Republican Assault on Democracy and March Towards Fascism

[LFC]

Feb 24, 2022 19:20:27 GMT pnwguy said:

Republican governed areas are a shining city on a hill, don't you know?

More bullshit. There aren't any hills in Florida! (Well, maybe a couple of landfills.)

[pnwguy]

Feb 24, 2022 19:21:36 GMT LFC said:

Feb 24, 2022 19:20:27 GMT pnwguy said:

Republican governed areas are a shining city on a hill, don't you know?

More bullshit. There aren't any hills in Florida! (Well, maybe a couple of landfills.)

They do have termite mounds.  After enough climate change encroachment of the oceans, they might be all that's left.

[Bact PhD]

Feb 24, 2022 19:10:40 GMT LFC said:

Feb 24, 2022 17:39:03 GMT pnwguy said:

Next up: Florida resident arrested after Governor DeSantis claims his reporting of a pothole on state route 528 was a crime to frighten motorists and cause accidents.

Is state route 528 in a highly Democratic area? If not I call bullshit.

SR 528, aka the “Beachline Expressway” and fka the “Beeline Expressway”, runs from just west of Orlando directly to Cocoa Beach/the Space Coast area. The premise is that reporting a pothole (gasp!) on that stretch of road would drive away the tourists and their precious dollars. Not necessarily about voting patterns in that area per se.

[Bact PhD]

Feb 24, 2022 19:26:21 GMT pnwguy said:

Feb 24, 2022 19:21:36 GMT LFC said:

More bullshit. There aren't any hills in Florida! (Well, maybe a couple of landfills.)

They do have termite mounds.  After enough climate change encroachment of the oceans, they might be all that's left.

Fire ant piles, too.

[LFC]

Feb 25, 2022 3:49:34 GMT Bact PhD said:

Fire ant piles, too.

No wonder fire ants are so angry. (Or have I misunderstood the meaning of "piles"?)

[Bact PhD]

Feb 25, 2022 21:56:25 GMT LFC said:

Feb 25, 2022 3:49:34 GMT Bact PhD said:

Fire ant piles, too.

No wonder fire ants are so angry. (Or have I misunderstood the meaning of "piles"?)

[LFC]

Per Arizona's dirtbag governor a white supremacist is better than a Democrat. They really aren't trying to hide it anymore.

Overton Window Dragged To Hell

On Thursday, Arizona Gov. Doug Ducey (R) defended his independent expenditures spending half a million dollars to support far-right Arizona state Sen. Wendy Rogers (R), who cozies up to white nationalists and spews white nationalist talking points, in the 2020 election against her Democratic opponent.

• Ducey made it clear he still stands by the cash boost, telling reporters that he’s “proud of what we’ve been able to accomplish.”

• Oh, “and she’s still better than her opponent, Felicia French,” the Republican governor said.

[LFC]

Romney spoke up against to the fascist Putin-puffing Republicans. It's sad how the most basic defense of freedom, democracy, and decency by a Republican is now a glaring exception.

Sen. Mitt Romney (R-UT) on Sunday called out members of the Republican Party who have defended Russian President Vladimir Putin as he wages war on Ukraine.

Appearing on CNN, Romney was pressed on the pro-Putin sentiment that has emerged within some corners of the GOP. Some far-right figures have praised the Russian president and defended his aggression toward Ukraine by vilifying the country.

After claiming that some Republicans who glorified Putin are now “changing their stripes” upon seeing condemnations of his attack on Ukraine from world leaders, Romney expressed his disbelief over any American who still stands by Putin.

“But how anybody, how anybody in this country, which loves freedom, can side with Vladimir Putin, which is an oppressor, a dictator — he kills people. He imprisons his political opponents. He has been an adversary of America at every chance he’s had,” Romney said.

Romney added that it makes him “ill” to see Republicans side with Putin. Romney argued that Putin backers within the GOP throw their support behind the Russian president for “shock value.”

