Impeachment = Desperation, Being Clear-Eyed About MAGA's Agenda, Welcome Reiders

US To Get Weeks of Reminders About What a Disaster MAGA Is

Friends,

Last night I was a guest on Joy Reid’s MSNBC show, and we talked about three things:

Impeachment Is A Sign of GOP Desperation, Weakness - As we’ve been discussing here over the summer, with GOP attacks on Biden as President becoming much more challenging due to the success of his Administration, the GOP was likely to focus their attacks on him as a man and a father. Thus, what are we getting now from the right? Age and Hunter.

Inflation is down, the economy is strong, China and Russia are stumbling and the West is revitalized, the President’s border plan is working, murder rates are down across the US, US domestic oil production will set records this year…..these policy and political successes are taking away the ability of the right to go after Biden on the economy, inflation, the border, crime, energy, foreign policy/leadership - his Presidency itself. But the right wing noise machine needs to be fed and so we have this ridiculous Impeachment inquiry. From a strategy standpoint, this move to Impeachment is a disaster for Republicans. It will create further distance for the GOP from the bread and butter issues voters care about; and it confirms that when it comes to attacking and indicting Biden as President they have nothing. It’s a remarkable sign of their weakness and desperation in an election they know they are losing. The only way the Rs defeat Biden next year is by besting us on things that really matter to people - the economy, inflation, Ukraine, etc - and these repeated concessions to the MAGA extremists on fringe issues makes that much harder.

Many in the GOP understand what how reckless this all is. Here’s how Punchbowl News describes the Senate Republican reaction to this pathetic stunt:

Senate Republicans are largely dismissive of Speaker Kevin McCarthy’s decision to launch an impeachment inquiry into President Joe Biden, panning it as a futile effort and a questionable use of time when so many other year-end priorities are hanging in the balance.

Most members of Senate GOP leadership we spoke with were cool to the idea. Some said they didn’t see evidence for such an inquiry and others claimed it would simply distract from the urgent work Congress needs to do before the end of the year.

Their responses underscore the simmering tensions between the House and the Senate, which are already at loggerheads on a number of key issues like short-term government funding, FY2024 appropriations and the annual defense policy bill.

As this passage indicates, the House actually has a lot it needs to get done in the next few weeks (add additional Ukraine funding). Dropping the Impeachment bomb on Day 1 of the fall session makes getting all this done much much harder, and was deeply reckless. Here’s Democratic Leader Jeffries:

Desperate, weak, pathetic, reckless, cowardly - those are the words I am using to describe the MAGA/GOP House right now.

I was also grateful that Joy reminded all of us that Trump was Impeached the first time for using illegal and illicit tactics to drum up an investigation into Hunter Biden….and here we are again, 4 years later, with the same failed play from the same deeply troubled and desperate man (Trump).

Being Clear-Eyed About MAGA’s Agenda - The second thing Joy and I discussed was a Tweet I posted yesterday:

As we’ve discussed here, it’s important we use direct, strong language in talking about our achievements and what has happened to them. There is a very powerful normalization bias in our politics today that somehow repeatedly waters down the threat of what MAGA has become, what they are in fact fighting for, what they have done and what they hope to do in the years ahead. That Tweet was my attempt to start getting to a more accurate place about they are trying to do. Let’s take this initial Twitter attempt, and update it a bit:

What MAGA is fighting for:

• The end of American democracy

• Recession, economic decline, plutocratic fiscal policies

• A warmer planet, roll back of climate gains

• More gun violence, more dead kids, less public safety

• 10-year-olds giving birth to their rapists’ babies, loss of rights for women, LGBTQ, all of us….

• Russian victory in Ukraine, weakening of US/West

• Higher gas prices, higher inflation

• Letting COVID run wild, the degradation of our public health system

• Banning books, closing libraries, savaging public education in US

• Reviving child labor in America

• Stripping young Americans of right to vote

• Government-sanctioned assassination/murder of asylum seekers at the border

That’s my working list. What’s yours? What do you think?

Let’s keep workshopping this friends. Their agenda, and what they want to do, is why we are here, why we are fighting, why we are doing the work. MAGA represents an unprecedented threat to our democracy, and all of us, and we cannot, for one moment, contribute in our own communications to the diminution of the threat.

Joy is a member of the Hopium community - Finally, Joy revealed on air last night that she is a Hopium subscriber and fan, and encouraged her viewers to subscribe. A hearty welcome to those who have joined us based on her recommendation, and a big thank you to my friend and pro-democracy warrior, Joy Reid, for all that she does, everyday.

Keep working hard all - Simon