The party of Trump is the party of Autocracy, Oligarchy and Corruption. And will lie, cheat and steal to whatever degree necessary to achieve those ends. Say no to racism, homophobia, misogyny. Vote Blue.
"The democracy movement is not a religious community, although faith motivates many in their opposition to ICE, racism, and neglect of the poor. Nevertheless, the pro-democracy movement can and should stay grounded in positive ideals — patriotism, decency, fairness, and empathy. Whether those values emanate from religious faith or humanistic values, once people rediscover a sense of obligation to something higher than themselves,"
Exactly. Growing up Catholic in the 1960s, I always thought that my Christian values were also American values. I grew out of Catholicism, but I am still a very strong believer in (and teacher of) American values: trustworthiness, humility, honesty, self-reflection, and responsibility to make the world a better place, especially "for the least of my brothers".
Well stated. It's ironic that it's often the agnostic or even atheist Dems who now defend Christian values and behavior. Feeding the poor. Helping the stranger. Healing the sick.
The GOP has claimed the mantle of being in service to Christ. But has turned its back on so many of His enjoinders.
The GOP courted evangelical and socially conservative Christians who oppose abortion and the Civil Rights movement. Keeping women and black people under White men's control is their true god.
"The party of Trump is the party of...blah blah blah"
Neither the Democrats nor the Republicans have the moral high ground. Both are focused solely on power - how to acquire, maintain and advance it. They both "lie, cheat and steal to whatever degree necessary to achieve" that.
Say "No" to living in an ideological bubble, thinking the other side is always bad and your side is always virtuous. Voting for someone simply because of party affiliation makes you part of the problem.
Hal’s way of thinking gave us Felon 47. Twice. Pushing the narrative that the party’s are the same breeds apathy. When voters feel demoralized they don’t vote. This is the agenda of the Right. Make change seem hopeless. I think people are more motivated than ever. I am hopeful. The Democratic agenda of Truth & Justice is righteous and worth fighting for.
As far as their desire for power, yes. As far as their willingness to "lie, cheat and steal to whatever degree necessary to achieve" that, yes. As far their base of supporters living in an ideological bubble and seeing the other side as bad and their side as virtuous, yes. As far as supporters voting for a candidate simply based on their political party affiliation, yes.
I will concede, though, that their spending priorities are different, but they both still spend way more money that we take in.
The GOP has added nearly THREE TRILLION DOLLARS to our debt in little more than a year.
Yes, Biden and the Dems spent big on the IRA, CHIPS and Infrastructure bills. But these are investments in factories and infrastructure. Investments that fuel American prosperity, and guarantee China won't kick our asses in a few years when they move on Taiwan.
The GOP has racked up our debt at such a fantastic pace, mainly to give even more tax breaks on profitable corporations and rich people who don't need them.
"The GOP has added nearly THREE TRILLION DOLLARS to our debt in little more than a year."
Thank you for proving my point.
"Yes, Biden and the Dems spent big on the IRA, CHIPS and Infrastructure bills. But these are investments..."
One party's "investments" are another party's excessive spending of taxpayer dollars.
"The GOP has racked up our debt at such a fantastic pace..."
Before Ronald Regan took office, our national debt was just under one trillion dollars. Let that sink in. Both party's hands are dirty on this. And it's on us voters for allowing this for far too long.
Businesses make investments in order to make more money, no? This is what the Biden IRA and CHIPS acts are. Or were. Investments intended to create well-paying jobs and profitable companies that will pay taxes.
The GOP gives tax cuts to big business and the rich in the *hope* they will invest in growing businesses. Their utterly discredited "trickle down" theory of economics. Because no conditions are baked into GOP largesse, corporations invariably use their cuts for stock buybacks--not investing in business enhancements.
If the GOP had not included the Epstein Class upper tier corporate and personal tax cuts in their BBB, and fully funded--instead of DOGE'ing--the IRS, Republicans would've only added a *trillion* in red ink this year. Of course, that was before Trump's new war, that has so far cost $200 billion.
