The bad-faith attacks by Republican Senators against a public defender for taking on unsavory clients is just disgusting. These Senators are smart; they're just conniving assholes. They know full well the role of the public defender, and how little latitude one has in accepting clients. I know a lot of Americans don't know their history, but it's in front of mind for these Senators that John Adams defended the British who shot at the colonists in Boston in March of 1770, and took his job so seriously that he secured acquittals. Are we impugning the patriotism of John Adams? Is that what the GOP is?
Republican politicians do this because their voters let them get away with it. Their voters are paranoid and stupid, which is how people like Donald Trump and Mo Brooks incited them into an attack on the Capitol. And Republican politicians cynically take advantage of this paranoia and stupidity, rather than trying to lead their constituents to some sort of understanding based in reality.
I just wish Democrats would consider a campaign along the following lines: Republicans think you are stupid. Republicans don't actually believe the election was stolen, but they tell you they believe it, because they think you are stupid. Republicans don't think KBJ thinks racist babies are a thing, but they want to put on some embarrassing performance in the Senate, because they think you're stupid. Republicans know what the job of a public defender is, and how everyone has a right to competent defense in court, but they want to hide this from you, because they think you are stupid. Republicans are constantly telling you lies that they themselves don't believe, because they think you are stupid. Republicans run campaign ads where they are in a gym lifting weights or shooting automatic rifles and blowing shit up because they think you're too stupid to realize that this is just performative nonsense, and that it indicates nothing about whether they are qualified to hold the office for which they're running (if anything, it indicates lack of qualifications). Democrats won't lie to you; we respect you more than that.
I have made the same point many times, that the only reason Rs act as they do is that they think their supporters are stupid (or uninformed or misinformed). The problem is that those people who should wake up to that fact (a) don't hear us point it out, and (b) are too. . .stupid. . .to comprehend it if they did hear it.
Just a small correction to your point about John Adams' defense of the British soldiers. He wasn't being patriotic, at least not to the US, because it didn't exist yet then. He was being faithful to the rule of law and the rights of the accused which the US inherited from Britain and codified in the Sixth Amendment.
That would work on a rational adult. However, the answer from a substantial portion of them will be, "We know ,we just enjoy how upset you get about it." They don't believe in governance, ergo the clowns are a feature, not a bug. They believe that they're special, and they'll be just fine in the event the system comes crashing down. Contrasted with the Democrats' very adult and sane position of "you're not special, if all this goes sideways, we're all fucked."
Most of them think they're in on the "jokes" and get satisfaction out of punching down. Michelle Obama was wrong, the only way to combat this kind of dominance game is by going very, very low. Enough with the outrage and the shock and the disgust--If a congressman does an ad where he's brandishing guns, his opponents need to run ads explicitly mocking his small dick.
What you are describing (going very, very low) amounts to the "dumbing down" of the electorate or the "race to the bottom," two phrases that describe much of the late 20th/early 21st century USA. Michelle Obama's declaration was inspirational but they had absolutely no plan for implementing it. Could such a plan exist? I don't know.
Today the Dems provided a good example of this race to the bottom. On "Morning Joe", Jaime Harrison, the DNC chair, called Tom Cotton the "lowest of the low" and a "little maggot-infested man" for his remarks on the floor of Congress on Judge Ketanji Brown Jackson, that she would have gone to Nuremburg to defend the Nazis. Cotton's remarks were disgusting. But so was Harrison's name-calling.
Cotton was not only disgusting but also wrong. Liberal democratic legal systems give the accused right to counsel. Harrison squandered this opportunity to defend liberal democracy. You don't have to go low to defend the democratic institutions of the US. Just explain them.
"Republican politicians do this because their voters let them get away with it."
This is not a passive response by GOP voters. Instead, they actively desire extremism, brutalism, and unmitigated bigotry. This is demanded of their demagogic leaders. And man, are the Stanford/Yale/Harvard/Princeton "educated" GOP pols delivering in spades.
And I for am am terrified for what they will do to democracy. They seem to believe that the only legitimate citizens of the world are white xtians. And what is worse, none of those so- called xtians actually exhibit true Christian behavior.
Nice analysis. I think another feature of Republican voters is that they’re addicted to drama and outrage. I think those feelings make people feel superior. I see the root of it in reality TV. I get a strong sense that for many people, their daily lives are an episode in their own TV drama, and they know it has to be titillating to keep up their internal ratings so they create drama out of the thin cloth of their existence. DJT is always riveted on his own ratings; that seems like a window into the psyche of his supporters.
Very little to disagree with here, but I fear the forces of stupid are too great.
If the D’s could find a way to thread that needle (telling R’s they are being duped without having them have to admit they have been f’ing morons) I am not sure it would work. I fear 30+ years of demagogue talk radio nonsense, Fox News, etc. is just too much. Some of those previous talking heads, Charlie and Joe Walsh (to name two) have been trying to push back for 6 years now, and from where I sit it seems the crazy has only gotten worse. I think we are in for a tough couple of decades. As a young Boomer, I feel bad for the generations below me.
