My @MehdiHasanShow monologue tonight reacting to last night's election, & addressing:
- 'moderates' ridiculously blaming 'progressives' for the Virginia loss
- how Republicans on emotions while Dems run on policy
- how rightwing propaganda is central
"You can't beat [GOP racist dogwhistling] by offering people a new bridge."
My opening monologue today on why running on policy - even progressive popular policies! - isn't enough for Democrats & how they have to fight the culture wars & win them.
Watch:
"Democrats need to recognize the real challenge isn't about policy. It's about finding ways to brand the Republicans in the same way that the Republicans have branded Democrats, & in doing so to motivate people & connect with them."
My post-election take:
Democrats have "to remind people what's at stake. To remind people that democracy is on the line. To remind Americans that fascism is back. At least that all has the virtue of being true."
My post-election take tonight:
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Almost every BBB policy that Manchin has blocked has huge support from the public at large - including majority support from his beloved Republicans!
One thing I was always amazed by when I didn’t live here and am even more amazed by since I moved here, is this weird American insistence - even from many Dems and libs - that America is a rightwing country - in defiance of all the polling and electoral evidence.
"The same thing is going on on the left" in terms of illiberalism and "closed minds," says McWhorter.
This is demonstrably false. There is no leftwing equivalent of 1/6, Great Replacement, QAnon, at the top levels of the Democratic Party and the liberal media.
As for "closed minds," it is a majority of GOP voters who don't accept democracy right now, & it is the leadership of the Republican Party that denies climate change & basic science.
People can try & 'both sides' our current moment as much as possible but it's just not true.
Joe Manchin, whose uncle was WV Sec of State, who joined his family business out of college, whose son took over his family firm, who carries on getting coal money payouts, is giving right-wing lectures on "entitlement mentality"? Seriously?
"When, as governor of WV, Joe Manchin was pushing for a multibillion-dollar bailout of the big banks, banks like Goldman Sachs, whose employees would go on to become some of Manchin's biggest donors, that wasn't 'entitlement mentality'?"
"'Entitlement mentality' is a conservative trope...no different to Reagan... 'welfare queens'...When Manchin's predominantly white voters in rural WV hear him talk about ppl & their 'entitlement' they're thinking about black ppl in big cities on welfare."
*Part of me thinks Dems should start fighting fire with fire. If the only language MAGA folks understand is power, & the abuse of power!, Kamala Harris should threaten to use the power the MAGA folks *think* the VP has & just preemptively confirm right now Biden has won in 2024.
*Part of me thinks that. The rest of me recognizes that if both parties were to go anti-democratic and anti-norms then we are all screwed & the U.S. democratic experiment is over. Then again, it may be over anyways if Dems don't stop Manchin/Sinema from letting the GOP run wild.
Sorry these only semi-serious, and slightly crazy, tweets are a result of my frustration at the state we're in and what's coming down the track. A lot of Very Serious People *still* don't recognize the threat to our democracy and how 2024 is set to be a true scary sh*tshow.
Me: "Will the U.S. be recognizing the Taliban as the government of Afghanistan any time soon?"
White House chief of staff Ron Klain: "I don’t think anytime soon, I don’t know if we will ever recognize their government."
Some breaking news tonight...
Joe Biden said just last month “the Taliban is not the North Vietnamese Army. They’re not remotely comparable, in terms of capability.”
I asked @WHCOS: Did the White House really have no clue how quickly the Taliban would take over?
Listen to his reply:
The Wall St Journal reports that an Afghan interpreter who helped rescue Joe Biden in 2008 from a snowstorm is asking the president to help him escape.
@WHCOS responded to me, in an exclusive interview: “We’re gonna get him and the other SIVs out.”
This has to be seen to be believed. Old, rich, centrist white guy tells people in America to stop complaining about racism & injustice because 'only 5% of Burundians have electricity' & Honduras has more murders than us. Can't make this stuff up. Pure, unadulterated whataboutism.
Maher, who is worth 10s of millions of dollars. says the "only people who starve here are" actors "doing it for a role." Gets a laugh. Then tells the audience to "turn on the news".
Maher, citing photos from Kabul airport, says to applause: "Afghan mothers are handing their babies to us." Like so many Americans, he's totally unaware of stories like this, where U.S. soldiers killed 2 *pregnant* Afghan mothers & tried to cover it up: nytimes.com/2010/04/05/wor…