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Former President Donald Trump issued a 700-word statement on Thursday complaining about Fox News analyst Karl Rove.
"Karl Rove has been losing for years, except for himself," Trump began.
"Karl Rove's voice on Fox is always negative for those who know how to win. He certainly hasn't helped Fox in the ratings department, has he?" Trump asked.
<p>"Never had much of a feeling for Karl, in that I disagreed with so many of the things he says. He's a pompous fool with bad advice and always has an agenda. He ran the campaign for two Senators in Georgia, and did a rotten job with bad ads and concepts. Should have been an easy win, but he and his friend Mitch blew it with their $600 vs. $2,000 proposal. Karl would be much more at home at the disastrous Lincoln Project. I heard they have numerous openings!" he wrote.</p><p>"If the Republican Party is going to be successful, they're going to have to stop dealing with the likes of Karl Rove and just let him float away, or retire, like Liddle' Bob Corker, Jeff "Flakey" Flake, and others like Toomey of Pennsylvania, who will soon follow. Let's see what happens to Liz Cheney of Wyoming," he said.</p><p>"Karl Rove is all talk and no action! Next time Karl, save your Election night phone call and keep doing a great job for the Democrats. Fox should get rid of Karl Rove and his ridiculous 'whiteboard' as soon as possible!" Trump wrote.</p>
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<div style="margin:1em 0">INBOX: A statement from the former president of the United States about Karl Rove: https://t.co/9D7pG0JLj7</div> — Darren Samuelsohn (@Darren Samuelsohn)
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Mr. Potato Head, Dr. Seuss and trans kids: How Democrats are already letting Republicans win in 2022
March 04, 2021
It's early, but Republicans have already seized on their strategy for winning the 2022 and 2024 elections.
Of course, it does not depend on mundane tactics like "running on their record" or "making robust arguments about how their policies are better than their opponents." The GOP is instead returning to the well that has, time and again, paid off handsomely: feigning umbrage over culture war flashpoints, usually ones wholly invented by the right or propped up with lies, to distract from substantive policy debates that actually impact American lives.
<p>And it will probably work — again— because Democrats, hamstrung by their own inability to end the Senate filibuster, will not be able to pass substantive legislation they can tout as accomplishments in future campaigns. And so the election will come down to the Great Potato Head and Dr. Seuss Wars of 2022. Even more unfortunate, truly vulnerable people — like those who are part of the trans community — are also in the crosshairs, as the favored target for the culture wars that Republicans want to wage ahead of the next election. </p><p>For those of you blissly unaware of what some 20th century children's artifacts — Dr. Seuss and Potato Head — have to do with politics, well, let me briefly explain.</p> <p><strong><em>Want more Amanda Marcotte on politics? Subscribe to her newsletter <a href="https://salon.us8.list-manage.com/subscribe?u=71cb3e8a6e9639c81023cd427&id=2327d11e12" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">Standing Room Only</a>.</em></strong></p> <p>Conservatives are fanning out on Fox News and other right-wing media, as well as in the hallowed chambers of Congress, to spread lies about these childhood mainstays being "canceled" due to imaginary liberal censorship. It's not true, of course, but that's never stopped the right-wing noise machine before and it won't now. </p><p>With Dr. Seuss, <a href="https://www.salon.com/2021/03/02/dr-seuss-cancel-culture-books-biden/" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">the issue comes down to the children's book author's estate deciding</a> not to continue publishing some of the more obscure titles because they include racist imagery that runs against the childrens' author's own lifelong commitment to progressive politics. Importantly, most of his titles, especially the ones that are most beloved by the public, such as "Green Eggs and Ham" and "The Grinch Who Stole Christmas" will continue to be published. But conservatives took this nugget as an excuse to go buck wild with lies about Dr. Seuss being "canceled."