“It’s unthinkable to me. It’s almost treasonous. And it just makes me ill to see some of these people do that,” Romney said. “But, of course, they do it because they think it’s shock value, and it’s going to get them more eyeballs, and maybe make a little more money for them or their network. It’s disgusting.”

“And I’m hopeful that you’re seeing some of those people recognize just how wrong they were,” Romney continued.

Romney was then asked whether he views former President Trump as someone who falls into the “treasonous” category. The former president has repeatedly praised Putin despite criticizing the Russian president’s invasion of Ukraine.

“Well, I said it’s nearly treasonous,” Romney said. “There’s — standing up for freedom is the right thing to do in America. And anything less than that, in my opinion, is unworthy of American support.”

[LFC]

Sen. Tom Cotton (R-ARe an Asshole) can't bring himself to criticize Trump's support of Putin. Remember when it was only Rep. Dana Rohrabacher (R-CAll Me, Vlad!) was the only obvious supporter of the Russian thugocracy? What a bunch of cynical, spineless, immoral cowards.

Sen. Tom Cotton (R-AR) on Sunday repeatedly refused to condemn former President Trump’s glowing praise of Russian President Vladimir Putin amid Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.

Appearing on ABC News, Cotton was asked whether he would condemn the former president’s repeated praise of Putin. During remarks at CPAC on Saturday night, Trump heaped more praise onto Putin by calling the Russian president “smart,” despite criticizing Russia’s attack on Ukraine as “appalling.”

Cotton dodged the question posed by ABC News host anchor George Stephanopolous.

“George, you heard what I had to say about Vladimir Putin,” Cotton said. “That he is a ruthless dictator who’s launched a naked, unprovoked war of aggression.”

Cotton found a way to swipe at former President Obama instead.

“Thankfully, the Ukrainian army has anti-tank missiles that President Obama would not supply, that we did supply last time Republicans were in charge in Washington,” Cotton said. “That’s why it’s so urgent that we continue to supply those weapons to Ukraine.”

Pressed again on why he can’t condemn Trump for praising Putin amid Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, Cotton continued to sidestep the question.

[goldenvalley]

Romney and his folks are trying to make hay out of the response by Obama to his comment about Russia in a 2012 debate.  But we all know Romney was thinking old style Soviet Russia and old style Republican attitudes towards the USSR when he said that. But history show that the take over in Georgia was during Bush the Younger's watch in 2008. Crimea wasn't taken until 2014, a much more ominous precursor to the current war.

[LFC]

Steve Bannon has been pushing the strategy of fascists like the Oath Keepers and Three Percenters taking over as many low-level Republican Party positions as they can so that they may eventually control the GOP. Trump finally caught wind of it and endorses the plan. America's right-wingers continue to goose step forward.

Former President Donald Trump has officially endorsed a plan, created by a man who has self-identified with the Oath Keeper militia, that aims to have Trump supporters consolidate control of the Republican Party.

The plan, known as the “precinct strategy,” has been repeatedly promoted on Steve Bannon’s popular podcast. As ProPublica detailed last year, it has already inspired thousands of people to fill positions at the lowest rung of the party ladder. Though these positions are low-profile and often vacant, they hold critical powers: They help elect higher-ranking party officers, influence which candidates appear on the ballot, turn out voters on Election Day and even staff the polling precincts where people vote and the election boards that certify the results.

“Just heard about an incredible effort underway that will strengthen the Republican Party,” Trump said Sunday in a statement emailed to his supporters. “If members of our Great movement start getting involved (that means YOU becoming a precinct committeeman for your voting precinct), we can take back our great Country from the ground up.”

[pnwguy]

Mar 3, 2022 15:55:19 GMT LFC said:

Steve Bannon has been pushing the strategy of fascists like the Oath Keepers and Three Percenters taking over as many low-level Republican Party positions as they can so that they may eventually control the GOP. Trump finally caught wind of it and endorses the plan. America's right-wingers continue to goose step forward.

