Ahead of JD Vance’s Rally in Radford, Virginia Leaders Slammed the Trump-Vance Project 2025 Agenda
From the Kamala Harris for President campaign:
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VA Legislative Black Caucus Announces That Every Member “who will serve as a delegate for the 2024 Democratic National Convention has pledged their support to Vice President Harris.”
From the Virginia Legislative Black Caucus (VLBC):
Virginia Legislative Black Caucus Statement on President Biden’s Endorsement of Vice President Kamala Harris as the Democratic Nominee
Richmond, VA—President Joe Biden’s decades of public service have cemented him as one of the greatest leaders and patriots of our time. He stepped up to lead the nation out of a devastating pandemic and reinstated America’s economy as the strongest in the world.
In one term, this administration rehabilitated our national infrastructure, lowered prescription drug prices, expanded affordable healthcare, invested in our students, called for historical investments in our HBCUs, relieved millions of hardworking Americans of their student loan debt, passed the first federal gun safety law in decades, lowered unemployment to record rates, and passed the most comprehensive climate and pro-worker legislation in history.
President Biden continued to make history when he chose Kamala Harris to serve as Vice President and appointed the first Black woman to the Supreme Court. He put the country first when he made the decision to step aside and again when he confidently endorsed Vice President Harris to continue building upon this administration’s legacy. She is an accomplished champion of civil rights, environmental protections, reproductive justice, and economic policies which prioritize everyday Americans.
The Virginia Legislative Black Caucus is pleased to announce that every member of the VLBC who will serve as a delegate for the 2024 Democratic National Convention has pledged their support to Vice President Harris. These members include:
Speaker Don Scott
Senator Louise Lucas
Senator Mamie Locke
Senator Lashrecse Aird
Senator Jennifer Carroll Foy
Delegate Joshua Cole
Delegate Alex Askew
Delegate Michael Feggans
Delegate Rozia Henson
Delegate Charniele Herring
Delegate Jeion Ward
Today, we stand in awe of President Biden. During a time of chaos and uncertainty after the failed presidency of Donald Trump, President Biden and Vice President Harris put America on track and made our recovery from Covid the envy of the world. We honor Joe Biden’s decency and servant leadership. We join him in our unwavering support for Vice President Harris. MAGA extremism against a woman’s right to choose her reproductive healthcare was rejected in Virginia just last November. Virginia will reject MAGA and their extreme Project 2025 agenda again.
Video: DNC Launches Mobile Billboard Ahead of JD Vance’s First Solo Rally in VA to Hold Him and Trump Accountable for Their Plans to Ban Abortion Nationwide
From the DNC:
As JD Vance parachutes into Radford, Virginia today, the DNC is launching a new mobile billboard that will circle the rally site highlighting the stakes for Virginians as Donald Trump and JD Vance push their extreme Project 2025 agenda, which seeks to ban abortion nationwide without exceptions for rape or incest. In the 2023 Virginia legislative elections, Virginia voters turned out decisively to reject Governor Glenn Youngkin’s extreme abortion ban. Virginia voters will do the same to reject Donald Trump and JD Vance.
A reminder: if Trump and Vance win this election, they will implement a national abortion ban that will override the will of Virginia voters.
Here are the facts about Donald Trump and JD Vance when it comes to their plans to restrict our fundamental freedoms:
- After overturning Roe v. Wade, Donald Trump owns every single abortion ban and policy that’s ripped away essential reproductive health care from women across the country.
- Vance was caught on leaked audio expressing how he would like for abortion to be illegal nationally.
- Trump has doubled down on taking credit for extreme state abortion bans, bragging that he “broke Roe,” saying he “was proudly the person responsible” for overturning it and it is “working the way it’s supposed to.”
- Vance supports banning abortion nationally, criticizes exceptions for rape and incest, admitted he’s open to banning women from crossing state lines for reproductive care, and compared abortion to slavery.
- Vance suggested that women should stay in violent marriages for the sake of their children.
- Trump and Vance have deep ties to Project 2025, an extreme second term agenda created by those who know Trump best, that plots to ban abortion nationwide and punish women who get abortions.
