Thursday, September 15, 2022

2022 or 1776?


Don Bolduc (photo: US Special Operations Command Africa)

Don Bolduc, a former brigadier general, is the latest Trump endorsed victor in a Republican primary. It’s a disappointment to the establishment Republican governor of New Hampshire, John Sununu, who favored Chris Morse. This latest win follows on the heels of the victories of Trump endorsed candidates like Mehmet Oz in Pennsylvania, JD Vance in Ohio, Kari Lake, the former news anchor, in Arizona and Tudor Dixon in Michigan. Democrats have applauded these wins and even gone so far as to finance Trump candidates, under the theory that the loss of mainstream Republicans will improve the Democratic scorecard. In the case of the New Hampshire race a PAC led by Chuck Schumer raised $3.2 million for Bolduc. This form of negative campaigning has not eluded controversy, but the real issue is the fact that so many Republicans are ready to support MAGA candidates. A vote for someone like Bolduc, who believes that the 2020 election was rigged, is ultimately one more nail in the coffin of democracy itself. In addition, it gives full license to the kind of political violence that occurred on January 6th, where those who stormed the capital looked on themselves as revolutionaries fighting for “the republic” and confreres of those who fought the redcoats in 1776. The question is how strong is the old mainstream represented by figures like Liz Cheney (who endured a major defeat in Wyoming), Adam Kitzinger and prominent spokes- people like George Conway, the sometime CNN commentator and husband of Trump’s former press secretary, Kellyanne Conway? Is the uprising against the Dobbs decision enough to produce the kind of backlash that resulted in the Kansas referendum or will Mar-A-Lago shift enough midstream Republicans back toward the extreme right? The polls notwithstanding, the big question is will mainstream Republicans be disaffected enough to vote for a Democratic slate?

read "The Final Solution: Democrazy" by Francis Levy, HuffPost

and listen to "War" by Edwin Starr

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