Come for the politics, stay for the snark.

Too often we hand the biggest microphones to the cynics and the critics who delight in declaring failure.

“When somebody takes the time to draw up a playbook, they’re gonna use it.”

If you are still in the gop, you are either an extremist yourself, or in bed with those who are.

Cancel the cowardly Times and Post and set up an equivalent monthly donation to ProPublica.

The next time the wall street journal editorial board speaks the truth will be the first.

“A king is only a king if we bow down.” – Rev. William Barber

Is it irresponsible to speculate? It is irresponsible not to.

If you voted for Trump, you don’t get to speak about ethics, morals, or rule of law.

After dobbs, women are no longer free.

Oppose, oppose, oppose. do not congratulate. this is not business as usual.

Our messy unity will be our strength.

The willow is too close to the house.

Why is it so hard for them to condemn hate?

We can show the world that autocracy can be defeated.

Some judge needs to shut this circus down soon.

America is going up in flames. The NYTimes fawns over MAGA celebrities. No longer a real newspaper.

A tremendous foreign policy asset… to all of our adversaries.

Let’s bury these fuckers at the polls 2 years from now.

Fundamental belief of white supremacy: white people are presumed innocent, minorities are presumed guilty.

I have other things to bitch about but those will have to wait.

Sometimes the world just tells you your cat is here.

The low info voters probably won’t even notice or remember by their next lap around the goldfish bowl.

When they say they are pro-life, they do not mean yours.

Tide comes in. Tide goes out. You can’t explain that.

You are here: Home / Politics / Proud to Be A Democrat / Friday Evening Open Thread: Bring Out the Baseball Bats

Friday Evening Open Thread: Bring Out the Baseball Bats

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End of a godsdamned long week, let’s have some easy (yet earnest!) fun.

Give Mr. Nichols due credit: Once he left the Republican party, he hasn’t wasted his time waffling and weaseling and looking for excuses…

Field notes from an observer:

Friday Evening Open Thread: Bring Out the Baseball Bats

… Indeed, all of this is about buying time, because no one really knows how durable Trump’s hold on his voters will prove. Some Republicans are betting it will be lasting, and hope to capture the benefits. Others want to loosen his grip but aren’t sure how to do so without damaging themselves.

But all their approaches appear to have one thing in common.

Trump attempted to overturn U.S. democracy. He incited mob violence toward that end. He is entirely unrepentant about it and would do it all again. The GOP embraced this MAGA extremism throughout Trump’s presidency and continued to do so even after his coup attempt. It helped result in a historically bad midterm performance. Continued fealty to Trump promises electoral disasters to come.

In one way or another, what must be avoided above all is telling Trump voters these blunt truths.

Reader Interactions

81Comments

  1. 1.

    Elizabelle

    We should do a book thread on Timothy Snyder’s On Tyranny.  Slim book.  Can be read in a day.

    And I think we should start emailing its principles to MSM horse race types, and their editors and publishers.  We need to resist intending autocrats.  Not marvel at their election victories.  DeSantis is a continuation of Trump.

    They are failing us, big time.  They may be doing that for money, circulation/clicks, stupidity, greed.

    But we need to get in their faces.

  3. 3.

    Geminid

    I appreciate the viewpoints of former Republicans like Tom Nichols and Ron Filipkowski. I think they see their former colleagues much more clearly than many Democrats, because they know their old party better.

  5. 5.

    JPL

    @Geminid: That party died years ago when they ran from Bush Sr.  I often mention to my sons, that I voted for certain republicans because of their fiscal and social views.   They both laugh at me and say surely you are kidding.

    Reagan was the one who changed it, though.

  6. 6.

    eclare

    @JPL:   I realize FIFA gots to get paid, but this is ridic.  The human rights issues tower over everything, but this should get everyone’s attention.

  10. 10.

    H.E.Wolf

    @Elizabelle: We should do a book thread on Timothy Snyder’s On Tyranny. Slim book. Can be read in a day.