</p><p>It was never suggested that Dr. Seuss be "outlawed," of course, but more to the point, House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy, R-Calif., told this lie while on the Senate floor to literally vote against a bill protecting the right to vote. Whining about "cancel culture" while trying to cancel legal voters is a new low in GOP bullshit, that's for sure. </p><p>It's the same story with Potato Head, or as the toy brand was previously called, Mr. Potato Head.</p><p>Both Mr. and Mrs. Potato Head toys will still be sold, <a href="https://www.cnn.com/2021/02/25/business/mr-potato-head-hasbro-gender-neutral/index.html" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">but the umbrella brand name was changed to reflect what was always true about the toy</a>: featureless potatoes have never had a gender. As far as the right is concerned, however, this is a reason to pretend we're facing the apocalypse. </p><p>Unfortunately, the feigned outrage isn't limited to whining about toys and children's books. The "for the children" posturing is being used to justify a larger assault on trans people, as Republicans cast around for a wedge issue to define the 2022 election. Namely, the GOP is gearing up for an all-out campaign that claims, falsely, LGBTQ activists are trying to "turn" your kids trans, and that <a href="https://theconversation.com/explainer-what-does-it-mean-to-be-cisgender-103159" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">cis</a> girls will be under threat from "boys pretending to be girls," which is the offensive frame that Republicans use to describe trans girls. Freshman Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene, R.-Ga., <a href="https://www.salon.com/2021/02/25/unimaginably-cruel-greene-hangs-anti-trans-sign-outside-office-of-rep-with-transgender-daughter/" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">hanging an anti-trans sign outside of her office</a> to bully Rep. Marie Newman, D-Ill., who has a trans daughter, is just the tip of the iceberg here.</p> <p><strong><em>Want more Amanda Marcotte on politics? Subscribe to her newsletter <a href="https://salon.us8.list-manage.com/subscribe?u=71cb3e8a6e9639c81023cd427&id=2327d11e12" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">Standing Room Only</a>.</em></strong></p> <p>There's been a drastic escalation of anti-trans rhetoric on the right, most of it centered around false claims that trans girls and women are a threat to cis girls and women. Worse, Republicans are also introducing bills meant to make life much harder for trans kids in schools by barring them from participating in school activities and, in some cases, <a href="https://www.kcci.com/article/lawmakers-advance-bill-that-would-limit-school-bathroom-access-for-transgender-students/35474368" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">even banning trans kids from using the bathroom</a>. </p><p>These bills are justified with claims to be "protecting" cis girls from dangers that lurk only in the imaginations of transphobes. Unsurprisingly, actual evidence shows trans kids are not a threat to anyone: </p><p>In fact, not only do these bills not protect cis girls, but they can and likely will be used to hurt cis girls. In some states, <a href="https://deadspin.com/laws-requiring-genital-examinations-for-transgender-you-1846283294" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">the bills allow schools to force any girl participating in sports </a>to "prove" her gender by submitting to a genital inspection. It's easy to see how both trans kids and cis kids who don't fit conservative school officials ideas about "proper" gendered behavior — such as boys who want to be cheerleaders or girls deemed "too" muscular — will be bullied with forced genital exams. Indeed, <a href="https://www.aclu.org/press-releases/aclu-legal-voice-file-lawsuit-challenging-idahos-law-targeting-transgender-student" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">the ACLU has already filed suit against Idaho on behalf of two students</a>, one trans and one cis, who object to being forced to undergo genital inspections in order to play sports. </p><p>Former House Speaker and all-around repugnant scumbag <a href="https://www.mediamatters.org/tucker-carlson/fox-contributor-newt-gingrich-democrats-want-anti-white-america-where-transgender" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">Newt Gingrich tied all this together on Fox News Wednesday night</a>, declaring, "They want to create an alternative America" in which "transgender dominates Christianity and Judaism" and "they just proved with Dr. Seuss" that "they really despise