How did we get here? Fear and greed, two forces so potent they can strip away morals, erase integrity, and leave no ground to stand on. A leader with Trump’s personality can wield fear like a weapon, bending people until they abandon their own conscience. And greed? It finishes the job!
Well Stuart I am sure you felt like the white boy that you are every time one of those Republican senators or governors or congressman (bet you didn’t support any women) and Nixon and Reagan an Bush Sr and Jr. Everyone one of those candidates contributed to the disaster we are in today- everyone of those presidents you got elected raised the deficit - everyone of those governors helped destroy voting rights and gerrymandered the crap out of their now RED states. I hope you feel bad. Because I feel bad for you that you played a role in the demise of America as we know it. You and hundreds of other white boys looking for power and money. Yep, I hope you feel real bad.
So, Stuart, how do they “lose” when they’ve rigged the outcome through the apparatus you helped create? If you want redemption, answer that question with a real solution without involving enough of our members of our military making it happen. Yes, that’s what I thought.
I just keep coming back to Citizens United. Until we make a law that keeps big money at a further remove from elections - and something major changed with that decision - then we will lose, because there are too many greedy people willing to turn a blind eye and produce ads and articles for people like Ken Paxton.
Stuart, thanks for doing another one of your witness to history lessons and analysis of the characters!
Always appreciated as a long time Lincoln Project supporter since inception.
I too shook my head at Cornyn’s desperation as a Senator & former judge writing a letter to the FBI when he knows that the FBI has no business going after the Texas representatives out of state.
Incredible how low men will go to maintain power and seek the affection of a convicted felon, rapist, insurrectionist & conman.
Thanks for spotlighting the character of the characters. Do more. Cheers!
Where did all you republicans honestly think the power grab would end? Heritage foundation supreme court nominations, leonard leo... None of you cared.
About thabout the middle class and the lower class ever. We have asked for health care for decades
Please send us a lifeline…every institution is on life support and Trump will not hold another election by every means necessary. Will the Supreme Court go along with Trump’s plan? Or will time run out in 18 months? I am very afraid. Thanks for all you do!
Total bullshit analogy. The Democrats is MORE American than the DAMN Rethugs. And yes, we Dems call you all THUGS. And when you created that HATEFUL bill where you all WIPED OUT medical care for MILLIONS OF AMERICANS - even wiping out RURAL HOSPITALS and even diminished BIG CITY hospitals too. WHO DOES THAT? Thugs, that’s who. We Dems EXPECT IT NOW. That’s pretty sad to say. But YOU KNOW that’s true. What’s next? Well, I’m thinking you’re gonna LOSE YOUR BASE.
Stuart, I have great respect for what you’re doing at the Lincoln Project. How did the Republican Party evolve to nominate and support someone who would have been antithetical to who the Republicans claimed to be from Ford to GW Bush?
You have to look at the electorate that gave Trump the nomination in 2016, and elected him President. Go back to the roots of the 1964 Civil Rights act, and Voting Rights Act. The appeal to white voters as backlash to Blacks having significant electoral power for the first time.
Fast forward to 2008. For the first time in our history, a black man was elected President, for two terms. I give John McCain and Mitt Romney a pass as to appealing to racism; they didn’t.
We’re up to 2016. Democrats nominate a white woman, a long term target for abuse by the GOP. Hillary Clinton, the first woman ever nominated for President. The point is that Republican voters nominated Donald Trump, despite a boatload of GOP possible nominees.
He is a candidate, from his descent on his escalator, who used appeals to racism and misogyny to defeat Clinton. The GOP electorate was and is a white people’s party. A racist backlash helped to elect Trump. The Republican voters, or at least a significant portion embrace Trump, as the avatar for white people’s political power. The MAGA voters are the majority of the party. Running again in 2024 Trump gets 84% of the white vote, as he runs against a very accomplished black woman of Southeast Asian heritage, the sitting Vice President of the US, winning by 1.5%. The Democrats disarray with Biden withdrawing with only 107 days until the election.
The reasons that the GOP is what it is? the MAGA cult in which racism is embedded. Republican candidates live in fear of the MAGA base, and as Trump has consolidated his political power, fear of antagonizing Trump that would lead to their having a Trump supported primary candidate to run against. FEAR. The Republicans in power, at least in Congress, at least a majority of them, are COWARDS, and have demonstrated their amorality in the lust for keeping their power.
Integrity is the issue left by the wayside. Integrity is one of the most important issues in determining whom I vote for or hire or spend time with. I was blessed to be raised in a family where integrity, hard work, respect and helping others was modeled and encouraged every day. My Dad counseled us many times that chronic liars cannot be trusted with our health and safety and that of our family, our financial decisions, and our political votes. Chronic liars only care for themselves he told us and pointed them out to us. Question & research everyone he said. I remember when lying meant the end of a political career.
