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Then-Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) speaks as then-House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy (R-Calif.) and then-President Donald Trump listen on March 27, 2020 in Washington, D.C. (Photo: Erin Schaff-Pool/Getty Images)
"Trump and his allies are a clear and present danger to American democracy."--the Honorable J. Michael Luttig
Speaking slowly but powerfully, Judge Michael Luttig last week may have handed Democrats what has so far eluded them: a winning message for the midterm elections. Given all the revelations to date from the January 6 hearings--as well as five-plus years of Republican malevolence--Democrats can campaign this fall against a GOP full of "dangerous extremists" and run by "dangerous extremists."
Voters need to visualize and understand what happens when violence-prone reactionary authoritarians replace democracy with despotism.
The evidence is voluminous, though rarely is it thematically connected. Campaigning against "dangerous extremists" does that. What else can you call political leaders who condone overthrowing a democratically elected government, incite white nationalists yet don't disavow their violence, allow Covid-19 to spread and kill hundreds of thousands of Americans, want to imprison women who have abortions, support unbridled access to automatic weapons, ignore the climate crisis, menace LGBTQ youth, and routinely disregard norms and laws? And are led by an ex-president who--in a first--put his vice president's life in jeopardy.
Republicans respond indignantly to any single example of GOP extremism by resorting to a grab bag of rehearsed misdirections--lying, denying, cherry-picking, gaslighting, what-abouting, culture-warring, or simply counterattacking Biden, Blackness, and wokeness. Already they're polishing up their Hunter Biden talking points and dismissing January 6 as sort of a "third-rate burglary."
The last defense of GOP extremism is simply to change the subject. "People really care about inflation, crime. etc." Of course they do--and they should. And it's politically effective to list that day's inflation rate and pump price and pretend they are Biden's fault.
The best response to persistent misdirection, however, is to repeat a memorable message sustained by a mass of evidence that brands today's Republican Party as the most extreme in our modern history.
To get there, voters need to visualize and understand what happens when violence-prone reactionary authoritarians replace democracy with despotism. An America run by Senator Ted Cruz and Representative Marjorie Taylor Greene means no Obamacare, shrunken and corporatized Social Security, lower real income for average workers, even more school shootings, rising attacks on LGBTQ and Asian Americans, appeasement of Putin, plus emboldened armed militias like the Proud Boys threatening--or actually killing--local election officials.
Should such a GOP agenda triumph--backed by a compliant Supreme Court majority--it would be infinitely more costly to American families than the difference between, say, 8 percent vs. 3 percent inflation (as if Trumpers have any answers to worldwide inflation).
So while the Biden White House will presumably be pushing its positive accomplishments, Democrats need to simultaneously begin assailing the "clear and present danger" of the Republican Party as the only negative message that can work--especially as likely indictments of the Trump cabal and more instances of right-wing violence occur.
Running against "dangerous extremists" can tie together the news about January 6, the likely reversal of Roe, Republicans calling homosexuality an "unacceptable lifestyle choice" while suggesting secession at the Texas GOP convention, and the MAGA mob assaults on Ruby Freeman and Shaye Moss.
It can become in 2022 what the "Do-Nothing-Congress" was in 1948--a political hammer that galvanized voters and turned Harry Truman from a sure loser into a surprise winner.
Here are 40 examples--out of hundreds--that justify Judge Luttig's alarm.
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"Trump and his allies are a clear and present danger to American democracy."--the Honorable J. Michael Luttig
Speaking slowly but powerfully, Judge Michael Luttig last week may have handed Democrats what has so far eluded them: a winning message for the midterm elections. Given all the revelations to date from the January 6 hearings--as well as five-plus years of Republican malevolence--Democrats can campaign this fall against a GOP full of "dangerous extremists" and run by "dangerous extremists."
Voters need to visualize and understand what happens when violence-prone reactionary authoritarians replace democracy with despotism.
The evidence is voluminous, though rarely is it thematically connected. Campaigning against "dangerous extremists" does that. What else can you call political leaders who condone overthrowing a democratically elected government, incite white nationalists yet don't disavow their violence, allow Covid-19 to spread and kill hundreds of thousands of Americans, want to imprison women who have abortions, support unbridled access to automatic weapons, ignore the climate crisis, menace LGBTQ youth, and routinely disregard norms and laws? And are led by an ex-president who--in a first--put his vice president's life in jeopardy.
Republicans respond indignantly to any single example of GOP extremism by resorting to a grab bag of rehearsed misdirections--lying, denying, cherry-picking, gaslighting, what-abouting, culture-warring, or simply counterattacking Biden, Blackness, and wokeness. Already they're polishing up their Hunter Biden talking points and dismissing January 6 as sort of a "third-rate burglary."