Unfortunately, I agree. Such companies like the Sinclair Broadcast Group, the largest owner of ABC affiliates in the country (including Washington DC) are attempting to spread the MAGA doctrine throughout the US. With the death of the small, hometown and county newspapers, articles like these cannot reach the people who really need to read them.
Don't forget the Ellisons at CBS, and if you live in D.C., channel 5 is owned by FOX, so there's Rupert and Declan Murdoch to "flavor" the news. NBC (owned by Comcast) isn't much better.
Wondering when legacy media will “ come around” is similar to wondering when Republicans in the Senate and House will finally realize “enough is enough” and perform their constitutional duties. The oligarchs who own the legacy media are as corrupt and opportunistic as the politicians who excuse the actions of this most corrupt, insane and destructive administration. We need to move on from everything that has brought this country down: corporate control and money in politics, extreme wealth and inequality, lack of controls and accountability for social media, propaganda posing as “news”…
The legacy media (& many other corporations) is in fear of being sued by the Crime Bosse's leg-breakers, aka the "Justice Dept". He is using the Federal Government to continue his lifetime career of extortion.
"Perhaps rightwing Christians will become permanently disaffected from Trump or stay home in November or even disengage from politics entirely."
This is nothing that can be considered likely. We need to continue to report upon Trump's failed promises, especially to his own followers. High prices continue. Loss of healthcare benefits and food assistance likewise continue. His problem with Pope Leo isn't going to go away as he continues his inhumane treatment of people at home and abroad.
It's thought (by some) that Trump will learn to curb his tongue or even more are going to believe him to be deranged. Since he doubles down, (even when clearly wrong) this is unlikely. In spite of the attempts at sane-washing, he's clearly getting worse. Attempting to bully the Pope is one more step along the way. It's time for him to go.
Yes, soft on crime and I was astonished to learn that his foreign policy stinks. I hadn't realized the Pope HAD a foreign policy. Or a stance on crime apart from as it relates to the welfare of all God's people.
It would seem to be more appropriate to look upon the Pope as a shepherd, a leader of people; a person who advocates for humanity and humanitarian principles - far from the dictator that inhabits the White House.
He will never curb his tongue because there isn't one strong person within his close WH advisors, including Suzy Wiles, who have the balls to speak truth to him. And, as per your comment above about the 'legacy media' being either too cowardly to report the truth, or owned by MAGA influencers the right wing Christians and other MAGA followers will never really see/know/understand the slide into derangement that is happening to the wannabe despot before the rest of the world.
Here’s my problem with the call to ground a defense of democracy in moral ideals. I fully support that and extend that to a call for US foreign policy to be animated by defense of morality.
But the call seems fake as long as it excepts Israel and even excuses Israel for doing the opposite of what is moral.
If this post made reference to the resolutions introduced by Senator Sanders to block billions in sales of weaponry to Israel then I would have respect for this defense of morality. Supporters of these resolutions use the same language- we have a moral responsibility to stop the bloodshed.
But the problem persists - his base still fawns over him and hangs on his idiotic utterances. It is a cult and unfortunately we don't have the resources to disencult all of them. We must keep our eyes on what the Hungarians showed us on Sunday - that these autocrats can be voted out of office. It should be our goal - those of us in favor of a a really democratic United States - to vote nationwide to evict as many of the rethuglican members of The House and Senate as is conceivably possible.
I came up with 'encult' last summer when I was discussing what tRump and Faux Snooze had done to create the MAGAt base. It is a word I think English needed.
