The Case for Nauseous Optimism
I chose the word nauseous over cautious because my stomach is churning at the very possibility Trump could get a second term. But I don’t believe that will happen. The progressive forces in America are overtaking the regressive.
I’m not paying attention to polls. It’s way too early to worry about them. Most of the public hasn’t even focused on the upcoming election.
Biden gave a powerful State of the Union address last Thursday evening — feisty, bold, energetic, and upbeat. He was combative — taking on Trump with gusto, even besting Republican hecklers like MTG. I’m convinced he’s equipped to win reelection.
The broad American public is starting to see just how weird MAGA Republicans really are. Republicans comprise only 28% of voting Americans. More than 40% of voters consider themselves independent, unaffiliated with either party. Most of these independents don’t want the unhinged running the government.
During the State of the Union, Americans saw Republicans heckle and boo Biden and then sit on their hands when Biden declared that “No child should go hungry in this country.” Hello?
The Republican response to Biden’s speech by Alabama Senator Katie Britt was, to say the least, bizarre. Delivered from her kitchen, it vacillated from wholesome to horrific.
The centerpiece of her attack on Biden’s border policies was a story about a 12-year-old Mexican girl who was sex trafficked and raped multiple times a day at the hands of cartels before escaping. But the girl was not, in fact, trafficked across the U.S. border; she never sought asylum in America; and her terrifying experience occurred when George W. Bush was in the White House.
Britt’s oddball performance baffled even fellow right-wingers. “What the hell am I watching right now?” a Trump adviser told Rolling Stone.“It’s one of our biggest disasters ever,” a Republican strategist told The Daily Beast.
The GOP is so out of touch with American values that it’s putting up outspoken bigots for major offices.
Case in point: Mark Robinson, who won the GOP nomination for governor of North Carolina last Tuesday night, has hurled hateful remarks at everyone from Michelle Obama to the survivors of the Parkland school shooting. He’s called the LGBTQ+ community “filth,” wants to outlaw all abortions, and wants to return to a time when women couldn’t vote. He’s also ridiculed the#MeToo movement, women generally, and climate change.
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