Former President Donald Trump has officially endorsed a plan, created by a man who has self-identified with the Oath Keeper militia, that aims to have Trump supporters consolidate control of the Republican Party.

The plan, known as the “precinct strategy,” has been repeatedly promoted on Steve Bannon’s popular podcast. As ProPublica detailed last year, it has already inspired thousands of people to fill positions at the lowest rung of the party ladder. Though these positions are low-profile and often vacant, they hold critical powers: They help elect higher-ranking party officers, influence which candidates appear on the ballot, turn out voters on Election Day and even staff the polling precincts where people vote and the election boards that certify the results.

“Just heard about an incredible effort underway that will strengthen the Republican Party,” Trump said Sunday in a statement emailed to his supporters. “If members of our Great movement start getting involved (that means YOU becoming a precinct committeeman for your voting precinct), we can take back our great Country from the ground up.”

Bannon will be the first recipient of The Order Of Trump when Dumpster reclaims his role as Supreme Leader in 2025.  Dumpster can pin it on one of his 3 dirty shirts.

[goldenvalley]

Mar 3, 2022 18:57:22 GMT pnwguy said:

Mar 3, 2022 15:55:19 GMT LFC said:

Steve Bannon has been pushing the strategy of fascists like the Oath Keepers and Three Percenters taking over as many low-level Republican Party positions as they can so that they may eventually control the GOP. Trump finally caught wind of it and endorses the plan. America's right-wingers continue to goose step forward.

Bannon will be the first recipient of The Order Of Trump when Dumpster reclaims his role as Supreme Leader in 2025.  Dumpster can pin it on one of his 3 dirty shirts.

Funny isn't it, how Bannon was a great guy until the media and popular entertainment started talking more about Bannon than about Trump.  Then Bannon was banished.  Now he's a great guy again.

Bannon is a menace, not stupid; he knows how to reach the crazies and they are emboldened by him.  He knows he can't be a front runner candidate for anything because he's personally repulsive.  The Europeans sent him packing maybe because the idea of violent fire arm backed overthrow is still not acceptable to the uber right wingers there.

[LFC]

Controlling the narrative is key to fascism. Actually having to defend your proposals and previous actions in a fair and open forum doesn't fly with the Republican Fascism Party.

RNC Attacks Presidential Debate Organizer Again

Republican National Committee chair Ronna McDaniel sent a letter to the Committee on Presidential Debates (CPD) telling the organization not to fundraise off potential GOP participation in the 2024 CPD-sponsored debates, the Wall Street Journal reported on Thursday.

• McDaniel also told the organization that she was sure that the RNC’s proposed resolution requiring its presidential candidates to pledge not to participate in CPD-sponsored debates would pass “overwhelmingly” when it gets put to a vote later this year.

• It’s an escalation of the RNC’s war on the CPD prompted by Trump’s whining that the debates were rigged against him. McDaniel is also mad that the CPD changed one of the 2020 debates to a virtual format, a decision the organization made because Trump had come down with COVID-19.

[goldenvalley]

Mar 4, 2022 18:42:41 GMT LFC said:

Controlling the narrative is key to fascism. Actually having to defend your proposals and previous actions in a fair and open forum doesn't fly with the Republican Fascism Party.

RNC Attacks Presidential Debate Organizer Again

Republican National Committee chair Ronna McDaniel sent a letter to the Committee on Presidential Debates (CPD) telling the organization not to fundraise off potential GOP participation in the 2024 CPD-sponsored debates, the Wall Street Journal reported on Thursday.

• McDaniel also told the organization that she was sure that the RNC’s proposed resolution requiring its presidential candidates to pledge not to participate in CPD-sponsored debates would pass “overwhelmingly” when it gets put to a vote later this year.

