Stop writing eulogies for the Democratic Party.
Stop debating and handwringing about how Democrats need to tone it down and focus on an indefinable, nebulous center.
Stop reading the dozens of overly-wrought think pieces about how the Democratic Party ‘left the working class.’ Democrats are flawed like all humans are flawed, but they still care about the right things: workers rights, human equality, fair pay, free speech, organized labor, affordable/accessible healthcare, safe working conditions, a safety net, clean water and air, public education, and that big corporations and the wealthy should pay their fair share in taxes and stop sticking it to the poor.
The Democratic Party is very much alive.
It’s the Republican Party that’s dead, and their voters overwhelmingly just re-elected the man who killed it.
What was once the party of Ronald Reagan and the religious right is now MAGA-rotted down to the subfloor, and here in Kentucky we have an unfortunate front row seat to MAGA’s unseemly and childish cage matches.
The three Republicans running for Senator Mitch McConnell’s seat — Andy Barr, Nate Morris, Daniel Cameron — are all on record trying to out-Trump each other, mud-wrestling for which one can be more MAGA, more hateful, than the rest.
Cameron’s latest claim to fame is being a “vocal opponent to DEI” and distancing himself from McConnell. Barr likes to remind the public that he was the “first member of the Kentucky Congressional Delegation to endorse President Trump’s 2024 Presidential Campaign.” Morris announced his candidacy on Don Trump, Jr.’s podcast, repeatedly greasing the air with the words “your father” to the president’s son.
In the 6th District Congressional race, the GOP’s Ryan Dotson says that “Since the days of Obama, we have seen the spiraling out of control” and that he will “fight the woke madness” while Deanna Gordon touts she would be the “true Trump MAGA voice” in Washington.
Note that none of these candidates (federal and state) are talking about their plans to improve the lives of Kentuckians; they are, instead, repeatedly dancing jigs for Trump and the media — main stream and social — like the evil queen from Snow White who keeps asking her big gold mirror “who’s the fairest of us all?”
Hint: none of them.
And it’s not just Kentucky. In Washington D.C. there is much hoopla and admiration for North Carolina Senator Thom Tillis who made a big fuss about not running for re-election because he could not bring himself to vote for the MAGA president’s big horrifying bill. This week, Sen. Tillis “suggested that he regretted casting the deciding vote to confirm Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth, calling him ill-suited to lead the Pentagon.”
I’m sorry, but this is news to exactly no one, and Sen. Tillis is no hero and no more courageous or principled than the rest. Where has Sen. Tillis been? Did he step out for a smoke and miss the last 10 years?
Sen. Tillis and every senator and congressperson with an R behind their name are guilty of voting to confirm a cabinet of nakedly-incompetent, vindictive Trump toadies. They just thought they would have more than a few months, until after their next elections maybe, before having to answer for selling out their own people to keep their seats.
How deep is the rot in what used to be the Republican Party?
Less than a month ago, Minnesota state representative Melissa Hortman, a Democratic leader, was assassinated alongside her husband in their home. They were shot to death in the middle of the night by a man posing as a police officer. Another Democratic lawmaker and his wife were also shot multiple times in their home and survived. The shooter had a hit list in his car.
And yet the Republican/MAGA president could not be bothered with the bare minimum: a condolence call.
As reported by ABC News, President Trump said that “calling Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz after a political assassination sent shockwaves through the state would be a "waste of time” … and "I think the governor of Minnesota is so whacked out. I'm not calling him," Trump said. "Why would I call him? I could call and say, 'Hi, how you doing?' Uh, the guy doesn't have a clue. He's a mess. I could be nice and call, but why waste time?””
The Republican Party no longer exists. This is the fact on the ground, the giant sink hole everyone keeps trying to slink around.
If you are still a registered Republican — if you live in Kentucky and are supporting and voting for MAGA-subservient candidates like Andy Barr, Daniel Cameron, Nate Morris, Deanna Gordon, Ryan Dotson, etc. — you have silently signed up for the MAGA Party, too.
Look around.
MAGA is all that’s left.
Donald Trump slapped his MAGA brand on the Republican Party the way he slaps his name on everything from buildings to perfume, and then he sold the working class to the billionaires. The Party-faithful bent themselves to the will of a man who can’t be bothered with a condolence call. After a political assassination. This is the man you’re stumping for?
Meanwhile, Democrats are still out there doing the work for working people, applying tourniquets every where they can to stem the massive, unthinkable damage inflicted by a MAGA Republican president and the MAGA Party who bows beneath him.
Stop writing eulogies for the Democratic Party.
The Democrats are still here. They’re the ones doing all the work.
--30--
Comments
