While Matthew "Both Sides Do It" Dowd has been awkwardly trying to morph into Hillary Clinton 2016 as he tries to make the leap from media hack to political office (which you can read all about here)...
Matthew Dowd Is a Fundamentally Ridiculous Person: The Past Is the Scariest Halloween Monster of All.
...Adam Kinzinger has been awkwardly trying to morph into Matthew Dowd 2016 as he tries to make the leap from political office holder to media hack. This is from yesterday's Bulwark podcast.
First comes the pity party and the obligatory shitting on Democrats for the high crime of [checks notes] trying to elect more Democrats.
SYKES: I know that Jonathan Last wrote about this, uh, in The Bulwark that it was disappointing that the Democrats did target you. I mean they could have at least acknowledged that you had taken this stand and it's kind of felt like politics as usual when in fact it's not politics as usual.
Pay attention. What Charlies Sykes is explicitly saying is that Democrats trying to elect more Democrats in order to keep the Republican Party from destroying American is the problem when they should have, what? Stood aside? Not run against a Republican who has lined up to obstruct everything Democrats have tried to do to clean up the toxic disasters that Adam Kinzinger's Republican Party has inflicted on out country?
Oh goodness no. It is so much worse than that.
According to these two mopes, by fighting to hang onto our slim majority in the House, this somehow proves that Democrats don't truly understand the threat that exists to democracy.
KINZINGER: ...I mean look it's... is it a disappointment? Sure. Because what I've been saying -- and it's not again about me -- it's about the fact that, I've said this a number of times, I know you have too which is I'm not sure the Democrats truly understand the threat that exists to democracy. I'm not sure they truly understand you know, like I do. Like you do. Like most of your listeners do. That this is the kind of thing where in two or four years we could end up in a very different country that doesn't recognize elections and stuff and, uh, instead we're just going after whoever we can for numbers. That kind of power politics is not going to end well.
To repeat, by "numbers", Kinzinger means a Democratic majority in the House. A majority on which so much depends.
SYKES: See this is exactly the question that I had, which was that if Democrats really do believe that we face this existential threat to democracy -- if they really do believe that there's the prospect of, y'know, the nightmare prospect of a restored Trump presidency 2.0, the Revenge Tour -- then shouldn't they act like it? And in this particular case, and by the way, by acting like it that would include making common cause right with people who have allied with them on this one most important issue which is the, y'know standing up against Donald Trump.
This is deeply fucked-in-the-head, I'm almost at a loss for how to start unpacking it. These two mopes -- who helped build the GOP monster machine that finally shit them out and held themselves profitably and willfully blind and ignorant of the doomsday machine they were creating until it was far, far too late to stop it -- have the fucking temerity to slag Democrats for not taking the threat to our country from their fucking party seriously because we won't take direction from them.
This is why Sykes never allows himself within shouting or spitting distance of actual Liberals who would actually push back on this nonsense.
And so, rather that lowering himself to running in a "brother against brother" Republican primary which Kinzinger would definitely lose because Republicans are a mob of bigots and imbeciles who hate his guts, instead he has decided to blame Democrats for his condition his condition is in, which means...
-- sing it with me now! --
...Both Sides Are Equally Terrible because Republicans are fascist scum, but Democrats want to spend money on stuff because they are hostage to their Extreme Left Wing which is exactly like the Freedom Caucus
Therefor it should be obvious to any patriotic Murrican and the only hope for our country is to...
-- sing it with me now! --
...overthrow the K'rupt Duopoly!
SYKES: So are you talking about running possibly in a primary. Would you consider a third party bid? Independent? What are you thinking?
There are substantial hurdles you have to overcome to get on the ballot in Illinois as an independent. On the other and, in the last U.S. Senate race in Illinois, in addition to the Democrat and the Republican there were actually three other candidates running from three other parties: a Green, a Libertarian and Willie Wilson of the (no kidding) Willie Wilson Party. So if Kinzinger were actually serious he could file to compete for the nomination of one of those, although he might be a poor fit for the Willie Wilson Party.
But that's no fun! So, instead...
KINZINGER: ...but look if I don't end up running it's fine. I'm going to tell you I will look I will look seriously at possibilities for 2024. I want to see where the Country First Movement [Kinzinger's own, boutique third party grift which is eerily similar to Matthew Dowd's Country Over Party grift] grows and if it means, y'know, challenging Donald Trump for the nomination it's something I wouldn't rule out.