• It’s an escalation of the RNC’s war on the CPD prompted by Trump’s whining that the debates were rigged against him. McDaniel is also mad that the CPD changed one of the 2020 debates to a virtual format, a decision the organization made because Trump had come down with COVID-19.

Really though those "debates" offer no information that is useful to a good faith voter. People watch them as if they are boxing matches. The debates produce some sound bites that the candidates use to pound each other with...a complete waste of time. Until politics stops being gang warfare, I say abolish all debates.

[goldenvalley]

Those retired veterans who joined Oath Keepers, 3 %, etc to assault the Capitol on 1/6, to squawk about vaccination and mask mandates, and who otherwise like to walk around armed to the teeth in their WalMart camo talking big and tough about freedom should do what these folks are doing: 

All across the United States, small groups of military veterans are gathering, planning and getting passports in order. After years of serving in smoldering occupations, trying to spread democracy in places that had only a tepid interest in it, many are hungry for what they see as a righteous fight to defend freedom against an autocratic aggressor with a conventional and target-rich army.

The outpouring of support is driven, veterans said, by past experiences. Some want to try to recapture the intense clarity and purpose they felt in war, which is often missing in modern suburban life. Others want a chance to make amends for failed missions in Iraq and Afghanistan, and see the fight to defend a democracy against a totalitarian invader as the reason they joined the military.

If they're so bored being retired they get swept up looking for imaginary enemies in the US here's is something for the 1/6 folks to do.  Too bad sending them over to Ukraine isn't an option for the sentencing some of these folks need to receive.

[AnBr]

Mar 5, 2022 23:18:36 GMT goldenvalley said:

Those retired veterans who joined Oath Keepers, 3 %, etc to assault the Capitol on 1/6, to squawk about vaccination and mask mandates, and who otherwise like to walk around armed to the teeth in their WalMart camo talking big and tough about freedom should do what these folks are doing: 

All across the United States, small groups of military veterans are gathering, planning and getting passports in order. After years of serving in smoldering occupations, trying to spread democracy in places that had only a tepid interest in it, many are hungry for what they see as a righteous fight to defend freedom against an autocratic aggressor with a conventional and target-rich army.

The outpouring of support is driven, veterans said, by past experiences. Some want to try to recapture the intense clarity and purpose they felt in war, which is often missing in modern suburban life. Others want a chance to make amends for failed missions in Iraq and Afghanistan, and see the fight to defend a democracy against a totalitarian invader as the reason they joined the military.

If they're so bored being retired they get swept up looking for imaginary enemies in the US here's is something for the 1/6 folks to do.  Too bad sending them over to Ukraine isn't an option for the sentencing some of these folks need to receive.

"Insisting on your rights without acknowledging your responsibilities isn't freedom, it is adolescence."

[LFC]

This is what happens when a governor decides that National Guard is their own personal plaything to be deployed, very badly and poorly equipped, for months on end so they can score political points. It's a small version of Trump wanting a military parade to stroke his own ego. Abbott is such a ... Republican. (Paywalled)

How Greg Abbott’s Border Deployment Stunt Turned Into A Political Nightmare
On his way to a third term, Texas' governor deployed thousands of National Guard troops to the border. Now, they're finding their voices.
By Matt Shuham | March 1, 2022 8:59 a.m.

Today has a special significance for Texas Gov. Greg Abbott (R).

Today’s the day Texas voters will decide whether he deserves the Republican Party’s nomination to run for a third term in office. If successful this week and in November’s general election, Abbott will soon trail behind only Rick Perry as the longest-serving governor in the state’s history, a crowning achievement for a shrewd culture warrior who’s positioned himself against the Biden administration and openly considered a 2024 presidential run.

And as Republican voters decide, Abbott is hitting one point harder than any other: stopping migration from Mexico across the southern border. “SECURING THE BORDER,” reads the top issue on Abbott’s website. On social media, he seethes about the Russian and Chinese migrants detained at the border — “We will get to the bottom of it” — and declares that, in contrast to the Biden administration, “TX is building a wall.”