The bad-faith attacks by Republican Senators against a public defender for taking on unsavory clients is just disgusting. These Senators are smart; they're just conniving assholes. They know full well the role of the public defender, and how little latitude one has in accepting clients. I know a lot of Americans don't know their history, but it's in front of mind for these Senators that John Adams defended the British who shot at the colonists in Boston in March of 1770, and took his job so seriously that he secured acquittals. Are we impugning the patriotism of John Adams? Is that what the GOP is?
Republican politicians do this because their voters let them get away with it. Their voters are paranoid and stupid, which is how people like Donald Trump and Mo Brooks incited them into an attack on the Capitol. And Republican politicians cynically take advantage of this paranoia and stupidity, rather than trying to lead their constituents to some sort of understanding based in reality.
I just wish Democrats would consider a campaign along the following lines: Republicans think you are stupid. Republicans don't actually believe the election was stolen, but they tell you they believe it, because they think you are stupid. Republicans don't think KBJ thinks racist babies are a thing, but they want to put on some embarrassing performance in the Senate, because they think you're stupid. Republicans know what the job of a public defender is, and how everyone has a right to competent defense in court, but they want to hide this from you, because they think you are stupid. Republicans are constantly telling you lies that they themselves don't believe, because they think you are stupid. Republicans run campaign ads where they are in a gym lifting weights or shooting automatic rifles and blowing shit up because they think you're too stupid to realize that this is just performative nonsense, and that it indicates nothing about whether they are qualified to hold the office for which they're running (if anything, it indicates lack of qualifications). Democrats won't lie to you; we respect you more than that.
I have made the same point many times, that the only reason Rs act as they do is that they think their supporters are stupid (or uninformed or misinformed). The problem is that those people who should wake up to that fact (a) don't hear us point it out, and (b) are too. . .stupid. . .to comprehend it if they did hear it.
It's absolutey a bad-faith attack.
Just a small correction to your point about John Adams' defense of the British soldiers. He wasn't being patriotic, at least not to the US, because it didn't exist yet then. He was being faithful to the rule of law and the rights of the accused which the US inherited from Britain and codified in the Sixth Amendment.
The ad you described sounds great.
That would work on a rational adult. However, the answer from a substantial portion of them will be, "We know ,we just enjoy how upset you get about it." They don't believe in governance, ergo the clowns are a feature, not a bug. They believe that they're special, and they'll be just fine in the event the system comes crashing down. Contrasted with the Democrats' very adult and sane position of "you're not special, if all this goes sideways, we're all fucked."
Most of them think they're in on the "jokes" and get satisfaction out of punching down. Michelle Obama was wrong, the only way to combat this kind of dominance game is by going very, very low. Enough with the outrage and the shock and the disgust--If a congressman does an ad where he's brandishing guns, his opponents need to run ads explicitly mocking his small dick.
What you are describing (going very, very low) amounts to the "dumbing down" of the electorate or the "race to the bottom," two phrases that describe much of the late 20th/early 21st century USA. Michelle Obama's declaration was inspirational but they had absolutely no plan for implementing it. Could such a plan exist? I don't know.
Today the Dems provided a good example of this race to the bottom. On "Morning Joe", Jaime Harrison, the DNC chair, called Tom Cotton the "lowest of the low" and a "little maggot-infested man" for his remarks on the floor of Congress on Judge Ketanji Brown Jackson, that she would have gone to Nuremburg to defend the Nazis. Cotton's remarks were disgusting. But so was Harrison's name-calling.
Cotton was not only disgusting but also wrong. Liberal democratic legal systems give the accused right to counsel. Harrison squandered this opportunity to defend liberal democracy. You don't have to go low to defend the democratic institutions of the US. Just explain them.
"Republican politicians do this because their voters let them get away with it."
This is not a passive response by GOP voters. Instead, they actively desire extremism, brutalism, and unmitigated bigotry. This is demanded of their demagogic leaders. And man, are the Stanford/Yale/Harvard/Princeton "educated" GOP pols delivering in spades.
And I for am am terrified for what they will do to democracy. They seem to believe that the only legitimate citizens of the world are white xtians. And what is worse, none of those so- called xtians actually exhibit true Christian behavior.
Nice analysis. I think another feature of Republican voters is that they’re addicted to drama and outrage. I think those feelings make people feel superior. I see the root of it in reality TV. I get a strong sense that for many people, their daily lives are an episode in their own TV drama, and they know it has to be titillating to keep up their internal ratings so they create drama out of the thin cloth of their existence. DJT is always riveted on his own ratings; that seems like a window into the psyche of his supporters.
Very little to disagree with here, but I fear the forces of stupid are too great.
If the D’s could find a way to thread that needle (telling R’s they are being duped without having them have to admit they have been f’ing morons) I am not sure it would work. I fear 30+ years of demagogue talk radio nonsense, Fox News, etc. is just too much. Some of those previous talking heads, Charlie and Joe Walsh (to name two) have been trying to push back for 6 years now, and from where I sit it seems the crazy has only gotten worse. I think we are in for a tough couple of decades. As a young Boomer, I feel bad for the generations below me.