    Thank you for the book rec! Just checked it out from the local library.

    There’s also “On Bullshit”, by Henry G. Frankfurt, which I’ve been meaning to read someday. According to the author (via Wikipedia article), “bullshit is speech intended to persuade without regard for truth”.

    ETA: Gosh, what recently-twice-impeached person does that sound like?

    en.wikipedia.org/wiki/On_Bullshit

  11. 11.

    HinTN

    In one way or another, what must be avoided above all is telling Trump voters these blunt truths.

    Chicken shits comes to mind. Also quislings.

  12. 12.

    Spanky

    A Republican will vote for any candidate with an (R) after their name instead of even the most perfect (D), even tfg. Not sure what all the chaff in the Nichols tweets is supposed to accomplish.

  13. 13.

    Enhanced Voting Techniques

    Best we can hope for from the GOPer losers is they feebly protest as the DOJ goes after Trump. Nichols is right, the Republicans are just useless.

  16. 16.

    Scout211

    @eclare: They just banned beer in the stadiums at the last minute. Link

    DOHA, Qatar — Two days before the world’s biggest sporting event is set to begin, FIFA announced that beer sales will be banned at the eight World Cup stadiums in Qatar.

    FIFA said in a statement that the decision had been made “following discussions between host country authorities and FIFA.”

    Sales are still permitted at fan events in licensed venues, as well as in-stadium luxury suites that also serve liquor, wine and custom World Cup 2022 champagne.

  18. 18.

    Mr. Bemused Senior

    @zhena gogolia:  I met Pete McCloskey at a fund raiser for Barbara Boxer’s last campaign.  When I told him he was the only Republican my wife had ever voted for he laughed.

  20. 20.

    Jackie

    @eclare:

    “DOHA Nov 18 (Reuters) – Alcoholic beer will not be sold at Qatar’s World Cup stadiums, world soccer governing body FIFA said on Friday, a last minute reversal which raised questions among some supporters about the host country’s ability to deliver on promises to fans.
    The announcement comes two days before Sunday’s kickoff of the World Cup, the first to be held in a conservative Muslim country with strict controls on alcohol, the consumption of which is banned in public.”
    reuters.com/world/middle-east/soccer-qatar-announce-no-alcohol-sales-world-cup-stadium-sites-source-…

  22. 22.

    Citizen_X

    But my conscience & regard for my country could never survive voting for the Democrats.

    Lordy, what a posturing twit.

  23. 23.

    eclare

    @Spanky:   My 92 yo very Republican aunt told me a few days ago that if TFG is the Republican nominee, she will vote for Joe.

    This is seismic.

  24. 24.

    BruceFromOhio

    Trump attempted to overturn U.S. democracy. He incited mob violence toward that end. He is entirely unrepentant about it and would do it all again.

    I have a family member that not only applauds this, also wants it to happen as many times as possible until America is a ruined, smoking hellscape run by white men with guns.

  27. 27.

    Scout211

    Judge in Georgia rules to allow Saturday voting  for the runoff election.

    In a written ruling, Fulton County Superior Court Judge Thomas Cox said that after he “considered the moving papers, arguments of counsel, and references to legal authority,” he determined that Georgia law did not prohibit from keeping the polls open the Saturday after Thanksgiving.

    The decision was in favor of Democratic Sen. Raphael Warnock, who faces Republican challenger Herschel Walker in a December 6 runoff. Warnock’s campaign had spearheaded the Democratic lawsuit challenging state guidance barring voting on that day.

    State election officials had argued in a hearing earlier Friday that early voting on the Saturday after Thanksgiving was not allowed because it violated state law prohibiting voting on Saturday if there is a state holiday on the Thursday or Friday before.

    “The Court finds that the absence of the Saturday vote will irreparably harm the Plaintiffs, their members, and constituents, and their preferred runoff candidate,” Cox wrote in the conclusion of his decision.

  31. 31.