Couple of thoughts. [1] A quotation from Jen's post: "The White House assumes angered Christians will soon forget the latest outrage. . ." The WH is correct: the base will dismiss every deranged behavior. And also, the brand of so-called Christianity to which most of the Felon's followers adhere is profoundly anti-Catholic, as are most "evangelical" forms of Christianity. So vilifying the pope doesn't bother them at all. "Charismatic" Catholics already hate Leo because he isn't a warmonger and he doesn't want to see a return of Benedict XIV's baby, the organization he ran that merely changed its name from the Holy Inquisition to the Society for the Preservation of the Faith. Nothing will budge these m*therf*ckers because their world is focused on grievance, hatred of others, and a sense of entitlement. [2] I am reminded of Machiavelli's cautionary words: it is better to be feared than to be loved, but being hated will lead to destruction of one's power. We need to really embrace hatred of this christofascist regime and I make no apologies for saying so. The only way to bring them down is for people to have nothing to lose by doing so. That's what happened in Poland: Walensa and Solidarity both decided they had nothing to lose by fighting the soviet regime.
Such sage commentary, Jen! Religious minded as well as non-religious minded people don’t find Trump’s comments appealing at all. Most thinking people are turned off by his behavior and will deem him unfit to lead our great nation. Will we have a great leader to rise up from our colossal mess? Let’s hope so. At this point, anything is better than Trump. We must all think much more critically about how to undo our mess.
I agree with everything you say, Ms. Rubin. I would add that Trump's most essential attraction to Christian Nationalists is his approval of and complicity in their bigotry against minorities and women. I fear that however he disrespects religion, they will always come back to him for his imprimatur on their hatred. I also suggest that we stop using the euphemistic "war of choice"--a relic of the Bush war when the media was attempting not to be rude to "the popular war president"--and employ "war of aggression" which it plainly is.
Don’t count on Congressional Republicans and right wing Trumpists abandoning Trump. No matter what he does, the key is that he is a means for them to get what THEY want, including the destruction of our democracy.
Congressional Republicans had better be mindful of their voters. People will only tolerate the oppression of high prices, lack of healthcare, lack of food assistance, and broken promises for so long. After that, they no longer will vote for those who didn't meet their needs. Once their "representatives" feared Trump's reprisals. The shoe is likely to be on the other foot now.
I agree. Unquestioning blind loyalty, like blind faith is dangerous and how we got in this mess. It seems critical thinking has become a lost art. Thought is woke. But you can’t have one without the other.
Beautifully said, as always, Jen! The outrageous continues, just keeps coming and gets worse. What's it going to take for the MAGA cultists and his Republican toadies to stop clinging to him? Does he have to moon the Congress???
But in any case, the mad king is only part of the problem. Note how sycophant JD Vance just screwed up his big assignment abroad. Rump's arteries may finally oblige us, but whatever do we do with his heirs???
I myself am very cautious about calls to 'patriotism'.
Patriotism for me is NOT necessarily the foremost good in any set of positive ideals. The call to 'patriotism' has too often been twisted by populists and autocrats, not only as reasons for wars of aggression but also for scapegoating, ethnic cleansing and other excesses.
Yet this is what Jen Rubin wrote today:
"Nevertheless, the pro-democracy movement can and should stay grounded in positive ideals — patriotism, decency, fairness, and empathy." Hmm.
I suggest changing that list of positive ideals to:
MUTUAL RESPECT, decency, fairness, equality, and empathy,
How about solidarity? That is what our brothers and sisters in Poland used to resist the USSR and local communism, and what Ukrainians have that has allowed them to keep fighting the bigger, stronger country that invaded them.
What struck me lately about value of 'respect' as an ideal is how much autocrats/oligarchs/billionnaires/warlords do NOT show respect to ordinary people.
In Hungary, it seems that the meaning of 'Tizsa', Peter Magyar's political party, is 'Respect and Freedom'. And while most politicians give lip-service to 'freedom', rarely if ever to they endorse 'respect'
The problem with the term "patriotism" is that it has been appropriated by people who either don't what it means or want it to mean something else. The word that most aligns with the MAGA use of patriotism is, of course, jingoism. In a perfect world, MAGAts would be prohibited to utter, by law, the word patriotism. And required to define themselves as jingoists.
Exactly. Patriotism, freedom and like words were misappropriated around the time of Obama's first term. It was a part of the Tea Party schtick. I'm not ready either to allow such terms to lose their true meaning.