But the “we” in Abbott’s statement isn’t Abbott: It’s the Texas Military Department, and specifically, thousands upon thousands of members of the Texas National Guard who’ve been deployed to the border on a “disaster” basis since last fall. The deployment, named “Operation Lone Star,” is Abbott’s mission to use state military resources to supplement federal immigration law enforcement.

The ploy has come with a steep price: Thousands of National Guard members have been away from their families for months at a time, with no end in sight. They’re living in densely-packed trailers and dealing with an array of pay issues and missing equipment. Many feel as though they’ve been sent to do a political errand, not an essential state security operation.

Six members on the mission have died since October, four of those from suicide, and reports of alcohol abuse, depression, and anger at the state are common.

Abbott’s competitors have jumped on a growing wave of discontent from National Guard troops and their loved ones. “Why is this happening? Because we rushed into a failure,” Allen West, the state GOP’s former chair and Abbott’s top primary competition, told Texas Public Radio recently. “We decided that it was all about political optics. It was about a political opportunity.” Beto O’Rourke, the frontrunner in the Democratic primary, called the situation “an embarrassment.”

And in recent weeks, some new voices have joined the discussion: the troops themselves. In online communities, media exposés, leaked morale surveys and even a fledgling union drive, Texas National Guard members are venting their frustration at being used for a seemingly endless political stunt.

It's been a cluster-funk from the get-go.

Unlike long-term overseas deployments, troops were shipped out to the U.S.-Mexico border on a “disaster” timeline — immediately. And as Abbott’s political opponents and the Guard members themselves have said in the months since, that left some basics severely lacking: Troops dealt with late and inaccurate pay for months, sometimes requiring hours-long trips to pick up physical checks. Even now, Guard members told TPM, checks are often late. Other National Guardsmen are still missing equipment, like cold weather gear and body armor.

Plus it sounds like they don't actually have a mission, or at least not one that justifies the size of the deployment. They just need to be deployed so Abbott can thump his pathetic little chest and appear to be doing something.

“I work probably two hours a day. I just go back to my room and drink. And then rinse and repeat. I’ve been doing this for four months,” one member of the Guard told TPM. “I really don’t have a problem with the mission. I think the execution was the issue, and the fact that we have way too many soldiers down at the border, and a lot of them aren’t doing jack shit.”

[LFC]

Fascism, plain and simple. They just effectively said "Let me see your papers!"

Voting rights groups have filed a lawsuit seeking to stop a pro-Trump group from going door-to-door in Colorado in search of evidence to support voter fraud allegations that have already been debunked and rejected by courts.

The lawsuit alleges that the U.S. Election Integrity Plan — led by Shawn Smith, an ally of former Trump strategist Steve Bannon and MyPillow founder Mike Lindell — is sending armed members door-to-door in areas with large numbers of voters of color, questioning people about how they voted and taking photographs of their homes.

The lawsuit, which is backed by the state chapter of the NAACP, the League of Women Voters and Mi Familia Vota, alleges that the "voter intimidation" campaign violates the Voting Rights Act of 1965 and the Ku Klux Klan Act of 1871, a post-Civil War law aimed at preventing white vigilantes from terrorizing Black people to stop them from voting.

[pnwguy]

Mar 21, 2022 16:33:33 GMT LFC said:

Fascism, plain and simple. They just effectively said "Let me see your papers!"

"Did you vote for Putin Trump in 2020? No, then let me mark your house for our target practice"

[goldenvalley]

Mar 21, 2022 16:33:33 GMT LFC said:

Fascism, plain and simple. They just effectively said "Let me see your papers!"

Voting rights groups have filed a lawsuit seeking to stop a pro-Trump group from going door-to-door in Colorado in search of evidence to support voter fraud allegations that have already been debunked and rejected by courts.

