All posts tagged "democrats"

'If I could finish?' Republican gets testy after calling demonstrators anti-semites on CNN

A Republican lawmaker got into a fiery exchange with a CNN anchor, saying "if I could finish" after refusing to answer multiple questions about the government shutdown Monday.

CNN's Pamela Brown interviewed Rep. Lisa McClain (R-MI), asking her about the ongoing shutdown now in its 20th day and the public response to the Trump administration. Brown specifically pointed to the nearly seven million people attending "No Kings" protests across the U.S. on Saturday, asking McClain if those attendees really "hate America," as McClain and other Republican lawmakers have claimed.

"Well, look at what they're standing for. They're standing for communism. They're standing for anti-semitism. Just take a look at the rallies," McClain said.

McClain also targeted Democrats in her response.

"Republicans are the party of law and order. We don't believe in anti-semitism. Take a look at the speakers that they have at the rally. Take a look at what they're fighting for," she said. "They're fighting to defund the police, defund ICE. They're fighting not for law and order, but they're fighting for the criminals... We stand on the core principles of this great nation, which is capitalism, law and order. And the Democrats clearly don't stand for that."

Brown then asked about how Americans perceive what's happening, asking this:

"And as the shutdown drags on, Republicans and the White House say that they're laying off thousands of federal workers, and that's necessary because of the impact that the shutdown is having on federal spending. But at the same time, President Trump announced a $20 billion bailout to Argentina last week during the shutdown. That's money, of course, from U.S. taxpayers for a foreign country. So what do you say to Americans who are looking at that and saying, wait, how does that square?"

That's when McClain urged people to call their Democratic senators, blaming them and saying "tell them to stop being obstructionists and vote yes to open the government. Number one."

As Brown tried to bring her back to the question, she said, "If I could finish?"

She went on, "Number two is, as you see, the president is making deals around the world. And that's not exactly a bailout. It's more of a loan. So it's not just free money that we're giving away, which is very different than administrations in the past," McClain said, seemingly alluding to a criticism of the Biden administration.

"So if you truly are concerned about this, what I say is let's get the government open. And I implore you to call your Democratic senators and tell them, don't be held hostage by the crazy, Marxist wing of your Democratic party. Let's get back to governing. How democracy should actually work. And that's why Republicans, both in the House and the Senate, are voting yes to open the government. And Democrats are standing in the way."

Dems have a golden chance to take down a key GOP senator. Here's how they'll blow it

Every damn time, I am ready to write a column that essentially says, “Yes, the Democrats have some issues, but I will not be beating up on them just as long as these fascist Republicans are around,” the stubborn, tone-deaf Chuck Schumer-led Democratic establishment does something so blindingly stupid it demands comment.

<deep sigh>

On Tuesday, we learned that after negligible arm-twisting from what passes as leadership of her party, Maine Gov. Janet Mills is running for the Democratic nomination in next year’s U.S. senate race to unseat the incumbent Republican, Sen. Susan Collins.

By convincing Mills, 77, to run next year, Schumer and the squeaky, rusted, antiquated Democratic Machine somehow spit somebody out who will make the stodgy, 72-year-old Collins seem young, vibrant and energetic.

So a question: Just what in the hell is going on here?

Go ahead and call me ageist if you like — I’ve been called far worse — but how is it that a party suffering with all-time low approval ratings, and is hemorrhaging younger voters (especially men), think running a candidate who was born just two years after the end of World War II makes any damn sense in this crucial race?

Worse, there is already a fine Democratic candidate in place that the party should embrace with both arms, who I will touch on in a minute after typing this:

I like Mills fine.

This is not an attack on her or her record, only what reeks of incredible hubris by the Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee (DSCC), which will now sink tons of money into the state to get rid of any would-be challengers to Mills, and set the party up for yet another fall. Democrats have not won a U.S. Senate race in Maine since 1988, when George Mitchell was reelected.

I thank Mills for her service to a state and people that I truly love, but rather than hoping to become the oldest freshman senator in U.S. history, it’s time to step aside, and open the door to the future.

Better yet, why not use your experience to help transition your party toward a worthwhile, necessary quest to reconnect with a new generation of voters?