DNC Spokesperson Addy Toevs released the following statement:
“Ahead of JD Vance’s first solo campaign rally, it’s important to remember that Virginians have already rejected an extreme abortion ban once, and they will do it once again in November. The Trump-Vance ticket’s extreme, anti-abortion, anti-women message has proven to be unpopular with voters in Virginia and across the nation. Add that on top of their dangerous Project 2025 agenda which would make the ultra-wealthy richer, raise costs for working families, and gut Medicare and Social Security, and you see how Trump and Vance’s plans are a direct affront to what voters in Virginia and across the country care most about. This year, Virginians will choose Democrats’ vision for the nation over the Trump-Vance ticket’s anti-freedom, anti-women future. We’re doing the work to win everywhere – community by community, block by block.”
Watch the mobile billboard video here.
Rep. Gerry Connolly (D-VA11)’s Statement for Today’s House Oversight Hearing with the U.S. Secret Service
UPDATE 12:08 pm – Here’s video of Rep. Gerry Connolly (D-VA11)’s questioning of the head of the US Secret Service. As you can see, Rep. Connolly got VERY frusrated and exasperated with the lack of a clear answer by Secret Service Director Kimberly Cheatle to his questions about whether or not the ubiquity of guns make the Secret Service’s job harder or easier…
From Rep. Gerry Connolly (D-VA11)’s office:
Connolly Statement for Today’s House Oversight Hearing with the U.S. Secret Service
Washington, D.C. – Congressman Gerry Connolly, a senior member of the House Committee on Oversight and Accountability, released the following statement in advance of today’s House hearing with the U.S. Secret Service.
Today’s hearing has been called to examine the troubling details surrounding the attempted assassination of a former U.S. President and to safeguard the well-being of all our nation’s leaders. On Saturday, July 13, an attempt was made on the life of former President Donald J. Trump. This reprehensible act led to a tragic loss of life—Corey Comperatore, a father, husband, and first responder, was killed in the attack, and two other bystanders were injured in this senseless act of violence.
Political violence is never justified. I have lived through the assassinations of John F. Kennedy, Martin Luther King, Jr., Robert F. Kennedy, the shootings of George Wallace and Ronald Reagan, and the attempted shooting of Gerald R. Ford. The recent attempt on the former President’s life is a stark reminder that we are again living in a time of increased political violence in this country. I have direct personal experience with the effects of this trend towards political violence. Last year, an individual entered my District Office armed with a metal baseball bat. This individual asked for me before attacking two of my staff members, severely injuring one of them. This violence is part of a broader trend, with an alarming increase in attacks and threats against Members of Congress. In 2022, as many of you are aware, former Speaker Pelosi’s husband was assaulted in their home in California. U.S. Capitol Police reports more than 8,000 threat investigations in 2023—up from 902 in 2016. [1]We must take action to reverse this trend; political decisions in the U.S. should be made at the ballot box, not at the end of a gun.
I am deeply concerned about the normalization of political violence in this country, a trend I attribute to multiple factors. First, we have become accustomed to violent political rhetoric, fostering a climate of rising intolerance and potential violence. We cannot ignore the statement that there were “very fine people” on both sides of the violence perpetrated by white supremacists in Charlottesville in 2017, nor the support many of my colleagues have shown for the idea that the violent insurrectionists involved in the January 6th attack on the U.S. Capitol are “political prisoners.” Endorsing immunity for those who engage in political violence only encourages more political violence.
We must also address both the ubiquity of guns in the hands of dangerous or at-risk people in America. Today, there are more guns than people in this country. In the recent attack against the former President, police reported that the 20-year-old shooter gained access to the weapon from his father. We must ensure better safeguards are in place to prevent guns getting into the hands of people who should not have them. Mental health also plays a significant role in this disturbing trend, as evidenced by the attack on my office last year in which the perpetrator was suffering from a mental health crisis. These issues will continue to fuel the increased prevalence of political violence in the United States if not addressed.
