It’s “a sea of performative moronics” ahead of the mid-terms, says New Abnormal Molly Jong-Fast, and we’re all drowning in it. Just look at “the cruelty, the stupidity and the racism” coming out of Texas right now, where Gov. Greg Abbott seems more interested in getting booked on Fox News than in getting anything done.
Then Jan. 6 committee member Jamie Raskin joins the pod to explain how Republicans transitioned from the party of Lincoln to the party of Trump, “a minority party, a shrinking minority party” that nonetheless “wants to get rid of Liz Cheney, who represents pretty big parts of the conservative Republican establishment. They want to get rid of Adam Kinzinger and Mitt Romney and so on because they don't follow the leader in the way that they’re supposed to.”
Republicans stopped trying to convince voters or expand their tent, he says, “because ‘they are convinced that with the gerrymandering of congressional districts and the voter suppression statutes they’ve been engineering across the country, plus the use of right-wing court packing and right-wing traditional activism, they will be able to hang on to power without growing anymore. I mean, they know all the young people of America are going in the direction of the Democrats” and that’s why “They operate like a religious cult and engage in a series of political conspiracies of the kind that we saw on Jan 6.”
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As to the Democrats, Raskin says, “Our problem is not a shortage of votes or a shortage of people. Hillary Clinton beat Donald Trump by 3 million votes, Joe Biden beat him by 7.5 million votes. We beat them in the last congressional elections by something like 5 million votes. They survive on a bag of tricks” starting with gerrymandering c congressional districts in the states where Republicans control the legislature “and then they’re able to maintain their power in the state legislature with the same mechanism and they keep dealing themselves a winning hand.”
Plus, The Daily Beast congressional reporter Sam Brodey discusses the comeback attempt by “Mama Grizzly” Sarah Palin, who’s “as responsible as anybody for today’s Republican party. But now she’s just another one in that party who is constantly pushing the envelope. She’s not unique anymore. And what’s interesting is that people don’t like give her a ton of deference for doing what she did. Now she’s just kind of in competition with a bunch of other folks who kind of took her her shtick and then like put it on steroids.”
And that, says Brodey, “is kind of an interesting lesson in how quickly very influential Republicans who set the tone and define the contours of the party can be cast aside in favor of the newer, fresher person who’s sort of doing the same thing, but maybe a little more jazzed up. I’m not saying that that’s going to happen to Trump, but I think what happened to Palin is a lesson that it absolutely can happen.”
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