The lawsuit alleges that the U.S. Election Integrity Plan — led by Shawn Smith, an ally of former Trump strategist Steve Bannon and MyPillow founder Mike Lindell — is sending armed members door-to-door in areas with large numbers of voters of color, questioning people about how they voted and taking photographs of their homes.

The lawsuit, which is backed by the state chapter of the NAACP, the League of Women Voters and Mi Familia Vota, alleges that the "voter intimidation" campaign violates the Voting Rights Act of 1965 and the Ku Klux Klan Act of 1871, a post-Civil War law aimed at preventing white vigilantes from terrorizing Black people to stop them from voting.

Yeah I heard a webinar with the local county elections official last week who explained in great detail how ballots are handled...all the security measures, etc.  This is California in which 78% of the ballots cast in the March 2020 primary (pre Covid shutdown) were vote by mail ballots; in a county in which 80% of the voters were permanent vote by mail voters.  Yet in the Q & A session someone asked if she could prove that no one cast a vote by mail ballot that didn't belong to them.  And do they ever contact voters to find out if they actually voted.

[LFC]

Mar 21, 2022 17:25:54 GMT pnwguy said:

Mar 21, 2022 16:33:33 GMT LFC said:

Fascism, plain and simple. They just effectively said "Let me see your papers!"

"Did you vote for Putin Trump in 2020? No, then let me mark your house for our target practice"

Welcome to "2nd Amendment solutions."

[pnwguy]

Mar 21, 2022 18:43:18 GMT LFC said:

Mar 21, 2022 17:25:54 GMT pnwguy said:

"Did you vote for Putin Trump in 2020? No, then let me mark your house for our target practice"

Welcome to "2nd Amendment solutions."

And wait until SCOTUS TRUMPUS endorses more "gun rights" for everyone. 

How about we define Gun Rights to be where I have the right NOT to be confronted by guns anywhere and everywhere?

[LFC]

Fascist Kevin McCarthy is ranting about punishing Adam Schiff, his political enemy, for the usual: not actually doing what he's screeching about while the Republicans have done it.

On Monday, writing for MSNBC, columnist Steve Benen tore into House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy (R-CA) for his pretense for vowing to remove Rep. Adam Schiff (D-CA) from the House Intelligence Committee should Republicans take control of the House.

“Why is he still chair of the committee? And why is he even on the committee?” said McCarthy, according to the Washington Times. “In a new Congress, if it’s a new majority, he will not be. You cannot make this committee political.” He claimed that in particular, what made the committee "political" was he didn't investigate Hunter Biden's laptop.

"First, there’s little to suggest Schiff has done what McCarthy has accused him of doing. To hear the minority leader tell it, the California Democrat has both 'lied' and 'politicized' the intelligence committee. He’s actually done neither," wrote Benen. "Second, if McCarthy is concerned about the politicization of the House Intelligence panel, I’d love to introduce the minority leader to Devin Nunes — who, during his tenure as Schiff’s predecessor, literally held secret meetings at the Trump White House as part of a ham-fisted political scheme."

It would actually be unprecedented for McCarthy to boot the other party's committee leader off of the congressional panel. In fact, Republicans have made clear they are itching to do this in part as revenge for Democrats taking the step of stripping Reps. Marjorie Taylor Greene (R-GA) and Paul Gosar (R-AZ) of their committee assignments for extremist behavior, something that was itself unprecedented because generally both parties have policed their own members and revoked assignments themselves when members are this embroiled in controversy.

"The problem, to the extent that reality matters, is that Gosar and Greene were punished for a specific reason: They’re members who were accused of espousing violence. Democrats didn’t change the rules so much as they set a standard: To talk of political violence is to cross an important line," wrote Benen. "What McCarthy described on Friday is something different: To reject conspiracy theories about Hunter Biden’s laptop is also to cross a line."

[pnwguy]

Like many Never Trumpers, Jennifer Rubin is slowly making up for her past RW cheerleading.