In this time of heightened political violence, we want to ensure the Secret Service is doing everything in its power to keep Presidential candidates and their families safe. This is a matter we take seriously, and this is not the first time the Committee has asked to hear from the Secret Service. In 2014, following several troubling security lapses during the Obama administration, the Committee called on the Director of the Secret Service to appear for sworn testimony to ensure the agency was doing everything in its power to protect the President and his family. At today’s hearing, we want to obtain a better understanding of the attempt made on the former President’s life, specifically, how the shooter was able to obtain access to a rooftop in proximity to the former President, what the process was for securing and setting a perimeter, and what measures will be taken for the remainder of the year to ensure candidates and their families will be kept safe.
Unacceptable incidents like this one highlight the fact that we are an increasingly polarized nation experiencing heightened political tensions. I look forward to hearing from the Secret Service today about what they plan to do to prevent future attacks like the attempted assassination of the former President. However, we must bring down the temperature of the political climate in this country and prevent future political violence. That starts with ensuring we engage in respectful, thoughtful debate about the future of this country. I hope this incident gives each of us pause and a reason to reflect on how to address the epidemic of political violence plaguing our nation.
Leading Advocacy Groups Throw Support Behind Vice President Kamala Harris to Take on Donald Trump
From the Kamala Harris for President campaign. And yes, it feels very good to say that!
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Monday News: “Biden’s selfless decision to drop out sets stage for an entirely different election”; “In Kamala Harris Trump again confronts his worst nightmare” (Prosecutor vs. Felon); “A Candidate, Not a Cult Leader”; Sen. Tim Kaine’s Advice for Kamala Harris
by Lowell
Here are a few international, national and Virginia news headlines, political and otherwise, for Monday, July 22.
- Ukraine war briefing: Zelenskiy salutes Joe Biden’s ‘unwavering support’
- Ukraine’s Kuleba to visit China for first time since start of war (“Foreign minister of Ukraine will be in Beijing from Tuesday to Friday.”)
- Ukraine-Russia latest: Kyiv launches mass drone attack against Putin’s forces as Zelensky thanks Biden
- Russia’s Tuapse oil refinery damaged in Ukraine drone attack, Russian officials say
- Lame duck or legacy maker? How Biden announcement could affect US relations with foreign leaders
(“Announcement comes at turbulent time in world affairs, with conflicts in Ukraine and Gaza and a growing US-China rivalry”) - Netanyahu heads to Washington, says Israel will remain key US ally whoever replaces Biden (Seriously, screw you Bibi.)
- Netanyahu, Who Clashed With Biden, Prepares for a Delicate Farewell
- China cuts several major interest rates to support fragile economy
- Heat pumps, EV chargers and more: U.S. unveils $4.3 billion in local climate funds
- Biden leaves large but fragile legacy on climate change, energy policy
- Trump Risks Getting Tables Turned on Him With New 2024 Adversary
- Donald Trump donated to Kamala Harris’ campaigns twice while he was a private citizen, records show
- Raging Trump Reacts to Biden Bow-Out: ‘Crooked Biden Was Not Fit to Run’
- Trump Starts New Conspiracy: Claims Biden Is Faking COVID (Trump is completely insane.)
- Biden’s exit makes Trump the oldest nominee in U.S. history
- This Is Exactly What the Trump Team Feared
- In Kamala Harris Trump again confronts his worst nightmare
- This is bigger than Joe Biden (“The president’s decision to withdraw from the 2024 race is a jolt to our ailing democracy.”)
- Does Kamala Harris give Democrats a better chance to win?
- How Harris is preparing to contrast her record as a prosecutor with Trump’s as a felon
- Biden made a very tough decision to save the soul of America — again
- For Joe Biden, who never gave up (“In a political career of more than half a century, he never stopped looking for one more hand to shake.”)
- A Harris-Trump race would pit ex-prosecutor vs. recently convicted felon
- Donald Trump Lays Groundwork To Dodge Or Change Rules Of The Next Debate
- Don’t Buy the Lie that Trump and Vance Are “Populists”
- Exclusive: All 50 Democratic party US state chairs back Harris -sources
- Biden Made a Courageous Choice. Democrats Must Seize the Opportunity.