    Danielx

    @eclare:

    By comparison with my dearly beloved auntie, an unreconstructed Roosevelt Democrat. She had to quit watching the news because Trump infuriated her to the point her doc told her it was affecting her health.

  32. 32.

    Jackie

    @Scout211: The Washington Examiner has a much different take: “Judge Hands Warnock Win” I didn’t need to read the article!😂

    I didn’t know only Warnock voters could vote on Saturdays //

  36. 36.

    Geminid

    @JPL: The late M.D. Russ wrote a good article for the conservative journal Bearing Drift that traces this current wave of radicalism back to Nrwt Gingrich’s Contract with America. One could trace it back to the party realignment of the 1970’s, when the racist southern Democrats became a major power center within the party.

    I sometimes trace the party’s radical element all the back to 1860, when the nativist American (“Know Nothing”) Party dissolved itself and added its sizable numbers to the fledgling Republican Party. That might seem like a long time ago, but I think their ideological descendents were the “Taft Republicans” of the 1940s and 50s that Eisenhower gained temporary ascendency over.

    Now its like the Know Nothings and the White Citizens Councils have joined forces  with the politicized Bible Thumpers to dominate the party. But I think this took a while, and culminated with the nomination of Trump in 2016.

    That was Russ’s punchline: “Trump did not hijack the Republican Party….Trump just answered the casting call.”*

     

    M.D.Russ, “Trump is the Republican President, Bearing Drift June 20, 2020).

  37. 37.

    Dangerman

    After last week, I have a better chance of being the next Republican nominee for President (Dangerman/Baud 2024?) than Trump does; I don’t know how they kneecap the fucker without him going 3rd Party, but zero chance he’s their nominee. Republicans will for give a lot of things (Racist, Adulterer, etc) but being a stone cold loser isn’t one of them.

  40. 40.

    Geminid

    @MattF: I once thought of voting for Republican Senator John Warner. But then I said to myself, “Nah, Democrats  are taking it on the chin this year, I gotta support the team.” So I voted for Mark Warner.

  43. 43.

    lurker

    voted for hw twice.  gingrich was an eye opener to what i had been seeing but not really exposed to or understanding while growing up in the 80s.  have not seen a repub candidate for president since who i could support, and looking back on hw it is pretty clear i got that wrong too…

  47. 47.

    CaseyL

    I don’t think I could be a normie if I tried. I’ve been politically aware and active since I was… 14? Maybe longer: my parents weren’t much into politics, but my (maternal) grandparents were very active on a local level for Democrats, and they weren’t at all shy about proselytizing.

    How politically aware was I as a child?

    Well.

    When I was 5 years old – which would have been in 1961 – I had a bad case of something or other, possibly the flu. Bad enough that the doctor came to see me. (Yes: doctors once routinely made house calls.) He resembled JFK enough that, in my fevered state, I was convinced The President had come to see me and make me get better.

    I think the only time in my life I haven’t ardently followed politics was when I had to go back to Florida for a few years in the 1980s. Being a liberal Democrat in South Florida (even back then) was a tough row to hoe, and I think I just gave up rather than seethe all the damn time.

  51. 51.

    geg6

    I voted for John Heinz for Senate.  He was NOT the same animal as today’s GOPers.  A good man, gone too soon. I also voted for Arlen Specter once.  Again, not the same animal.

  52. 52.

    Miss Bianca

    @Citizen_X: But his “conscience and his regard for country” CAN allow him – indeed, apparently, COMPELS him – to vote for the party of violent insurrectionist fascists?

    He’s beyond a posturing twit. He’s traitor trash.

  53. 53.

    Matt McIrvin

    In 1976, when I was 8, I supported Gerald Ford. Why? I think I had this pleasant intuition that the President was ipso facto a good guy and it would be pleasant for him to be reelected. Years earlier, Watergate had mystified me: was Nixon, by virtue of being the President, not by definition a good guy? Why were people picking on him?