You can refresh your memories by googling "tea party" and "who funded the tea party movement."
Why would anyone expect anything different from Trump. Just another chapter in the life convicted felon who hasn’t the capacity to run a business (six bankruptcies).
Shall we go further and deeper into this man’s psychic. It would take three books.
I hope and pray that all Republicans, whatever their faith, see this as a sign of his mental instability and thus the need to remove him from the head of our government. I think he's already lost his place as the undisputed leader of the free world and he needs to be stopped now before he remembers that he has the nuclear code in his possession.
The party of Trump is the party of Autocracy, Oligarchy and Corruption. And will lie, cheat and steal to whatever degree necessary to achieve those ends. Say no to racism, homophobia, misogyny. Vote Blue.
"The democracy movement is not a religious community, although faith motivates many in their opposition to ICE, racism, and neglect of the poor. Nevertheless, the pro-democracy movement can and should stay grounded in positive ideals — patriotism, decency, fairness, and empathy. Whether those values emanate from religious faith or humanistic values, once people rediscover a sense of obligation to something higher than themselves,"
Exactly. Growing up Catholic in the 1960s, I always thought that my Christian values were also American values. I grew out of Catholicism, but I am still a very strong believer in (and teacher of) American values: trustworthiness, humility, honesty, self-reflection, and responsibility to make the world a better place, especially "for the least of my brothers".
Well stated. It's ironic that it's often the agnostic or even atheist Dems who now defend Christian values and behavior. Feeding the poor. Helping the stranger. Healing the sick.
The GOP has claimed the mantle of being in service to Christ. But has turned its back on so many of His enjoinders.
The GOP courted evangelical and socially conservative Christians who oppose abortion and the Civil Rights movement. Keeping women and black people under White men's control is their true god.
..and goal
"The party of Trump is the party of...blah blah blah"
Neither the Democrats nor the Republicans have the moral high ground. Both are focused solely on power - how to acquire, maintain and advance it. They both "lie, cheat and steal to whatever degree necessary to achieve" that.
Say "No" to living in an ideological bubble, thinking the other side is always bad and your side is always virtuous. Voting for someone simply because of party affiliation makes you part of the problem.
In other words both parties are the same?
Hal’s way of thinking gave us Felon 47. Twice. Pushing the narrative that the party’s are the same breeds apathy. When voters feel demoralized they don’t vote. This is the agenda of the Right. Make change seem hopeless. I think people are more motivated than ever. I am hopeful. The Democratic agenda of Truth & Justice is righteous and worth fighting for.
"Hal’s way of thinking gave us Felon 47"
The Democrats' running the show the previous four or eight years gave us Trump. Twice.
No. Economic inequality gave us trump both times. Trickle down, starting with Regan, has a lot of people desperate. They tend to do desperate things.
"Economic inequality gave us trump both times."
Did we have "economic inequality" (whatever that means) during Obama and Biden? Please elaborate.
Great point. If confused please review the rudimentary differences between right and wrong.
As far as their desire for power, yes. As far as their willingness to "lie, cheat and steal to whatever degree necessary to achieve" that, yes. As far their base of supporters living in an ideological bubble and seeing the other side as bad and their side as virtuous, yes. As far as supporters voting for a candidate simply based on their political party affiliation, yes.
I will concede, though, that their spending priorities are different, but they both still spend way more money that we take in.
The GOP has added nearly THREE TRILLION DOLLARS to our debt in little more than a year.
Yes, Biden and the Dems spent big on the IRA, CHIPS and Infrastructure bills. But these are investments in factories and infrastructure. Investments that fuel American prosperity, and guarantee China won't kick our asses in a few years when they move on Taiwan.
The GOP has racked up our debt at such a fantastic pace, mainly to give even more tax breaks on profitable corporations and rich people who don't need them.
"The GOP has added nearly THREE TRILLION DOLLARS to our debt in little more than a year."