- Democrats start to rally around Harris after Biden’s exit
- Joe Biden, My Friend and an American Hero
- Backed by Biden, Harris moves to lock up White House bid
- Trump faces a tighter race with Kamala Harris set to replace Biden, experts say
- 15 Experts Predict What Biden’s Dropout Means for the 2024 Election
- Why Biden finally quit (“The Saturday night decision that ended Biden’s reelection campaign.”)
- Joe Biden Bows to Democrats Who Wanted Him Out, Upending US Politics
- Inside Biden’s unprecedented exit from the presidential race
- Biden just made the hardest decision any politician can make
- Let’s Be Clear: President Biden Is Leaving the Race, Not the White House (“Watch now as a panicked GOP tries to convince us that if President Biden can’t campaign, he shouldn’t try to govern, either.”)
- A Candidate, Not a Cult Leader (“After Biden’s decision to leave the race, the difference between the Democrats and the Republicans could not be clearer.”)
- Biden’s consequential presidency: His key policies, wins and setbacks
- Harris gets the chance to press reset on the 2024 race against Trump (“This year’s presidential race was supposed to be a rematch between two elderly white men, Joe Biden and Donald Trump.”)
- What Joe Biden Just Did Is Utterly Extraordinary
- With Biden Out, Democrats Pivot to Harris
- The 48 hours that consigned Joe Biden’s 2024 candidacy to history
- A Very Quick but Completely Authoritative Guide to the Kamala Harris Veepstakes (“Whitmer, Shapiro, Beshear—who else?”)
- 7 Possible Running Mates For A Potential Kamala Harris Presidential Campaign
- The Memo: Harris closes in on Democratic nomination
- Kamala Harris takes over war chest as Biden campaign becomes Harris for President
- Biden’s selfless decision to drop out sets stage for an entirely different election
- Joe Biden’s Act of Selflessness (“Throughout his political career, the President has turned pain into purpose. Now he must do it again.”)
- Joe Biden Leaves the Stage (“The Shakespearean end to a distinguished reign.”)
- The Tragedy and Remaining Hope of the Biden Presidency (“He has not yet escaped Trump.”)
- How a Harris presidential campaign would transform the race (“With Biden now out, the vice president can make the campaign about Trump’s radical plans.”)
- Biden’s legacy: Far-reaching accomplishments that didn’t translate into political support (That’s largely the media’s fault, by the way.)
- Pelosi spoke to Biden before he dropped out of 2024 presidential race
- Joe Biden Made the Right Choice (“In his painful decision to withdraw from the race, the president put his country first.” Absolutely.)
- Harris could become first Black woman, first person of South Asian descent to be president
- Republicans could file challenges if Biden replaced, Speaker Johnson says (Mike Johnson is an extremist and a loon.)
- Soros Backs Harris as Other Wall Street Democrats Want a Contest
- Sean Hannity claims voters “detest” Kamala Harris because of her laughter (Hannity is pure evil.)
- The right’s incoherent response to Biden dropping out (“The right’s response to President Joe Biden’s announcement that he will not seek reelection is absurd, cynical, and self-discrediting. Reporters should not treat the resulting opportunistic hodgepodge as if it were credible.”)
- With honor and decency, Joe Biden exits the race
- Biden quit race for re-election after agonizing over poll data – sources say
- President Joe Biden Makes the Right Calls; Decides NOT to Seek Reelection, Endorses VP Kamala Harris for the 2024 Democratic Nomination (Biden: “it’s time to come together and beat Trump. Let’s do this.”)
- Biden’s exit leads to the biggest day for Democratic donations online in years — $30 million and counting.
- Democrats say they’ve raised $46.7M: ‘Biggest fundraising day of the 2024 cycle’
- Biden drops out of 2024 race after disastrous debate inflamed age concerns. VP Harris gets his nod
- 6 political takeaways from Biden’s decision to step aside
- Clintons endorse Kamala Harris after Biden drops out
- What would a Harris presidency mean for the climate?
- It’s Kamala’s Campaign Now (“Her path to victory might hinge on her ability to unify the party around the one issue that nearly all Democratic women agree on: abortion.”)
