Republicans’ greatest fear
While the mainstream media once again are trying to influence the 2024 elections by inflating false concerns over President Joe Biden and the Democrats, a telltale sign is coming from the Republicans that they are worried about their own chances next year. This Republican concern has appeared in recent attempts to shore up the Republican MAGA base, rather than expand the GOP’s appeal well beyond their narrow base in order to win the presidency and other big elections in 2024. Most notably over the past week:
–New Republican U.S. House Speaker Mike Johnson caved to the MAGAs and reversed course by backing an evidence-free impeachment inquiry by House Republicans against President Biden. Just a few weeks ago, Johnson said there was “insufficient evidence” to proceed with this charade, and no such evidence has come to light since then. However, Johnson angered extremist Republicans recently when he worked with House Democrats to avoid a federal government shutdown. Supporting the phony impeachment inquiry now is a way to throw red meat at these right wingers. Likewise, in a TV appearance, disgraced former House Speaker Newt Gingrich said that House Republicans who do not support Biden’s impeachment will face primary challenges in their own party, again meaning that Republicans should be deathly afraid of their irrational MAGA base.
–U.S. Senate Judiciary Committee Republicans used an appearance by FBI Director Christopher Wray yesterday to weave wacky, irrelevant conspiracy theories and partisan attacks that are the favorite of the MAGA base. These included charges about extremist Catholics, Donald Trump‘s legal troubles, COVID vaccines, and, not surprisingly, Hunter Biden‘s laptop. Of course, none of that Republican nonsense had anything to do with real matters of crime and law enforcement, especially warrantless surveillance under Section 702 of the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act, which was supposed to have been the main topic of Wray’s testimony.
Contrast this with President Biden and the Democrats, who are talking about their record over the past three years in improving the lives of many Americans across the political and economic spectrum. This includes, for example, reversing the disasters of the Trump years (especially the 2020 Trump Recession where millions of jobs were lost), lowering inflation, creating over 14 million new jobs, stunning 5.2 percent growth in the economy last quarter, steps to curb gun violence, student loan forgiveness, and protecting the right to abortion as much as possible against the right wing U.S. Supreme Court. Such Democratic actions, if properly communicated, are likely to appeal to a broad swath of voters.
The 2024 elections are only 11 months away. When one party is still trying to hang on to its relatively small base at this point, that is a true danger sign, whether the mainstream media choose to cover it or not.
Photo by Anthony Crider, used under Creative Commons license. https://is.gd/mEy49Q