Thank you for proving my point.
"Yes, Biden and the Dems spent big on the IRA, CHIPS and Infrastructure bills. But these are investments..."
One party's "investments" are another party's excessive spending of taxpayer dollars.
"The GOP has racked up our debt at such a fantastic pace..."
Before Ronald Regan took office, our national debt was just under one trillion dollars. Let that sink in. Both party's hands are dirty on this. And it's on us voters for allowing this for far too long.
Businesses make investments in order to make more money, no? This is what the Biden IRA and CHIPS acts are. Or were. Investments intended to create well-paying jobs and profitable companies that will pay taxes.
The GOP gives tax cuts to big business and the rich in the *hope* they will invest in growing businesses. Their utterly discredited "trickle down" theory of economics. Because no conditions are baked into GOP largesse, corporations invariably use their cuts for stock buybacks--not investing in business enhancements.
If the GOP had not included the Epstein Class upper tier corporate and personal tax cuts in their BBB, and fully funded--instead of DOGE'ing--the IRS, Republicans would've only added a *trillion* in red ink this year. Of course, that was before Trump's new war, that has so far cost $200 billion.
Will the mainstream (legacy) media ever come around? From a health perspective, still talking about Biden but mostly ignoring Trump.
Look at what and who owns the legacy media sites and you can ask this? Like the MAGAcongress, they are cowed and/or bought.
Unfortunately, I agree. Such companies like the Sinclair Broadcast Group, the largest owner of ABC affiliates in the country (including Washington DC) are attempting to spread the MAGA doctrine throughout the US. With the death of the small, hometown and county newspapers, articles like these cannot reach the people who really need to read them.
Don't forget the Ellisons at CBS, and if you live in D.C., channel 5 is owned by FOX, so there's Rupert and Declan Murdoch to "flavor" the news. NBC (owned by Comcast) isn't much better.
$$$$$$$$$$
Even Peter Baker quoted here pulled his punches. Where were words LIES and MANIPULATION?
Wondering when legacy media will “ come around” is similar to wondering when Republicans in the Senate and House will finally realize “enough is enough” and perform their constitutional duties. The oligarchs who own the legacy media are as corrupt and opportunistic as the politicians who excuse the actions of this most corrupt, insane and destructive administration. We need to move on from everything that has brought this country down: corporate control and money in politics, extreme wealth and inequality, lack of controls and accountability for social media, propaganda posing as “news”…
The legacy media (& many other corporations) is in fear of being sued by the Crime Bosse's leg-breakers, aka the "Justice Dept". He is using the Federal Government to continue his lifetime career of extortion.
No. They won't.
Look at who owns "legacy" media. My answer is: No time in the foreseeable future.
Mainstream media becomes less relevant by the day.
Excellent writing as always Jen! Thank you!
Even if I were an atheist I would find Don the Con's remarks about the Pope and the cartoon making Don look like Jesus to be offensive.
I AM an atheist, and yes, I do find his behavior offensive, in so many ways.
Ditto Barbara 👍
Me, too.
Indeed as I do.
I am and I do not mock other peoples religious beliefs to win advantages.
"Perhaps rightwing Christians will become permanently disaffected from Trump or stay home in November or even disengage from politics entirely."
This is nothing that can be considered likely. We need to continue to report upon Trump's failed promises, especially to his own followers. High prices continue. Loss of healthcare benefits and food assistance likewise continue. His problem with Pope Leo isn't going to go away as he continues his inhumane treatment of people at home and abroad.
It's thought (by some) that Trump will learn to curb his tongue or even more are going to believe him to be deranged. Since he doubles down, (even when clearly wrong) this is unlikely. In spite of the attempts at sane-washing, he's clearly getting worse. Attempting to bully the Pope is one more step along the way. It's time for him to go.
Maybe by accusing Pope Leo of being soft on crime, he mistakingly thought that being a Pope, includes being also a sheriff . What a moron.....