- Why Biden finally quit
- Gretchen Whitmer joins campaign call with Harris for President staff
- Manchin weighs options after Biden exits presidential race (What a f’ing joke.)
- On Fox News, Project 2025 contributor says Michelle Obama will run for president because she “squares the Kamala Harris circle: being a minority and a DEI hire” (Sick, racist people.)
- Mayorkas names panel to review Trump rally shooting
- Why Are There Neo-Nazis on the Streets of Nashville?
- Sen. Tim Kaine on his advice for Kamala Harris after Biden drops out of 2024 race
- Video, Photos From Sen. Tim Kaine’s Visits to Staunton, Waynesboro Yesterday (Including Kaine Leading a Crowd in a Rendition of “This Land Is Your Land”)
- Video: On MSNBC, Rep. Jennifer McClellan (D-VA04) Calls Idea of a “Mini Primary” a “Fantasy”; Says If Joe Biden Steps Aside, Democrats Have to Go with Kamala Harris (UPDATED: President Biden announces he’s stepping aside!)
- Biden’s withdrawal resets elections in Virginia (“Both of Virginia’s Democratic senators have backed Vice President Kamala Harris as the party’s nominee”)
- Virginia Democrats quickly rally in support of Kamala Harris
- Environmental lawyers share how Chevron doctrine’s overturning impacts Virginia
- Va. law enforcement leaders ‘confident’ in public safety coverage plans for future campaign rallies
- Elected officials push for free tax filing in Virginia
- Virginia Master Naturalists remind residents to ‘be bear aware’
- Landlords again attempt to oust Bristol abortion clinic from its building
- Virginia Beach police ID man killed by officers, say he charged at them with crowbar and metal rod
- D.C.-area forecast: Downpours are possible daily through Friday (“This has a good chance to be the wettest week of the summer so far.” Good, we need it!)
President Joe Biden Makes the Right Calls; Decides NOT to Seek Reelection, Endorses VP Kamala Harris for the 2024 Democratic Nomination
GREAT decisions by President Joe Biden on both counts: 1) stepping aside, after doing an incredible job in 2020 (saving our democracy) and in 2021-2024 (passing numerous pieces of HIGHLY consequential pieces of legislation, helping Ukraine fight off Russia’s invasion, strengthening NATO and our other alliances after Trump’s disastrous term in office, etc.); 2) endorsing VP Kamala Harris to be the Democrats’ 2024 nominee. And yes, “it’s time to come together and beat Trump. Let’s do this.”
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I’ll post reactions below, as they come in…
Congressman Gerry Connolly (D-VA), a senior member of the House of Representatives and the President of the NATO Parliamentary Assembly, released the following statement:
“President Joe Biden will be remembered among the most consequential presidents in American history. His decision today to put country above all else has only cemented that fact.
Joe Biden delivered us from the darkness of his predecessor’s time in office. His presidency has bettered the lives of countless Americans. He dragged us out from the depths of the pandemic, leading an economic recovery that outpaced the world. With war raging in Europe, he has forged renewed strength and vigor in the transatlantic alliance and has overseen the most consequential years for NATO since its founding 75 years ago. And, with the ugly threat of authoritarianism rearing its head again, he has held the democratic world together in strength and unity.
I had the distinct honor of working for Joe Biden on the Senate Foreign Relations Committee. I wrote bills and speeches for him, traveled with him, and spent time with his family in Delaware. I know now what I knew then – Joe Biden, and the entire Biden family, are patriots in the truest sense of the word. They are good, honorable people whose dedication to their country is matched only by their dedication to each other as a family. They have served us nobly over the years, and I am personally grateful for their sacrifice and their service.
President Joe Biden, a man I revere, has today made a deeply difficult decision the only way he knows how – with the American people at heart. We owe him a debt of gratitude.”
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DPVA Chair Susan Swecker shared this statement following President Biden’s announcement that he is withdrawing from the presidential race:
President Joe Biden has been one of the most transformative and effective presidents in history. In 2020, he ran with a promise to restore the soul of our nation, and he did just that. He has–and will continue to–deliver on his campaign promises that have changed the lives of millions of Americans by leading us out of the pandemic, rebuilding our economy, and reestablishing America’s position as a trusted global leader.