    My parents did not agree but they didn’t get upset.

    By 1980 I was a committed liberal, just in time for Democrats to lose all the time and “liberal” to become a nationwide term of abuse. And that’s how I’ve thought about politics ever since, that the gist of it is that most people probably hate me.

  55. 55.

    Geminid

    @Baud: Sounds like Rep. Marcy Kaptur. She started doing volunteer work for the Democratic party when she was 13 years old.

  59. 59.

    Miss Bianca

    @Baud: Sometime between 8 (Nixon all the way, baby!) and 17 (Oh, dear God, people are going to elect the fucking ACTOR?!), I became committed Democrat.

  60. 60.

    Roger Moore

    @Geminid: ​
     

    Now its like the Know Nothings and the White Citizens Councils have joined forces with the politicized Bible Thumpers to dominate the party. But I think this took a while, and culminated with the nomination of Trump in 2016.

    The White Citizens Councils didn’t join forces with the politicized Bible Thumpers; they just rebranded themselves. Politicized bible thumping is just the way they’re selling their racism these days.

  62. 62.

    MobiusKlein

    @Matt McIrvin: ​
      I was 8 at that same time, and had same feelings about Ford. Fast forward to Junior High school, where a cheer went up at the news of Reagan’s shooting.

  63. 63.

    Cameron

    I sometimes (not often) wonder if George Romney could have won if he had beaten out Nixon in the primaries in 1968.  I think I could have voted for him with a clear conscience.  Not so much his offspring.

  67. 67.

    schrodingers_cat

    @Baud: Was always interested in politics. We would exchange newspapers after finishing reading the paper we used to get with our neighbors. So I grew up reading 2 daily newspapers and one afternoon paper (called Mid-day) and one evening paper.

    TV News in India was pretty boring when I was growing up.

  68. 68.

    Misterpuff

    First vote at 19 in 1976 at college for James Earl Carter and have never voted R since (except once: Lowell Weicker for Governor of Connecticut in 1990) Owed him for leading the charge against Nixon when he was a Senator. Not a bad record though I’ve been on the losing side – a lot!

    Never told my son how to vote but now he is a progressive and a Democrat.

    So, I’ve got that going for me,

     

    Oh yeah from a family of Republicans but early on knew I was lefty. Best part:  I have about 13 nieces and nephews —- 75% progressive and Dem

  69. 69.

    James E Powell

    @Geminid:

    I appreciate the viewpoints of former Republicans like Tom Nichols and Ron Filipkowski. I think they see their former colleagues much more clearly than many Democrats, because they know their old party better.

    I’ve mentioned this before, but it’s interesting that they have had close to zero impact on Republican voters.

  70. 70.

    UncleEbeneezer

    Two major mistakes in my voting: 1.) Arnold for CA gov and 2.) Nader in 2000.  I was young and clueless on both cases.  Since then, nothing but Dems.

  71. 71.

    Miss Bianca

    @Baud: 8 yo children who grew up in a staunchly Republican household and staunchly Republican suburb where George McGovern might as well have been Old Scratch? Yeah.

  72. 72.

    Geminid

    @James E Powell: You are right, but I’m not saying that they do and I’m not implying that either..

    I don’t appreciate them because they are effictive at converting Republicans. I appreciate them because they give sounder analysis of the adversary than do many Democrats, who often describe their opponents as if they are two-dimensional cartoon figures.

  73. 73.

    randy khan

    @Geminid:

    John Warner was my last Republican vote, but it was a very special case – that was the year that the Dems decided they didn’t want to field a candidate (an idea I hate) and so his only opponents was a Lyndon Larouche acolyte named Nancy Spannous, who I think said she was a “Larouche Democrat,” but ran as an independent.  I could have chosen not to vote that line, but I decided it was important for her to lose as badly as possible (and she got about 18%, only 2/3 of the crazification factor).

    And I remember the Warner-Warner election, with the “Mark not John” and “John not Mark” bumper stickers, since a “Warner” sticker didn’t really mean much.