Yes, soft on crime and I was astonished to learn that his foreign policy stinks. I hadn't realized the Pope HAD a foreign policy. Or a stance on crime apart from as it relates to the welfare of all God's people.
I saw a mocking post on Twitter yesterday: Vatican two weeks away from completing build up of nuclear arsenal.
It would seem to be more appropriate to look upon the Pope as a shepherd, a leader of people; a person who advocates for humanity and humanitarian principles - far from the dictator that inhabits the White House.
I bet trump is itching to primary the Pope. He’s insane. This has to stop.
I thought the same thing! WTH.....does the pope also do law enforcement? What in the hell did that stupid moronic comment mean???
He will never curb his tongue because there isn't one strong person within his close WH advisors, including Suzy Wiles, who have the balls to speak truth to him. And, as per your comment above about the 'legacy media' being either too cowardly to report the truth, or owned by MAGA influencers the right wing Christians and other MAGA followers will never really see/know/understand the slide into derangement that is happening to the wannabe despot before the rest of the world.
there is nothing more tenacious than a rabid right wing christian looking for the rapture...they will not give up
Fortunately, they are a minority, though a noisy one.
unfortunately though, they are in charge
Influential yes, though hardly in charge - yet.
Here’s my problem with the call to ground a defense of democracy in moral ideals. I fully support that and extend that to a call for US foreign policy to be animated by defense of morality.
But the call seems fake as long as it excepts Israel and even excuses Israel for doing the opposite of what is moral.
If this post made reference to the resolutions introduced by Senator Sanders to block billions in sales of weaponry to Israel then I would have respect for this defense of morality. Supporters of these resolutions use the same language- we have a moral responsibility to stop the bloodshed.
But the problem persists - his base still fawns over him and hangs on his idiotic utterances. It is a cult and unfortunately we don't have the resources to disencult all of them. We must keep our eyes on what the Hungarians showed us on Sunday - that these autocrats can be voted out of office. It should be our goal - those of us in favor of a a really democratic United States - to vote nationwide to evict as many of the rethuglican members of The House and Senate as is conceivably possible.
"Disencult"- Charley Sykes would like that one!
I came up with 'encult' last summer when I was discussing what tRump and Faux Snooze had done to create the MAGAt base. It is a word I think English needed.
Did you ever consider “cultified”? There’s a whole lexicon we could come up with to describe Trump and his minions.
Couple of thoughts. [1] A quotation from Jen's post: "The White House assumes angered Christians will soon forget the latest outrage. . ." The WH is correct: the base will dismiss every deranged behavior. And also, the brand of so-called Christianity to which most of the Felon's followers adhere is profoundly anti-Catholic, as are most "evangelical" forms of Christianity. So vilifying the pope doesn't bother them at all. "Charismatic" Catholics already hate Leo because he isn't a warmonger and he doesn't want to see a return of Benedict XIV's baby, the organization he ran that merely changed its name from the Holy Inquisition to the Society for the Preservation of the Faith. Nothing will budge these m*therf*ckers because their world is focused on grievance, hatred of others, and a sense of entitlement. [2] I am reminded of Machiavelli's cautionary words: it is better to be feared than to be loved, but being hated will lead to destruction of one's power. We need to really embrace hatred of this christofascist regime and I make no apologies for saying so. The only way to bring them down is for people to have nothing to lose by doing so. That's what happened in Poland: Walensa and Solidarity both decided they had nothing to lose by fighting the soviet regime.
Profound statement, and so very true.
TradCath's are as dangerous as the Talibangelicals.
Such sage commentary, Jen! Religious minded as well as non-religious minded people don’t find Trump’s comments appealing at all. Most thinking people are turned off by his behavior and will deem him unfit to lead our great nation. Will we have a great leader to rise up from our colossal mess? Let’s hope so. At this point, anything is better than Trump. We must all think much more critically about how to undo our mess.