Many Never-Trump Republicans and Democrats struggle to understand how the U.S. electorate seems so willing to return Republicans to power after they spread the “big lie” of a stolen election, fed an insurrection and still won’t acknowledge their nominee lost in 2020. For an explanation, they should look to how other previously democratic countries have fallen to autocracy.

As Milan W. Svolik wrote for Journal of Democracy in 2019, democracies are most vulnerable to strongmen who were initially elected, such as Hugo Chávez and his successor Nicolás Maduro in Venezuela, Vladimir Putin in Russia, Viktor Orban in Hungary and Recep Tayyip Erdoğan in Turkey. Svolik writes that in these situations, the autocrats’ tactics “rarely amount to an outright violation of core democratic principles.”

Instead, he writes, executive takeovers have often been “gradual” and “legalistic.” Autocrats don’t have to bar elections (at least initially); they just control who gets to vote and who counts the votes. And they do not ban the free press right away; they change the law on defamation. The attenuated legal theories that Republicans have used to justify their attempt to overthrow the 2020 election personifies this approach.

Strongmen often take advantage of those who are more horrified by the other side winning through democratic means than by their own side winning through anti-democratic processes. This is tribalism or “negative partisanship.” We heard it during the 2016 election from many mainstream Republicans: “Yeah, Trump is bad, but Hillary Clinton is worse.” And in 2020, it became “Trump is bad, but Joe Biden would be a tool of dangerous socialists.”

Svolik found there are certain democracies that are especially vulnerable to autocratic demagogues. “In sharply polarized electorates, even voters who value democracy will be willing to sacrifice fair democratic competition for the sake of electing politicians who champion their interests, “ he writes. “When punishing a leader’s authoritarian tendencies requires voting for a platform, party, or person that his supporters detest, many will find this too high a price to pay.”

That is precisely why Republicans spend so much time painting Democrats as keen to destroy Americans’ “way of life.” It also explains why Republicans often take stray comments from outliers on the left and attaching them to the entire Democratic Party (as Republicans did with the “defund the police” slogan) and use empty invectives such as “woke” and “elites.” Whatever their own faults, Republican politicians tell voters that Democrats are far more evil, with amplification from screeching right-wing media.

In the United States, race adds fuel to the partisan fire. Years of “priming the pump” — that is, convincing Whites they are the true victims — allows Republican politicians to use White grievance to whip their base into a fury on irrational or baseless fears (e.g., critical race theory). They then use that to goad voters into sticking with a party that has done more to undermine democracy than any other since the pro-segregation Dixiecrats.

That presents Democrats with a quandary: They can argue, “We aren’t socialists!” or “critical race theory is nonsense,” but that forces them to campaign on Republicans’ terms. Democrats can try to ignore the smears, but that doesn’t work very well either.

What could work? Democrats could focus on their “brand” and be forceful about what they do stand for: helping the little guy, creating opportunity, building infrastructure, securing health care. In doing so, they can reaffirm their attachment to American values. President Biden’s on to something when he says, “There is nothing America can’t do if we put our minds to it” or describes America in one word, “possibilities.”

Democrats also need to remind voters that Republican have fallen into cultlike worship of authoritarianism, undermining elections, bullying LGBTQ kids and offering bounties for women who seek abortions. And they should explain how extreme Republican policy ideas are (e.g., repealing Obamacare, raising taxes on low-income Americans, ignoring climate change). Democrats have the additional benefit of being able to accurately portray their opposing party as one that normalizes violence and wants to use government to create havoc (Shut down the government! Default on the debt!).

So long as Republicans are free to label Democrats as “socialists,” they will try to claw their way back to power simply by scaring voters. Democrats would be wise to call them out (” there you go again”), remind voters not only of their accomplishments but of their values and explain the risk of returning Republicans to power. It’s not guaranteed to work, but it’s better than unilateral rhetorical disarmament or ignoring the problem.