of being accused of voter fraud away from the polls, but that he’s also trying to lay a foundation from which to argue that Democratic victories on election day are invalid. I surely hope that’s not the case, but, given how things are going, we’d be foolish not to at least consider that he may attempt to invalidate the election if he doesn’t like the results. But we can’t worry about that now. Right now, all we can do is plan for election day, and do everything in our power to get the vote out for Democrats.

The good news is, the Democratic party is doing a good job of recruiting candidates like Beto O’Rourke, Stacey Abrams, and Andrew Gillum, who we can rally around… people who, if they get into power, can serve as a check against the Trump administration’s abuse of power. And there’s a damn good chance that this party of ours may take back several governorships, state legislatures, and seats in Congress. And, here, because I don’t want to end on a low note, is Gillum’s closing statement from last week’s gubernatorial debate in Florida. This, my friends, is why we keep fighting.

Democrat Andrew Gillum’s closing statement: “We want better… I'm asking you all for the only thing in life that my mother ever told me to ask for and that’s a chance. I want to be your governor. Let's bring it home.” #FLGovDebate https://t.co/2k8aILDzDU pic.twitter.com/LAqQimLDjE

— CNN (@CNN) October 22, 2018