America." (Gingrich would, have, unsurprisingly, hated Dr. Seuss when he was alive, <a href="https://www.bbc.com/culture/article/20190301-the-surprisingly-radical-politics-of-dr-seuss" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">as the children's author was an environmentalist who loathed authoritarians like Gingrich</a>.) </p><p>While Republicans have long used these kinds of fake issues to distract voters from what really matters, Democrats could actually fight back this time — with one simple trick: <a href="https://www.salon.com/2021/03/03/the-supreme-court-may-be-set-to-gut-voting-rights---but-democrats-can-still-stop-them/" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">Nuke the filibuster</a>. </p><p>Culture war antics work because they keep the GOP voters whipped up over imaginary threats. The most famous example is how Republicans fed <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2004/11/04/politics/campaign/samesex-marriage-issue-key-to-some-gop-races.html" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">their voters a bunch of lies in 2004 about the "danger" to marriage poised by same-sex couples</a>, which drove up turnout and helped drag George W. Bush over the finish line in a tight race. But Democrats can also drive up turnout on their side, by focusing on real issues that actually matter to voters, such as economic issues and health care.</p><p>However, running on the real issues requires showing voters that Democrats are capable of taking actions on these matters. Unfortunately, as recent days have shown, passing even basic legislation to do very basic things to help people — <a href="https://www.salon.com/2021/03/02/ignore-the-parliamentarian-bernie-sanders-is-forcing-a-vote-on-the-15-minimum-wage_partner/" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">such as raising the minimum wage </a>— is currently impossible, due to the stubborn unwillingness of centrist Democrats like Sens. Joe Manchin of West Virginia and Kyrsten Sinema of Arizona to vote to end the filibuster. As long as Republicans have veto power over all substantive legislation, Democrats will get very little done. And so their voters will get disillusioned and drop off, leaving the polls to people who mostly vote how Fox News tells them to.</p><p>If Democrats want 2022 to be a referendum on real issues, where they have an advantage, they need to pass bills.</p><p>And it's not enough to pass one coronavirus relief package through budget reconciliation. Republicans can, truthfully, say they also did that — and unlike Democrats, <a href="https://nymag.com/intelligencer/2021/03/1400-stimulus-checks-eligibility-democrats-covid-relief-bill.html" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">they didn't take away checks from 12 million voters that were promised they'd get checks</a>. Running on your record requires having a record to run on, not on twiddling your thumbs for two years because <a href="https://www.salon.com/2021/01/26/biden-promised-no-malarkey--he-can-start-by-ignoring-mcconnell-and-nuking-the-filibuster/" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">an arbitrary and unnecessary Senate tradition stops you from passing bills</a>. If bills don't start moving through the Senate, the 2022 election will be defined by fake hysterics about trans kids in bathrooms and the gender identity of Potato Head. And that is not an election that Democrats win. </p>
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Lorie Ladd gazes into the camera with glossy eyes, a look that mimics the long stare one gets after meditating. She's about to give one one of her sermons, one of "most challenging" ones she's ever had to make, she explains. Ladd says she's received a message that needs to be shared from "higher dimensional consciousnesses," what she refers to as the "Galactic Federation of Light." But before revealing the message, Ladd, a self-described "ascension teacher," advises her viewers to shed the stereotypes that have been "programmed" into them — "polarities," she calls them, like "Democrat" and "Republican" — and listen to her message: Donald Trump is a "massive and powerful lightworker."
"To say that I was shocked was an understatement," Ladd tells her nearly 139,000 YouTube followers of her revelation. "I have been digesting information from my guides about what this lightworker in human form looking like Donald Trump has been doing for the human collective; this man has more charge around him than any other human on the planet right now."