Sure. In exactly the same way I wouldn't rule out being named president of NBC News.
And thus does Kinzinger begin collecting the still-warm shoes and baggy pants and big, red nose of the Avenging Both Siderist clown costume from the dumpster where Matthew Dowd has just discarded it.
KINZINGER: ...I think the church has failed. I think political parties have failed.
Both sides.
Both sides.
KINZINGER: ...I think we may hit a point -- we may be there now -- we may hit a point where there has to be a serious movement for a third rarty or, y'know, does [Kinzinger's boutique Third Party grift] Country First lead a Third Party? Does it create, y'know, people within the existing parties that are for something...
Does it create the New Soviet Man?
If you listen to enough of these third party, Both Siderist expatriate Republicans, what comes through over and over again loud and clear is that, beyond a handful of generic marketing buzzwords -- "country", "freedom", "patriotic" -- they never manage to explain exactly what his imaginary Third Party would stand for. It's the "All Good Stuff No Bad Stuff" party, without any meat whatsoever on those bones.
Which makes a certain kind of sense.
After all, what these goof are all really thirsty for is the Republican Party of 2015 sans Trump. All of it. The budget crippling tax cuts. The crackpot economic theories. Shredding the social safety net. Letting Red States gut voting rights. Handmaid's Tale judges packing the courts. But they also want their zombie base to STFU and not ruin everything. And since it is now impossible to detach the infrastructure of Republican Party from its fascist soul, to get anyone but their dozen closest friends to buy into their Glengarry Glen Ross Third Party, they need to continue to keep everything about it extremely boozy and aspirational.
SYKES: ...so what you have is political leaders who take their cues from what's happening at the grassroots state level. And so whether Trump is there or not, the... the... the soul of the party has been changed.
No, no, no, Charlie
The soul of the GOP hasn't changed. It has simply been revealed for everyone to see.
Your party was the Party of Trump long before Trump showed up to claim the throne.
And you, Charlie, were a member of the Brain Caste -- the Wingnut Bene Gesserit -- that spent decades cultivating the racism and ignorance of the base and harvesting their votes and support and attention.
People like you filled their heads day after day with myths of the Evil Big Gummint. Of commie Libtards and mooching Welfare Queens. Of a Soros-controlled Liberal Media which could never be trusted. And so, when Donald Trump glided down the escalator loudly and proudly spouting the same racist, deranged bile that the bigots and imbeciles of your party's base had been steeping in for decades, how dare you be surprised that they greeted him as the Chosen One?
Back to the makeover:
KINZINGER: Glenn Youngkin didn't win Virginia because the Democrats didn't spend [three!trillion!dollars!]. He won Virginia because they're upset at what the Democrats are doing! And you know, I gotta tell ya, the Democrats right now are where we were six years ago when we were being held hostage by the Freedom Club in our party and they were forcing us to go more and more extreme. That's where [Democrats] are now. They don't have a Donald Trump yet that's going to accelerate that but that's where they are. They're hostage to their extreme!
Both sides.
Both sides.
SYKES: I... I've made this point before. I kind of have this flashback to the the Freedom Caucus and... and Ted Cruz saying, y'know we're going to, y'know, take this stand that has no chance of success. No end game. And yet it was cheered on by the grass roots. It had the, y'know, the media echo chambers and there's a very similar vibe from the progressive caucus here.
Charlie then goes on his umpteenth extended rant about how Democrats are ugly and stupid and our mother's dress us funny and Jesus Christ, why are you snowflakes taking this the wrong way? Why don't you respect this as the tough love that you stupid, smelly Libtards so desperately need?
Over time the Alert Listener may have noticed that for all of his bluster about The Bulwark not being a "safe space" for us snowflakes out here who can't bear the truth...The Bulwark actually is a very carefully curated "safe space" for Mr. Charlie Sykes, who needs such a safe space so he can get back to doing what he used to do every day for 30 years as the Rush Limbaugh of Wisconsin -- vent his spleen on the Extreme Left day after day after day drunk-uncle-at-Thanksgiving style, in a forum were he never has to actually debate anyone who 1) might vigorously rebut him and, 2) might show up with receipts in-hand.