My maternal grandparents were republicans. Their grandfathers & great grandfathers and uncles were officers and non-coms who volunteered in PA & MI infantry regs in 1861 and fought until the end of the rebellion or until they died. Politics and religion was not discussed in my paternal family - they held strong personal views which occasionally were shared; however, my grandfather and my great aunt appeared to respect the right of everyone to do the same. My beloved paternal grandmother was known for feeding countless strangers during the depression who knocked on doors with their hats in hand asking for anything left over to eat. I know my Dad voted for General/President Dwight David Eisenhower both times. He arrived in Europe in time for the Battle of the Bulge, late 1944-1945, a member of a mortar company, who was so incensed at what he saw that he commented, "They dropped the bomb in the wrong place." My Dad like most non-coms in Europe during WWII, considered Eisenhower the soldier's soldier. Thank you for your commitment and all those of Lincoln Square and the associated groups for using your outstanding skills and wisdom to save our democracy. I was born a liberal democrat (lots of Quaker DNA), but a long time ago I voted for MI Republicans who were some of the first advocates for clean air, water and soil. The focus is saving the Rule of Law, the Bill of Rights, our Constitution and making it safe to disagree.
One of my 5th Great Grandfathers, Caleb Merrell, who fought in a MA infantry reg during the Revolutionary War and in the War of 1812, an early settler of Springfield Twp, Oakland, MI in the 1840s, is buried about an hours drive from where I live, along side of his wife, Sally Giles, whose father Col Giles also fought in the Revolutionary War. Hundreds of my great grandfathers and uncles fought in all the colonies except GA. I honor them and all my immigrant ancestors who settled New England, New York, New Jersey, Pennsylvania, Maryland, Delaware, Virginia and the Carolinas from 1609 thru the mid 1750s. Many came to escape religious persecution from government/state persecution of their religion - how ironic to again being fighting that battle with Christian White Nationalists.
Great podcast but I think it does miss an important point. Like Germany in the 1930’s the middle class is under great stress. People are not their best when they are struggling to get by.
They Dems offer status Cuomo or Socialist Mamdani. We desperately need a 3rd way.
I'm not a Republican, but both parties NEED to become more middle of the road. Both parties shunned middle of the road candidates and every last one of them quit, retired whatever. I also think there needs to some filters when we choose candidates anymore. If they would try harder to work for their constituents instead of themselves.
How did we get here? Fear and greed, two forces so potent they can strip away morals, erase integrity, and leave no ground to stand on. A leader with Trump’s personality can wield fear like a weapon, bending people until they abandon their own conscience. And greed? It finishes the job!
Well Stuart I am sure you felt like the white boy that you are every time one of those Republican senators or governors or congressman (bet you didn’t support any women) and Nixon and Reagan an Bush Sr and Jr. Everyone one of those candidates contributed to the disaster we are in today- everyone of those presidents you got elected raised the deficit - everyone of those governors helped destroy voting rights and gerrymandered the crap out of their now RED states. I hope you feel bad. Because I feel bad for you that you played a role in the demise of America as we know it. You and hundreds of other white boys looking for power and money. Yep, I hope you feel real bad.
So, Stuart, how do they “lose” when they’ve rigged the outcome through the apparatus you helped create? If you want redemption, answer that question with a real solution without involving enough of our members of our military making it happen. Yes, that’s what I thought.
Robert Arnold from Facebook needs to be invited to your platforms.
I just keep coming back to Citizens United. Until we make a law that keeps big money at a further remove from elections - and something major changed with that decision - then we will lose, because there are too many greedy people willing to turn a blind eye and produce ads and articles for people like Ken Paxton.
Stuart, thanks for doing another one of your witness to history lessons and analysis of the characters!
Always appreciated as a long time Lincoln Project supporter since inception.
I too shook my head at Cornyn’s desperation as a Senator & former judge writing a letter to the FBI when he knows that the FBI has no business going after the Texas representatives out of state.
Incredible how low men will go to maintain power and seek the affection of a convicted felon, rapist, insurrectionist & conman.
Thanks for spotlighting the character of the characters. Do more. Cheers!
Thank you Mr Stevens for you honesty and insights. Your words and calm straight talk - It gives my hope that we can find a way through this together.
Where did all you republicans honestly think the power grab would end? Heritage foundation supreme court nominations, leonard leo... None of you cared.
About thabout the middle class and the lower class ever. We have asked for health care for decades
as one prime example of your carelessness.
Anyone who thinks we are not in a Germany 1930’s situation has not studied 1930’s Germany. The only thing missing are the gas chambers.
Please send us a lifeline…every institution is on life support and Trump will not hold another election by every means necessary. Will the Supreme Court go along with Trump’s plan? Or will time run out in 18 months? I am very afraid. Thanks for all you do!
Total bullshit analogy. The Democrats is MORE American than the DAMN Rethugs. And yes, we Dems call you all THUGS. And when you created that HATEFUL bill where you all WIPED OUT medical care for MILLIONS OF AMERICANS - even wiping out RURAL HOSPITALS and even diminished BIG CITY hospitals too. WHO DOES THAT? Thugs, that’s who. We Dems EXPECT IT NOW. That’s pretty sad to say. But YOU KNOW that’s true. What’s next? Well, I’m thinking you’re gonna LOSE YOUR BASE.