The last defense of GOP extremism is simply to change the subject. "People really care about inflation, crime. etc." Of course they do--and they should. And it's politically effective to list that day's inflation rate and pump price and pretend they are Biden's fault.
The best response to persistent misdirection, however, is to repeat a memorable message sustained by a mass of evidence that brands today's Republican Party as the most extreme in our modern history.
To get there, voters need to visualize and understand what happens when violence-prone reactionary authoritarians replace democracy with despotism. An America run by Senator Ted Cruz and Representative Marjorie Taylor Greene means no Obamacare, shrunken and corporatized Social Security, lower real income for average workers, even more school shootings, rising attacks on LGBTQ and Asian Americans, appeasement of Putin, plus emboldened armed militias like the Proud Boys threatening--or actually killing--local election officials.
Should such a GOP agenda triumph--backed by a compliant Supreme Court majority--it would be infinitely more costly to American families than the difference between, say, 8 percent vs. 3 percent inflation (as if Trumpers have any answers to worldwide inflation).
So while the Biden White House will presumably be pushing its positive accomplishments, Democrats need to simultaneously begin assailing the "clear and present danger" of the Republican Party as the only negative message that can work--especially as likely indictments of the Trump cabal and more instances of right-wing violence occur.
Running against "dangerous extremists" can tie together the news about January 6, the likely reversal of Roe, Republicans calling homosexuality an "unacceptable lifestyle choice" while suggesting secession at the Texas GOP convention, and the MAGA mob assaults on Ruby Freeman and Shaye Moss.
It can become in 2022 what the "Do-Nothing-Congress" was in 1948--a political hammer that galvanized voters and turned Harry Truman from a sure loser into a surprise winner.
Here are 40 examples--out of hundreds--that justify Judge Luttig's alarm.
"Trump and his allies are a clear and present danger to American democracy."--the Honorable J. Michael Luttig
Speaking slowly but powerfully, Judge Michael Luttig last week may have handed Democrats what has so far eluded them: a winning message for the midterm elections. Given all the revelations to date from the January 6 hearings--as well as five-plus years of Republican malevolence--Democrats can campaign this fall against a GOP full of "dangerous extremists" and run by "dangerous extremists."
Voters need to visualize and understand what happens when violence-prone reactionary authoritarians replace democracy with despotism.
The evidence is voluminous, though rarely is it thematically connected. Campaigning against "dangerous extremists" does that. What else can you call political leaders who condone overthrowing a democratically elected government, incite white nationalists yet don't disavow their violence, allow Covid-19 to spread and kill hundreds of thousands of Americans, want to imprison women who have abortions, support unbridled access to automatic weapons, ignore the climate crisis, menace LGBTQ youth, and routinely disregard norms and laws? And are led by an ex-president who--in a first--put his vice president's life in jeopardy.
Republicans respond indignantly to any single example of GOP extremism by resorting to a grab bag of rehearsed misdirections--lying, denying, cherry-picking, gaslighting, what-abouting, culture-warring, or simply counterattacking Biden, Blackness, and wokeness. Already they're polishing up their Hunter Biden talking points and dismissing January 6 as sort of a "third-rate burglary."
The last defense of GOP extremism is simply to change the subject. "People really care about inflation, crime. etc." Of course they do--and they should. And it's politically effective to list that day's inflation rate and pump price and pretend they are Biden's fault.
The best response to persistent misdirection, however, is to repeat a memorable message sustained by a mass of evidence that brands today's Republican Party as the most extreme in our modern history.
To get there, voters need to visualize and understand what happens when violence-prone reactionary authoritarians replace democracy with despotism. An America run by Senator Ted Cruz and Representative Marjorie Taylor Greene means no Obamacare, shrunken and corporatized Social Security, lower real income for average workers, even more school shootings, rising attacks on LGBTQ and Asian Americans, appeasement of Putin, plus emboldened armed militias like the Proud Boys threatening--or actually killing--local election officials.
Should such a GOP agenda triumph--backed by a compliant Supreme Court majority--it would be infinitely more costly to American families than the difference between, say, 8 percent vs. 3 percent inflation (as if Trumpers have any answers to worldwide inflation).
So while the Biden White House will presumably be pushing its positive accomplishments, Democrats need to simultaneously begin assailing the "clear and present danger" of the Republican Party as the only negative message that can work--especially as likely indictments of the Trump cabal and more instances of right-wing violence occur.
Running against "dangerous extremists" can tie together the news about January 6, the likely reversal of Roe, Republicans calling homosexuality an "unacceptable lifestyle choice" while suggesting secession at the Texas GOP convention, and the MAGA mob assaults on Ruby Freeman and Shaye Moss.
It can become in 2022 what the "Do-Nothing-Congress" was in 1948--a political hammer that galvanized voters and turned Harry Truman from a sure loser into a surprise winner.
Here are 40 examples--out of hundreds--that justify Judge Luttig's alarm.