  74. 74.

    randy khan

    McLaughlin, who desecrates the sport and its history by using the Twitter handle “baseball crank,” is one of those right-wingers who fancies himself an intellectual and proves on a daily basis that he’s not.  (For those who aren’t into baseball history, in the early days of the game the people we call fans today were known as cranks; I do not know why, but I am happy that term faded away.)  I have rarely seen anything from him that was not either intellectually dishonest or just flat wrong.  So while I appreciate Nichols giving it the old college try, it was predestined not to work.

  75. 75.

    Matt McIrvin

    I would have held my nose and voted for Republican Bill Weld against transcendently awful Democrat John Silber in the 1990 Massachusetts governor’s election, but I was still registered in Virginia and voting absentee at the time, so it was moot for me.

  77. 77.

    Geminid

    @randy khan: I think John Warner was the most popular Virginia politician in my lifetime.

    Warner was an accidental Senator. He was selected to replace Republican nominee Dick Obenshain, who died in a plane crash. Warner then won the general election.

    I thought Warner hit the sweet spot in the Virginia electorate. Independents especially loved him. Since Warner’s retirement the Virginia Republican Party has moved steadily rightward, and they would not now tolerate Warner’s moderation and bipartisanship. They’ve gone from center-right model that Rove and others projected to a Right party.

  78. 78.

    StringOnAStick

    I was born a liberal D.  Unfortunately into a family of John Bircher R’s.  Not a happy childhood or adolescence to say the least.

  79. 79.

    TriassicSands

    Both my parents were staunch Repubicans.

    My first, and worst vote ever, was for Richard Nixon in 1968. We were in the midst of the Vietnam War and LBJ had constantly escalated the war. That was in stark contrast to his “Great Society” agenda. He chose not to run for re-election and Hubert Humphrey got the Democratic nomination. For many reasons, I couldn’t stand HHH and I voted for Nixon, who despite ultimately proving to be a crook, did do some very good things during his time in office, among them creating the EPA and opening relations with the People’s Republic of China. I would have voted for either Robert Kennedy or Eugene McCarthy had one of them gotten the nomination.

    However, when Nixon nominated G. Harold Carswell to the SCOTUS in 1970, I decided I would never support Nixon again. I was already souring on Nixon, his secret plan to end the war remained secret and nonexistent, and Carswell simply didn’t belong on the Supreme Court. Nixon’s contempt for the importance of nominating highly qualified judges convinced me absolutely he should not be president. Senator Roman Hruska, (R-Nebraska) made one of the more famous political quotes of our time: “Even if he [Carswell] were mediocre, there are a lot of mediocre judges and people and lawyers. They are entitled to a little representation, aren’t they, and a little chance?” OMG.

    In 1972, I voted for McGovern and never looked back. I’ve been relatively lucky since then in having reasonably decent, sometimes excellent Democrats to vote for. I haven’t been even slightly tempted to vote for a Republican for president, governor, senator, or representative since 1972. Eight years of Reagan, and his deification by the GOP set my opposition to the Republican Party in stone. People like Gingrich and G. W. Bush/D. Cheney hardened the stone from granite to diamond.

  80. 80.

    James E Powell

    @Geminid:

    I wasn’t saying or implying that you did. I just find it interesting & made an observation.

    I feel like there were enough of them that they had some impact on the Village narrative in 2020. I could be imagining that, but it seemed that way at the time.

    I wonder how they feel. I’m sure that back when they were cheerleading the right-wingers they thought they had followers & fans

  81. 81.

    James E Powell

    @Geminid:

    I wasn’t saying or implying that you did. I just find it interesting & made an observation.

    I feel like there were enough of them that they had some impact on the Village narrative in 2020. I could be imagining that, but it seemed that way at the time.

    I wonder how they feel. I’m sure that back when they were cheerleading the right-wingers they thought they had followers & fans

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