Love having you as a Vermonter Stuart. Hello from Barre. Used to live in Stowe where you now publish stuff.
Stuart, I have great respect for what you’re doing at the Lincoln Project. How did the Republican Party evolve to nominate and support someone who would have been antithetical to who the Republicans claimed to be from Ford to GW Bush?
You have to look at the electorate that gave Trump the nomination in 2016, and elected him President. Go back to the roots of the 1964 Civil Rights act, and Voting Rights Act. The appeal to white voters as backlash to Blacks having significant electoral power for the first time.
Fast forward to 2008. For the first time in our history, a black man was elected President, for two terms. I give John McCain and Mitt Romney a pass as to appealing to racism; they didn’t.
We’re up to 2016. Democrats nominate a white woman, a long term target for abuse by the GOP. Hillary Clinton, the first woman ever nominated for President. The point is that Republican voters nominated Donald Trump, despite a boatload of GOP possible nominees.
He is a candidate, from his descent on his escalator, who used appeals to racism and misogyny to defeat Clinton. The GOP electorate was and is a white people’s party. A racist backlash helped to elect Trump. The Republican voters, or at least a significant portion embrace Trump, as the avatar for white people’s political power. The MAGA voters are the majority of the party. Running again in 2024 Trump gets 84% of the white vote, as he runs against a very accomplished black woman of Southeast Asian heritage, the sitting Vice President of the US, winning by 1.5%. The Democrats disarray with Biden withdrawing with only 107 days until the election.
The reasons that the GOP is what it is? the MAGA cult in which racism is embedded. Republican candidates live in fear of the MAGA base, and as Trump has consolidated his political power, fear of antagonizing Trump that would lead to their having a Trump supported primary candidate to run against. FEAR. The Republicans in power, at least in Congress, at least a majority of them, are COWARDS, and have demonstrated their amorality in the lust for keeping their power.
Integrity is the issue left by the wayside. Integrity is one of the most important issues in determining whom I vote for or hire or spend time with. I was blessed to be raised in a family where integrity, hard work, respect and helping others was modeled and encouraged every day. My Dad counseled us many times that chronic liars cannot be trusted with our health and safety and that of our family, our financial decisions, and our political votes. Chronic liars only care for themselves he told us and pointed them out to us. Question & research everyone he said. I remember when lying meant the end of a political career.
My maternal grandparents were republicans. Their grandfathers & great grandfathers and uncles were officers and non-coms who volunteered in PA & MI infantry regs in 1861 and fought until the end of the rebellion or until they died. Politics and religion was not discussed in my paternal family - they held strong personal views which occasionally were shared; however, my grandfather and my great aunt appeared to respect the right of everyone to do the same. My beloved paternal grandmother was known for feeding countless strangers during the depression who knocked on doors with their hats in hand asking for anything left over to eat. I know my Dad voted for General/President Dwight David Eisenhower both times. He arrived in Europe in time for the Battle of the Bulge, late 1944-1945, a member of a mortar company, who was so incensed at what he saw that he commented, "They dropped the bomb in the wrong place." My Dad like most non-coms in Europe during WWII, considered Eisenhower the soldier's soldier. Thank you for your commitment and all those of Lincoln Square and the associated groups for using your outstanding skills and wisdom to save our democracy. I was born a liberal democrat (lots of Quaker DNA), but a long time ago I voted for MI Republicans who were some of the first advocates for clean air, water and soil. The focus is saving the Rule of Law, the Bill of Rights, our Constitution and making it safe to disagree.
One of my 5th Great Grandfathers, Caleb Merrell, who fought in a MA infantry reg during the Revolutionary War and in the War of 1812, an early settler of Springfield Twp, Oakland, MI in the 1840s, is buried about an hours drive from where I live, along side of his wife, Sally Giles, whose father Col Giles also fought in the Revolutionary War. Hundreds of my great grandfathers and uncles fought in all the colonies except GA. I honor them and all my immigrant ancestors who settled New England, New York, New Jersey, Pennsylvania, Maryland, Delaware, Virginia and the Carolinas from 1609 thru the mid 1750s. Many came to escape religious persecution from government/state persecution of their religion - how ironic to again being fighting that battle with Christian White Nationalists.
Great podcast but I think it does miss an important point. Like Germany in the 1930’s the middle class is under great stress. People are not their best when they are struggling to get by.
They Dems offer status Cuomo or Socialist Mamdani. We desperately need a 3rd way.
https://bsky.app/profile/truthmatters4.bsky.social/post/3lvua2dqcjk2l
I'm not a Republican, but both parties NEED to become more middle of the road. Both parties shunned middle of the road candidates and every last one of them quit, retired whatever. I also think there needs to some filters when we choose candidates anymore. If they would try harder to work for their constituents instead of themselves.