19 Comments

Reed and ALL: We better not want down ballot votes to go to Republicans. This (Article V Constitutional Convention) is on the horizon and might happen in 2025 with or without Trump. Republicans and their massive money supporters NEVER stop scheming behind the scenes!!!!

I just attended a truly frightening webinar by The Center for Media and Democracy, co-sponsored by Common Cause and the American Constitution Society. Speakers were: Nancy MacLean, David A. Super, Lisa Graves, and Alex Aronson. The focus was on the efforts of the right to call a Constitution Convention under Article V to rewrite our U.S. Constitution. There are two ways they are actively working to make this happen - frighteningly even this next year. (1) They take control of enough State Legislatures to call the Convention - and they are getting closer each year OR (2) Take control of the U.S. House and the U.S. Senate (which could happen this year) and pass legislation to call the Convention. And if they make it happen there will be next to NO guard rails to stop them from doing almost anything they want. This would throw America into absolute turmoil as Americans will see their rights, freedom, and liberty stripped from them to be replaced by a right wing agenda ruling America. So, Trump is NOT the only election that matters facing America and the future of American Democracy. EVERY state legislature election and EVERY U.S. House and U.S. Senate election matters this year more than ever!!!

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I don’t want that any more than you do. But if a GOP voter can make peace with themselves by voting down ballot while skipping Trump, that is a win in this election.

Dems are likely to take the House on the natural.

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I certainly hope the Dems take the House nationwide. But, a concern I have is that here in Minnesota the person (AJ Peters) running here in CD7 vs. a Trump MAGA election denier (we used to be represented by the Blue Dog Dem Collin Peterson, former chair of the House Ag Committee), Michelle Fischbach is not getting a lot of help from the state DFL or national party. And I have heard them say that if they think someone does not have a chance to win that they do not spend a lot of time or money helping them. So, that means that they basically concede the race.

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Shoot

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If we praise people for not voting on the top line but voting for Republicans down ballot, should Trump win that means you've ushered in Project 2025 with the loss of voting rights throughout, and all the dangers the Russians, Soviet citizens, citizens of USSR vassal states of Poland, E. Germany, etc., Kim Jong Un (N. Korea's only fat man), etc.

The Republicans have been at this further and further and further rightward swing for decades, long before Reagan, and when FDR introduced an economy that boosted the middle class with his programs. The kind of men you speak of as participants in Jan. 6? Their FDR counterparts were plotting a coup against FDR and Gen. Smedley Butler helped kill that.

Republicans and their paid for campaign advisors have constantly accused Democrats of being "commies" and hysterically reviling "socialists" because it cost. them. money. And they very much hate that. You can deny that all you want but those people have gotten 44 years of constant tax cuts resulting in the transfer of the nation's wealth upward of $50 TRILLION over those 44 years. What was once a country in which 62% were middle class holding 61% of the nation's wealth are now 42% and growing poorer by the day. So thanks. The recourse to dog whistle or blatant racism, sexism, etc? Your party caused that beginning with Nixon.

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1) Trump doesn’t need Congress to push 2025 through. If he wins, we get it.

2) we live in a two party system and right now we need as many republicans as we can to cross over. Wagging fingers in people’s faces is the fastest way for them to do what you don’t want.

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If Trump loses but people follow your suggestion and we don't get majorities in the House and Senate, or both, we get more juvenilia, more hatred, more slime, more abuse, more right wing terrorism. Yes, we need more Republicans to cross over. My interpretation of what you you wrote was voting Republican down ballot.

If I misread your piece, I apoligize. But if I didn't, we need as many Republicans and Independents for this year's vote to clean up the supreme court (sic), flush out the GOP Congressional members on Jan. 6 who conspired to help those whom Trump said should "stand back and stand by."

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If it helps, my 25 year old, college graduate has told me he can think of only 1 person amongst his peers that votes republican.

Ditto for my 28 year old son.

And we live in the backwater state of Ohio.

If they come out and vote in droves, we will win.

But they must turn out.

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Very enlightening. The quote from "Hitler's People" and your follow-up explanation that most of those that stormed the capital were definitely not the downtrodden, and or, those that in spite of it all, surprise us because they still support Trump. Your insights and suggestions to help us meet and speak with those that we might bring on board to defeat Trumpism are helpful. Thanks, Reed, for all you hard work. Take care.

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Know what? I'm going to be 57 in a couple of days and I too have lived through all of the changes you noted:

"There’s no doubt American culture and society are undergoing massive shifts. For many of these men, demographic changes such as the Greatest Generation’s last gasp and Gen Z’s rise, technological and economic disruptions not seen since the Industrial Revolution, and a generalized increase in the both speed and velocity of American life have left them disjointed and disoriented." I'm sometimes disjointed and disoriented too, but it simply never occurred to me that fascism was the answer to that disequilibrium. I believe that there is some inherent quality that makes people scared while others aren't. I see it in my own family. I find it incredibly difficult to say, OK you're scared and the world looks different, so hey, be an FU man. I mean, really? The study you cite also noted that those Jan 6ers came from more racially diverse areas that voted for Dems. The idea that my little suburb is slightly different in complexion from 25 years ago never has pushed me to harm fellow citizens. Maybe we've coddled these guys for far too long. Dunno, but I will think about that after the election. We have an awful lot to fix after this election, and a good bit of it derives from decades of doing nothing to fix problems that were evident long ago.

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Thanks Reed for writing this!

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I think Democrats were blind-sided. We don't sit around whining about our circumstances and pointing fingers. It's really ironic if you think about it for more than 2 seconds.

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I’m not sure what this means.

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I agree with the mention of the left simply scolding. I sometimes tell my fellow libtards to stop giving ammo to the manosphere.

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That’s what most of the fukkked up shit is really about, & always with a big heaping scoop of entrenched ‘dyed-in-the-wool’ systemic historical racism!😒🙄😒🤪🤤🤡👻💩💀

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So they would make an evil dictator in trump because they're afraid little children?? Nut up and save American Democracy for God's sake!

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Rot in hell fucking democrats. You’ve skull fucked our democracy and now you want more. Burn in fucking hell. You are hated, despised, and not long for this earth, fucking authoritarians cocksuckers.

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I m waiting for your podcast to be on youtube or everlast

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I am really enjoying your writing and appreciate the thoughtful and nuanced approach. As I was reading this piece, I wondered what about disaffected women? It doesn’t seem like as many have the FU attitude. Obviously nothing is across the board.

All these gaps that have widened (wealth, earning power, upward mobility, racial, religious and gender) are being exposed through our politics. And when it’s combined with the loss of community and siloed media, it’s hard to envision solutions that might work.

Defeating the Trump/Vance cult is most important right now, but I think our country’s problems are deep and wide, like the Mississippi.

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