I agree with everything you say, Ms. Rubin. I would add that Trump's most essential attraction to Christian Nationalists is his approval of and complicity in their bigotry against minorities and women. I fear that however he disrespects religion, they will always come back to him for his imprimatur on their hatred. I also suggest that we stop using the euphemistic "war of choice"--a relic of the Bush war when the media was attempting not to be rude to "the popular war president"--and employ "war of aggression" which it plainly is.
Don’t count on Congressional Republicans and right wing Trumpists abandoning Trump. No matter what he does, the key is that he is a means for them to get what THEY want, including the destruction of our democracy.
Congressional Republicans had better be mindful of their voters. People will only tolerate the oppression of high prices, lack of healthcare, lack of food assistance, and broken promises for so long. After that, they no longer will vote for those who didn't meet their needs. Once their "representatives" feared Trump's reprisals. The shoe is likely to be on the other foot now.
Thanks. We’ll work hard this Fall.
I agree. Unquestioning blind loyalty, like blind faith is dangerous and how we got in this mess. It seems critical thinking has become a lost art. Thought is woke. But you can’t have one without the other.
Thank you!
Beautifully said, as always, Jen! The outrageous continues, just keeps coming and gets worse. What's it going to take for the MAGA cultists and his Republican toadies to stop clinging to him? Does he have to moon the Congress???
But in any case, the mad king is only part of the problem. Note how sycophant JD Vance just screwed up his big assignment abroad. Rump's arteries may finally oblige us, but whatever do we do with his heirs???
I myself am very cautious about calls to 'patriotism'.
Patriotism for me is NOT necessarily the foremost good in any set of positive ideals. The call to 'patriotism' has too often been twisted by populists and autocrats, not only as reasons for wars of aggression but also for scapegoating, ethnic cleansing and other excesses.
Yet this is what Jen Rubin wrote today:
"Nevertheless, the pro-democracy movement can and should stay grounded in positive ideals — patriotism, decency, fairness, and empathy." Hmm.
I suggest changing that list of positive ideals to:
MUTUAL RESPECT, decency, fairness, equality, and empathy,
What do you think?
How about solidarity? That is what our brothers and sisters in Poland used to resist the USSR and local communism, and what Ukrainians have that has allowed them to keep fighting the bigger, stronger country that invaded them.
Oh, that is such an important ideal! Thank you.
What struck me lately about value of 'respect' as an ideal is how much autocrats/oligarchs/billionnaires/warlords do NOT show respect to ordinary people.
In Hungary, it seems that the meaning of 'Tizsa', Peter Magyar's political party, is 'Respect and Freedom'. And while most politicians give lip-service to 'freedom', rarely if ever to they endorse 'respect'
Solidarity and respect.
The problem with the term "patriotism" is that it has been appropriated by people who either don't what it means or want it to mean something else. The word that most aligns with the MAGA use of patriotism is, of course, jingoism. In a perfect world, MAGAts would be prohibited to utter, by law, the word patriotism. And required to define themselves as jingoists.
I'm not yet ready to let them co-opt patriotism.
Exactly. Patriotism, freedom and like words were misappropriated around the time of Obama's first term. It was a part of the Tea Party schtick. I'm not ready either to allow such terms to lose their true meaning.
You can refresh your memories by googling "tea party" and "who funded the tea party movement."
I'm curious, then. Is that ideal the first priority for you?
Of course not! Nor did I indicate that in any way. Its simply one of a long list of things that I refuse to concede to MAGA-world.
Why would anyone expect anything different from Trump. Just another chapter in the life convicted felon who hasn’t the capacity to run a business (six bankruptcies).
Shall we go further and deeper into this man’s psychic. It would take three books.
Yikes! First he’s Jesus, and now he’s psychic (or consulting one)! Where does this end!?
I hope and pray that all Republicans, whatever their faith, see this as a sign of his mental instability and thus the need to remove him from the head of our government. I think he's already lost his place as the undisputed leader of the free world and he needs to be stopped now before he remembers that he has the nuclear code in his possession.
I still think they don't give him the real numbers...
Excellent post, thank you so much.