<p>Ladd goes on to explain that her video isn't a "political one," but a "consciousness one," and that she's not talking about "voting," but "ascension." Trump, as she explains in the next half hour, is here to help assist humans in what many in the New Age and spiritual communities refer to as a great "awakening" of consciousness. The idea behind the awakening is that human consciousness is approaching a "fifth dimension," which will eventually bring humans closer to the "Source." </p><p>A lightworker, as defined by well-being magazine <a href="https://www.happiness.com/magazine/inspiration-spirituality/what-is-a-lightworker-and-what-do-they-do-exactly/" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">Happiness</a>, is someone who feels "an enormous pull towards helping others." The term, they say, can be interchangeable with "crystal babies," "indigos," "Earth angels" and "star seeds"; "these spiritual beings volunteer to act as a beacon for the Earth, and commit to serving humanity," the story continues. </p><p>This rhetoric might sound cultish, but these phrases don't belong to any one specific religious sect. Indeed, such belief systems are part of a larger, more diffuse New Age culture embraced by the ever-<a href="https://www.pewresearch.org/fact-tank/2018/10/01/new-age-beliefs-common-among-both-religious-and-nonreligious-americans/" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">increasing number of Americans</a> leaving organized religion in droves — or who were never religious in the first place — and turning to conspirituality by way of many self-described spiritual and wellness influencers online.</p><p>Conspirituality, the term that defines this movement, was <a href="https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.1080/13537903.2011.539846?journalCode=cjcr20" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">coined by researcher Charlotte Ward</a>. She describes conspirituality as "a rapidly growing web movement expressing an ideology fueled by political disillusionment and the popularity of alternative worldviews." There is no official indoctrination video, no book to read; the hundreds of thousands of people who embrace these New Age-like beliefs find them on YouTube vlogs like Ladd's, as well as Instagram and Facebook. Recently, conspiritualists have begun to overlap with the far-right conspiracy theory <a href="https://www.salon.com/topic/qanon" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">QAnon</a>.</p><p><strong>[<a href="https://www.salon.com/2021/02/27/meet-the-spouses-whose-marriages-were-destroyed-by-qanon/" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">Related: Meet the spouses whose marriages were destroyed by QAnon.</a>]</strong></p><p>This notion that Trump is a lightworker shares obvious parallels with the belief, held by some evangelicals, that Trump is comparable to Jesus; similarly, some QAnon followers believe that Trump is the "world leader" whose mission is to "save the children."</p><p>Yet what makes the lightworker theory especially odd is that it has emerged from a demographic that would have previously been described as apolitical, or even far-left.</p><p>However, as the January 6 insurrection on the Capitol showed, QAnon and Trump adherents no longer middle-aged, conservative white men like the Republican Party of yore. Many of those who embrace right-wing fringe beliefs are yogis, woo-woo, love-and-light types, too. Take Jake Angeli for example, the so-called "QAnon Shaman" who donned a horned hat and spear-tipped American flag as he stormed the Capitol building on January 6. The 33-year-old, who identifies as having "shamanistic" beliefs, was recently granted the right to be fed an <a href="https://www.azcentral.com/story/news/local/arizona-investigations/2021/02/03/arizona-jake-angeli-capitol-raid-organic-food/4376483001/" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">all-organic diet in jail</a> in line with his religious practice.</p><p>Ladd's declaration that Trump was a lightworker sent shockwaves through conspiritual and self-help communities. (Salon reached out to Ladd for comment, but did not receive a response.) Some spirituality and consciousness bloggers vehemently disagreed. But many influential figures in the community thought Ladd was onto something, including Christiane Northrup, a physician and best-selling author who has been spreading anti-vaccination rhetoric and has <a href="https://mainernews.com/dr-no/" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">embraced QAnon</a>. </p><p>Matthew Remski, a co-host of the <a href="https://conspirituality.net/" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">Conspirituality</a> podcast and a cult dynamics researcher, described Northrup as a "conspirituality aggregator" who feeds what she finds most interesting to her followers, of which she has many.</p><p>"What I think is really brilliant about this particular iteration of QAnon — or 'soft' or 'pastel Q,' you could call it — is that it's really effective at evading content moderation," Remski said. "To only really say something positive about the person who's at the head of QAnon mythology and sort of soft-pedal all of the aggression and triumph that is going to be involved in his mission is a really good way of brand-washing QAnon for the wellness set."