President Biden has never been in politics for himself. Though his decision not to run is painful for so many of us, it represents his greatest quality: unwavering patriotism and service to the American people. Joe Biden’s decision to step aside is one that we deeply respect and we thank him for everything that he has done and will continue to do.
Video: On MSNBC, Rep. Jennifer McClellan (D-VA04) Calls Idea of a “Mini Primary” a “Fantasy”; Says If Joe Biden Steps Aside, Democrats Have to Go with Kamala Harris
What Rep. Jennifer McClellan (D-VA04) said!
“I think a world in which Joe Biden or Kamala Harris are not on the ballot is fantasy. I think given how close we are to when early voting starts in some states, in September, how close we are to when we have to certify who the nominee of the Democratic Party is, the idea that we’re going to have some sort of mini primary is a fantasy. 15 million people voted in open primaries and we don’t have time – and no one’s even explained how it’s going to work – if the president steps aside, that we go with anybody other than Kamala Harris, and to do so would be a mistake. She has been a partner by his side from day one, working very closely with this Administration. We have a succession plan if, god forbid, something happens to the president, she’s ready to step in because she’s already been doing the job as vice president.
But again, we need to be spending the next 110 days talking about the fact that Donald Trump said he would be a dictator on day one (he wasn’t kidding), that he now has a playbook of very extreme policies that the Republican Party is trying to implement right now. And the only thing standing in their way is a Democratic Senate and President Biden and Vice President Harris. Tthat’s what we need to be talking about.”
UPDATED 2:06 pm: President Biden announces he’s stepping aside!
Don’t Buy the Lie that Trump and Vance Are “Populists”
By Kindler
Words matter, and there are few more severely abused words in American politics today than “populist” – today more than ever as rich Republican hucksters use it to fool working class folks into voting against their economic interests.
That term originally applied to the US Populist Party of the 1890s, whose platform included, as Wikipedia explains:
“…collective bargaining, federal regulation of railroad rates, an expansionary monetary policy…a Sub-Treasury Plan that required the establishment of federally controlled warehouses to aid farmers…bimetallism, a graduated income tax, direct election of Senators, a shorter workweek, and the establishment of a postal savings system. These measures were collectively designed to curb the influence of monopolistic corporate and financial interests and empower small businesses, farmers and laborers.”
To my immense frustration, this term, despite its positive progressive vibes, has been increasingly hijacked by the right wing – with the assistance of the clueless and the cowardly in media and academia who are desperate to find any way to avoid referring to fascists as, well, fascists.
Instead, anyone in a political setting who claims to be against some sort of poorly defined “elites” in favor of “the people” is cast as a populist, as if all campaigns that label someone “elite” were the same even when they support radically different policies. So even rich, corrupt, exploitative elites like Donald Trump, J.D. Vance and their cynical donors are thereby given a hand to achieve their con job against the American people.
Ultimately, the Populist Big Lie could be what determines the 2024 election – either by being widely exposed or widely swallowed. Indeed, it may be the only advantage Trump gains from his running mate, J.D. Vance, an elitist posing as a man of the people who, unlike Donny, had sufficient gray matter to write a best-selling book to spread this right-wing mythology.
Like clockwork, soon after Trump chose Vance, we were treated with headlines like “J.D. Vance pick unnerves GOP’s business elite, thrills populists” (WaPo) and “In J.D. Vance, Trump is going all in on populism — and elevating an heir apparent” (Politico). In fact, it doesn’t take a whole lot of shoe leather journalism to find tons of evidence that the corporate elite are not by any means abandoning Republicans. Quite to the contrary, choosing former Silicon Valley venture capitalist Vance seemed to act as a kind of bat-signal for a gang of tech billionaires – Elon Musk, Peter Thiel, Marc Andreessen etc. – to announce that they will be dumping millions into the election to try to buy it for Trump. How very populist of them!
