This week saw former loudmouth Tea Party Republican ... turned shoutycracker MAGA Republican ... turned disgruntled Republican ... turned Independent ... turned Democrat, Joe Walsh bidding farewell to the Democratic Party.
He did have a few nice things to say about us dirty fucking hippies first:
Over the course of the past year and a half, Democrats increasingly began to finally get it. They began to finally realize the fascist threat that Trump is, the No Kings resistance to Trump grew and grew, and an awesome array of new Democratic candidates for the House and Senate entered the fray and took the fight directly to Trump and Republicans.
In other words, Democrats (the voters, the grassroots, all these new candidates, and plenty of current officeholders, not the party establishment and not party leadership) finally got what we were all up against. They finally rolled up their sleeves and fought, finally met this uniquely horrible moment in our country’s history, and six days ago they/we produced the most sweeping midterm victory in modern American history. It delivered huge Democratic majorities in both the House and the Senate, as well as governors’ mansions and state legislatures across the country.
Democrats FOUGHT, Trump was repudiated and defeated, and the country turned blue.
A humongous first step in preserving freedom, democracy, the rule of law, the Constitution, pluralism, and basic human decency.
He even had a few harsh words for many of his fellow Never Trumpers:
I think many former Republicans/NeverTrumpers have gotten presumptuous over these past few years and begun to think that they can tell Democrats what to be. Some tried to run for office as Democrats, and many tell Democrats where they should stand on policy. I just think that’s all wrong. As a NeverTrumper, my only job at this moment in history was to help Democrats win, so that MAGA would be defeated.
But now Joe Walsh is ... all together now! .. an Independent!
And so, as of today, I’m officially leaving the Democratic Party and am back to being an Independent, which is probably what I’ll be for the rest of my days.
Which is fine. No problem. Whatever political pronouns you wanna use in the privacy of your own home is no business of mine. But then comes this...
In truth, it’s what most Americans are.
And brace yourselves, because you're about to get a whole raft of Both Sides Do It bullshit from a former Tea Party Republican turned MAGA Republican, turned disgruntled Republican, turned Independent, turned Democrat who spent the last couple of years emphatically pounding any podium that would take him, and insisting that Both Sides are not the same.
Ready?
Hopefully Democrats won’t race to their far left. If they do, they’ll blow this opportunity. What I do know is that the vast majority of Americans are neither MAGA nor far left. The vast majority of Americans are decent and tolerant, believe in opportunity and individual freedom, don’t want government running their businesses or their personal lives, and just want to get shit done.
I will continue to speak to this “vast majority of Americans,” now as an Independent. Again.
See, Walsh is perfectly happy to applaud Democrats for doing the hard work of saving democracy. He just doesn't want us to get any ideas about what to do with the power they won.
And then there's this:
I’m now an Independent. Once again.
Same voice, same passion, same beliefs. I still believe America needs another political party. I always have. I hope that happens one day.
What I do know is this: there’s a rapidly growing movement of people in this country who are sick and tired of our broken political system. They’re calling out for major political reform. They’ve had it up to here with our way too big/non-responsive government. They’re sick of our two-party duopoly. They want to advance freedom and free markets, they love capitalism, and they believe America must always secure its borders but also must always, with open arms, welcome more and more immigrants. They believe it’s criminal that we’re $41 trillion in debt, and they’re sick and tired of the two sides constantly at each other’s throats, fighting with each other and not working with each other to get shit done.
I intend to continue to be a part of that movement.
I honestly don't care what Joe Walsh calls himself today or tomorrow or next week, but spotlight-hungry critters like him can be valuable coalmine canaries when looked at with the same legitimate skepticism that some us looked at those newly minted Conservative Never Trumpers back in 2016. And for very much the same reason: Which way will they jump when the prevailing wind shifts?
Remember Mark Levin? Glenn Beck? Erick Erickson? Fucking JD Vance?
Every one of them a staunch, principled Never Trumper until money and career opportunities on Team Evil go too juicy. Then, to quote Groucho Marx, “Those are my principles, and if you don't like them... well, I have others."
Now that Republicans have been shoved back hard everywhere and Trump appears to have been measurably weakened, we're seeing all sorts of cultural and political regressions to their various default settings. Especially the slow-moving avalanche among various Republicans to rebrand themselves as Independents.
Which is why, sometime in the next 3 to 6 months, I can confidently predict that an enormous amount of money will once again be poured into various Third Party scams. And that, since form follows function, they will be using the same "Both Sides Do It / Corrupt Duopoly/ Sensible Centrist" language that every Third Party scam has used for the past 60 years.
I can also predict with a high level of confidence that in 6 to 12 months, even more money and Conservative media coverage will be spent trying to rebrand the base of the Republican Party.
Or rather re-re-re-branding them.
Different name.
Different hats.
Same bigots and imbeciles.
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