KINZINGER: I do think that we're on the verge...and I don't think the Republicans have this yet. I don't think the Democrats certainly don't have it. we're on the verge of kind of the next iteration of where government goes is a restoration of local government. I think people feel so disaffected by the federal government...
Because your party has been demonizing the government as the source of all evil for 50 years?
Because every time your party is in power it wrecks everything it touches, and every time it's out of power it uses ever means at its disposal to sabotage Democrats as we try to clean up the disasters you left behind?
Is that what you were about to say?
KINZINGER: Unfortunately both sides are stuck in the, y'know, same debate when Ronald Reagan was running for president...
Both sides.
Both sides.
KINZINGER: ...we need a complete utter ground-up reinvention of answers. We talk about when was the creation of the modern conservative movement -- we need a new creation of the modern whatever we can call it...
I'm sure Steve Bannon and the Chapo Trap House kids will both be thrilled to learn that Adam Kinzinger want to join them in deconstructing the administrative state
SYKES: ...and yet it seems like we've settled into party line votes on almost everything. What... what is the dynamic? Because I think there are people who you mentioned Twitter who look at you and Liz Cheney and go, "Yeah, but you're still voting with republicans. Why aren't you voting with the Democrats?" What... what is the dynamic that's happening right?KINZINGER: And that's the thing. And this is a real truth, y'know, for people out there if you listen to this with an open mind.
Wait for it.
Wait for it...
KINZINGER: There would be a lot more crossing party lines except that a lot of these bills are created by Nancy Pelosi to be partisan. Let's take voting rights...
And there it is. It's all the fault of Democrats for not bending over even further to accommodate the whims of a nonexistent Reasonable Republicans caucus. God damn that K'rupt Duopoly all to Hell!
KINZINGER: And now the Democrats are arguing 1.7 trillion dollars, by the way, is just not enough. And oh my gosh, y'know! Let's bring out the fainting couches!
Kinzinger's obvious concern for the fate of the people whose lives hang on these Democratic bills -- children, new mothers, the elderly, the environment, voting rights, those whose lives depend on outrageously overpriced drugs and on and on -- is deeply touching.
KINZINGER: [Democrats are] stuck in their kind of 1980s mantra. The Republicans are stuck in their 1980s mantra. Whoever comes along with a whole new 21st century mantra can can seize the narrative!
But, sadly, nothing is going to change...
KINZINGER: ...until the American people demand it happen, or until the American people quit responding to the text messages that say you're a traitor or quit, y'know spending 20 hours a day with, y'know, one of these national news stations on the background boiling your blood, making you outraged.
Because both sides.
Both sides.
Both sides.
KINZINGER: Until the American people say our engines have been on redline and theRepublican and Democratic party are abusing us...
4 comments:
What is deceptive about this conversation is that Kinzinger is free to run in the Republican primary in any Congressional district he would like in Illinois. The problem is that he would not win the primary. It is not the Democrats' fault that Kinzinger will not be a Congressman in 2023. It is the Republicans' fault. Of course this analysis is a little too insightful for the Never Trumpers.
What you explained in this post.
Would you call it Critical Republican Theory? CRT?
Shouldn't it be banned from the Earth like Right wing media says CRT should?
Republican's on republican over republican shit.
It is like a Kindergarten level of indoctrination to be a republican.
If republicans have this problem with the GOP "base" that only comes out and votes during the primary.
Why don't they put in effort to bring in all the general election republican's voting loyalists?
Is it they do not want to dilute the extreme Zombie anarchist base because the GOP doors like it this way?
I like knowing that Bulwark buttheads read every dump on them you write excellently here
When you add their sponsors' names -- Morning Joe Scarborough, Wolf Blitzer, Lawrence and Maddie, Chuck Todd Lee, MSNBC -- then those sponsors who have fame bots searching the web to find where their name is cited and they come here to read what people are saying about them, and then they learn, too, from you that they are booking to appear with them worn-out Rash Lamebrain copycats, now baby nazis, and idiot Tramp wannabes.
Every time you write the bulwark diseased guests another tv sucky face as well as a thousand fresh voters read your words and gain wise up.
Burn the lifeboats and sink both sides the bulwark and two-sides two-faced TV.
assault massmedia
Occupy ballots
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