The nicest thing you can say about any media outlet trying to tell you how sad the GOP’s plutocrat donors are because of the Trump/Vance ticket’s phony populism is that they don’t understand how coalition politics works. Surely many of the right-wing billionaires would prefer a Mitt Romney as the face of the party, but for 7 years now, they have made their bed with Trump because they don’t know how else to market their agenda of tax cuts for the wealthy and ending government regulation to their increasingly rural, blue collar, evangelical base. To put it bluntly, they stopped running Romney types because they couldn’t sell them anymore to the yokels.
The part of the story that is genuinely underreported is how much the plutocrats are still getting for their big bucks. The MAGA Supreme Court throttling the power of federal agencies to regulate gives away the story as does the Project 2025 blueprint to weaken the agencies and civil servants even further. Project 2025 proposes a castrated federal government under cover of a strategy best described 20 years ago in journalist Thomas Frank’s book, What’s the Matter with Kansas? As Frank described – focusing on then-prominent propagandists like Rush Limbaugh – wealthy Republican elites convince working class whites to vote against their economic interests by distracting them with all-out cultural warfare.
You could call this “cultural populism”, but a more descriptive, if less polite, term for it would be…fascism. It’s about whipping disaffected white people into a frenzy against a scary Other – immigrants, “the Left”, LGBTQ people, etc. Yes, that’s the “populism” that they’re going with.
The increasingly infamous Project 2025 manifesto for a second Trump administration seeks to hypercharge this political bait-and-switch by pushing to decimate the government and civil service, which will free corporations and the wealthy to do whatever the hell they want to us. But they’re not openly making the case in the name of corporate interests but rather to protect the poor masses against so-called “liberal elites” imposing “wokeism” on us – whatever the hell that non-word actually means.
Project 2025 makes clear its goal is to “take on the Administrative State and reform our federal government” but rarely does it describe that endpoint as the windfall for corporate America that it would represent. Rather it deflects attention from its plutocratic goals with over the top, comic book pronouncements like:
“The long march of cultural Marxism through our institutions has come to pass. The federal government is a behemoth, weaponized against American citizens and conservative values, with freedom and liberty under siege as never before.”
Yes, fellow citizens, that is why Exxon Mobil needs more tax cuts and less regulation!
In case you had any doubts about Trump’s lack of interest in ever doing a damn thing to help the common man, take a look back at what he actually did as president. He appointed one of the richest Cabinets in history, including the likes of billionaire Betsy DeVos and millionaires Wilbur Ross, Steve Mnuchin, Linda McMahon and quite a few more.
He passed only one significant piece of legislation – namely, a tax cut that overwhelmingly favored the wealthy. He appointed three members of the Supreme Court and many lower court judges who are now doing everything they possibly can to give massive corporations more “liberty” to have their way with workers, consumers, the environment, you name it.
This is not a “man of the people” – he is a huckster who gained his status as a wealthy elite by exploiting others through every means he could think of, from running a fake university to refusing to pay contractors to creating decades worth of false valuations for property to fool both the government and investors.
If that’s what you want, vote for the bastard – but don’t try to sell him and his cronies to us as populists. A narcissist is the exact opposite of a populist. They don’t work for the forgotten man, they only work to endlessly boost their own egos, wealth and power.
So please call the media to account every time you see them trying to promote the Populist Big Lie. And don’t let the Republican con men get away with selling this snake oil to any more people than they’ve already suckered.
Please check out my Substack.
Video, Photos From Sen. Tim Kaine’s Visits to Staunton, Waynesboro Yesterday (Including Kaine Leading a Crowd in a Rendition of “This Land Is Your Land”)
Since Virginia Republican US Senate nominee Hung Cao was too terrified to debate Sen. Tim Kaine yesterday, Kaine spent his day in Staunton and Waynesboro instead – visiting small businesses, meeting with people and even leading a crowd in a rendition of “This Land Is Your Land” by Woody Guthrie. In short, not only is Tim Kaine a highly effective and respected US Senator, he’s also one of the most down-to-earth and personable ones as well. Let’s make sure we reelect this guy by a HUGE margin in November!
Thanks to Jennifer Lewis for this video of Sen. Tim Kaine in Waynesboro yesterday, leading the crowd in a rendition of “This Land Is Your Land.” Coolest U.S. Senator ever?
