Read the replies and let it sink in. You cannot convert Trumpists. It's on the order of a religion, steeped in deeply held racial views and fears. You cannot negotiate with Trumpism. Democrats need to get this through their heads. Defeat them -- soundly -- or be ruled by them.
And let's be clear: as of January 21, 2017 Trumpism IS Republicanism. Trump enjoys their near-unanimous support. All three GOP "legs" - the super rich, white evangelicals and the "Archie Bunkers" all worship him like the golden calf. Elected GOPers fear him. None will leave him.
Those who are unwilling to worship will simply leave public office. But any money - THEY WILL STILL VOTE FOR HIM. Hardly any will not. It's all "hail Hydra" now. Dems (thinking Biden here and those pitching Fox News viewers) are fooling themselves if they don't understand this.
.@JRubinBlogger rightly said only total defeat stops her former party from gorging on Russian money, selling judgeships, killing farms w/ tariffs, stealing healthcare, torturing kids to appease people who hate multiculturalism, fluffing billionaires and globally humiliating us.
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@johnpavlovitz@elonmusk Correct. Empathy is a threat to fascism. It’s a threat to the super rich who want to zero out their taxes.
@johnpavlovitz@elonmusk And not for nothing, it’s also a threat to white supremacy. What really shook them was when young white folk got woke for George Floyd. It’s the multiracialism, the determination to fight the climate crisis and support LGBTQ rights and racial equality that the Elonites hate.
@johnpavlovitz@elonmusk And it’s the empathy for those dying of COVID. Fighting COVID hurt the super rich’s bottom line. They needed those low paid workers to stay in the plants and behind the counters and toiling away while taking all the risks. Because they DGAF. Empathy is bad for business.
Want to know why Republicans obsess over fighting “wokeness” (AKA empathy), banning books, dumbing down and limiting the scope of education and halting attempts at freeing people from the yoke of college debt? Because they are losing control of college educated white voters.
Especially college educated white women and collegiate voters under 30. And since they have chosen to limit their political strategy to maximizing non college, rural and evangelical white turnout, making college educated white voters rarer or more right wing is crucial to them.
And since they let Trump talk them into abandoning absentee voting (which used to be their secret weapon in elections) they need to constantly terrify white rural, evangelical and non college voters about existential threats to their supremacy to get them out on Election Day.
Dems hold the Senate. Why??? Say it with me: Roe. This was inevitable from the day Alito issued his “back to the 19th century, wenches!” ruling in June. Some media just bought Republican attempts to shift the narrative to inflation and crime.😬
So maybe get off the polling aggregator despairium in the future and follow campaign data experts like @tbonier@SimonWDC@cbouzy@AmandiOnAir & @cornellbelcher on here or on whatever platform emerges after this joint goes full Myspace. 🤷🏾♀️
Also, if you want to always be wrong in your political predictions, treat Florida as a bellwether. You’re guaranteed to be wrong about the rest of the election results and the trajectory of American politics every time. 😬 Planet Florida is its own thing.🏝
I think Twitter is a good news aggregator and useful for journalists and writers and thoughtful people to communicate ideas. There’s also a lot of laughs here and great content (hello, #blacktwitter!) It’s also a hellscape of trolling and foolishness. Musk Twitter will be worse.
Especially on the disinformation front, given his affinity for Putin and vow to reinstate Trump. I don’t plan to delete my account but I certainly will be on here a lot less and focus on other social media outlets. (You can find me on Tiktok at @msnbcjoy & IG at @JoyAnnReid.)
And most importantly I’ll be on @thereidout on @msnbc weeknights at 7pm ET! Probably good for my time management and mental health to do less tweeting anyway. 🤣 And I’ll still browse Twitter from time to time to check for important stories I may be missing and to post show info.
Last night in Fort Worth after a long time posing for selfies and chatting with people (Fort Worth folks are truly some of the nicest people ever! Even had a lovely convo with a tatted, right wing union guy) a woman walked up to me as my producers and I were getting in our SUV…
She was very Texas: pretty, tall and blonde. Security was literally about to put us in our ride when she walked up and very politely asked if it was too late to take a selfie. I said let’s selfie! Then what she said next stopped me, my executive producer Tina and my AP Kam, cold.
She thanked us for coming to Fort Worth and added: “I feel like I live in Gilead.” Her voice was shaking and I thought she might cry. “I have daughters…” she said and her voice trailed off. I assured her it would be ok; that this awfulness can be fixed. But I was leaving Gilead.
Literally. They want to sunset Social Security, Medicare and Medicaid every five years. This will cause an economic and poverty disaster. And @GOPLeader Kevin threatens to crash the debt ceiling and tank the economy to do it, slash rich folks taxes AGAIN and cut off Ukraine. FFS.