</p><p>Indeed, while social media companies like Twitter and Facebook have suspended many accounts sharing QAnon-related disinformation, the wellness influencers remain. Dr. Ronald Purser, a professor of management at San Francisco State University and the author of "<a href="https://amzn.to/2PvYkBL" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">McMindfulness</a>," said that in uncertain times, societies see a rise of "occultures," meaning "groups of people who are attracted to strange occult and esoteric ideas, mixing them in unforeseen ways with political movements."</p><p>"A common theme in such movements is the need for purification, purifying and purging unwanted elements – toxins, impurities, or anything foreign or other," Purser said. "This is why we see so many New Age yoga practitioners seduced by QAnon."</p><p>Purser said there are parallels between the rise of "occultures" now and the role spirituality and mysticism played in Nazi Germany. Notably, the Third Reich <a href="https://www.bbc.com/news/magazine-29644591" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">appropriated the swastika</a>, a symbol used by Hindus, Buddhists and Jains; the word means "well-being" in Sanskrit. </p><p>"Consider Hitler, who was obsessed with the occult, was a vegetarian, used astrologers [and] oracles," Purser said. "The Nazi Heinrich Himmler, head of SS, was enamored with Eastern mysticism, and he sent an <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1938%E2%80%9339_German_expedition_to_Tibet" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">expedition to Tibet</a> in search of lost remnants of a secret and pure Aryan race; Hitler was seen as a 'light worker' [as in someone who's saving humanity] that would purge Germany of Jews."</p><p>Purser added that Trump and his enablers have "mastered the ability of weaponized mass delusion through social media."</p><p>"Many of the New Agers drawn to QAnon are probably suffering from unresolved trauma – like many in Trump's base as well," Purser said. "It's easier to look to a savior and to find scapegoats than to face one's own fears and pain."</p><p>When asked about the term lightworker, and where it derives from, Remski said he first heard it when he was in a "Course in Miracles" cult from 1999 to 2003. The name is a reference to a book, titled "A Course in Miracles," that was published by Helen Schucman in 1976; Schucman claimed the book had been spoken to her via "inner dictation" from Christ. Remski said the word "light" appears in the text frequently. </p><p>"Light is not only the sort of keynote of this Manichaean universe in which things are either light or shadow, they're either good or bad, it's also like schizotypal as a universe, it is given this materiality as well," Remski said of Schucman's book. "Light is said to be something that can fill a person up, it can blow a person apart, it can enter a person, and I think it probably overlaps with some pre-modern ideas like <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Prana" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank"><em>prana</em></a> or <em><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Qi" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">ch'i</a> — </em>those kind of folk medicine ideas of vital force — but it's also associated with an absolute truth, an ontological transformation . . . like once once light enters into you, you are forever changed." </p><p>While the book "A Course in Miracles" doesn't include the term "light worker," the theme of light itself runs throughout. "The key is only the light that shines away the shapes and forms and fears of nothing," a typical passage reads. </p><p>One prominent figure who was deeply influenced by "A Course in Miracles" is former presidential candidate Marianne Williamson. In 1996, Williamson wrote a book, "<a href="https://amzn.to/2MM67KH" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">A Return to Love: Reflections on the Principles of 'A Course in Miracles</a>,'" that was structured as a reflection on the original text. Williamson, too, has <a href="https://www.facebook.com/williamsonmarianne/posts/a-light-worker-is-not-someone-who-ignores-the-darkness-its-someone-who-transform/10152377778760580/" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">used the term</a> "light worker" before; in a 2013 Facebook post, Williamson wrote, "A light-worker is not someone who ignores the darkness; it's someone who transforms the darkness."</p><p>Obviously, Williamson and Trump are political opposites; Williamson, a Democrat, came down hard and repeatedly on Trump's policies during her 2020 campaign. Salon asked Williamson what she thought about the term "lightworker" being used to describe Trump. She replied via email: "I think it's insane. . . . Like many others, I don't understand it but I find it deeply disturbing." </p><p>When asked why he believes people have been so eager to embrace this belief that Trump is a "lightworker," Remski said that it is because it can "offer all of the benefits of the conspiratorial mindset, without a lot of the drawbacks."</p><p>"Because you're saying something kind about him," Remski said, "as the social psychologists basically repeat over and over again."</p><p>Remski believes conspiracy theories are attractive because they "satisfy epistemic needs." "Like, 'I'm now I'm going to know something that nobody else knows,' or 'I'm going to meet my survival needs, meaning this information is going to help me tolerate what's happening, but also maybe even preserve me from danger,'" he said.</p><p>But as the social media spread of the "lightworker" theory illustrates, conspiracy theories also open up their adherents to communities of people that they can hang out with, Remski mused.</p>
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