General Discussion

Nevilledog

(51,202 posts) Thu Aug 4, 2022, 04:36 PM Aug 2022

Charles Pierce - Ron DeSantis Shows His True Colors: Tin-Pot Tyrant

Link to tweet

https://www.esquire.com/news-politics/politics/a40810741/ron-desantis-andrew-warren-attorney/?src=socialflowTW

No paywall
https://archive.ph/V7KQH

Being our semi-regular weekly survey of what’s goin’ down in the several states where, as we know, the real work of governmentin’ gets done, and where the fool’s gold mouthpiece, the hollow horn, plays wasted words that prove to warn.

We begin in Michigan, where the defeat of incumbent Rep. Peter Mejier in a Republican primary became inevitable the moment he voted to impeach El Caudillo del Mar-A-Lago for what we all know now to be true about Impeachment II. His district also got tinkered with during redistricting. But all the postgame analysis seems to be centered on the fact that DCCC activists threw in behind Meijier’s opponent, a full-on MAGA meathead named John Gibbs. From CNN:

Meijer's primary in his western Michigan district had become a flashpoint in both parties' national infighting because Gibbs was the beneficiary of Democratic meddling. The party's House campaign arm, believing that Gibbs would be a less viable general election candidate, ran more than $300,000 in ads ostensibly attacking his alliance with Trump with the goal of boosting him in the primary. But that strategy angered some on the left who thought it undermined their broader messaging against political extremism in the GOP, while sparking fears the gamble could backfire if Gibbs makes it to Congress.

Can we all stop being 4 years old? The worst thing that could happen is that Gibbs gets to be the same kind of noisy, influence-free backbencher that Lauren Boebert and Marjorie Taylor-Greene are. Meijer racked up a 72 percent score from Heritage Action, a total that includes his opposition to codifying Roe v. Wade and to the John Lewis Voting Rights Act.

If Gibbs gets elected, he likely will be worse, but on the big questions facing the republic, the choice will be more measured than the coverage of Meijer’s defeat would have you believe. But the performative moral outrage over the involvement of the DCCC is both ahistorical and a bit rich.

For example, in 1946, a Congressional seat opened up in Boston. One of the announced candidates was a Boston city councillor named Joseph Russo. Another one was the skinny scion of a couple of local political dynasties by the name of John F. Kennedy. The latter’s father, leaving nothing to chance, allegedly bankrolled the campaign of a janitor whose name also was Joseph Russo so as to confuse and baffle voters of the 11th Congressional District. Kennedy’s political career was launched under a cloud, and everybody knew it and accepted it as the cost of doing business here in the Commonwealth, God save it.

*snip*