I worked as the sports editor of the Lewiston (Maine) Sun-Journal between 1992-98, and loved the job and the place. Mainers are a hearty, independent lot, who take great pride in not falling in lockstep with the other 49 states in our rattled union. From their rooftop perch in the north-east corner of the country they literally look down on the rest of the United States. This doesn’t make them haughty, it makes them properly suspicious.

You really can’t get they-uh from he-yuh, and they like it just fine that way.

Ironically, I was a resident of the Pine Tree State when Collins won her first term in the Senate in 1996 as an up-and-coming 43-year-old. If you told me back then that she’d still be there now, I wouldn't have believed you.

I’ve now lived in three different states, and three different countries since Collins was first elected. For all my moving, it’s become all too clear that our Capitol is the hill our United States Senators go to die on. Knocking off a sitting senator is like trying to show the drunken Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth the door at a strip club.

In announcing her bid, Mills trumpeted that she “stood up to Trump once, and will do it again!”

Good God, I’d hope so. This shouldn’t be the answer to a test, but the minimal qualification needed to even take the test, because if you aren’t standing up to the revolting Trump, you aren’t standing up for America.

By announcing her bid, Mills joins a crowded field of candidates featuring a person I believe to be a future star in the Democratic Party, if only it would get out of its own way and help him run like hell.

I will vigorously be supporting Graham Platner to take on the two-faced Collins two Novembers from now in an election Democrats simply must flip if they are to have any hope of taking back the senate.

Platner, 41, is an oysterman, harbormaster and Marine veteran with four infantry tours to Iraq and Afghanistan under his belt.

Since announcing his candidacy in August, Platner has proven himself a gifted campaigner and packed the house during scores of speaking engagements. He also raised an astonishing $500,000 in the 24 hours after Mills announced her candidacy, which should send a message to the all-knowing DSCC that they would be wise to listen to, if only they could see past their noses.

He is positioning himself as “the enemy of the oligarchy” and has repeatedly refused to be baited into positioning himself as a “progressive” Democratic, preferring instead to let his positions themselves do the talking.

“I think it’s silly that thinking people deserve health care, that makes you some kind of lefty. But I do think those working-class policies are necessary.”

More of this, please.

It’s way past time we stopped roping people into this progressive-moderate fight in the party. It’s counterproductive, and serves only the ghastly Republicans. Personally, I like, and have supported, the more moderate Abigail Spanberger in Virginia’s governor race, and the more liberal Zohran Mamdani in the New York City mayoral contest.

They are both positioned to win their races in less than three weeks because they are the right candidates, in the right races, at the right time.

Platner has proven he can connect with people, many of whom are sick and tired of machine politics in this country, where gobs of money, instead of policies, charisma and the ability to lead is king.

I’ll let Platner tell it:

“There’s an anti-establishment angst in the country that I think is well-founded. People think that the system does not represent them, and they’re not wrong at all. And I think that sending or choosing candidates who come from the establishment, come from politics — regardless of who they are as people, regardless of what they’ve pushed — is, in many ways right now, I think, a real liability.”

Again: I am not making the case that no political experience is always an advantage, but when you are running against a wishy-washy establishment candidate like Collins who has bathed herself in Washington’s riches, and has already served five terms in the Senate, a message like this will resonate on the campaign trail.

Platner:

“I have held over 20 town halls in every corner of Maine, from Rumford to Madawaska to Portland. Everywhere I hear the same thing: People are ready for change. They know the system is broken and they know that politicians who have been working in the system for years, like Susan Collins, are not going to fix it.”

If you know Maine at all you will also know that Rumford, Madawaska and Portland could not be any more different. Rumford is an old paper mill town, Madawaska is in far-reaches of the rooftop of the state, and Portland is the state’s biggest city, sitting hard on the coast.

The people in these areas couldn’t be any more different, but their independence and just being proud Mainers is what binds them together. They won’t agree on everything, except that they live in what they believe to be our greatest state.

It occurs to me that Maine should serve as a metaphor for the Democrats and Left-leaners in America. Sure we are different, but if you come for one of us, you come for all of us.

First, though, we have to get out of our own way and learn some hard lessons.

If Democrats think running a 78-year-old candidate for a seat with a six-year term, after what happened to another WWII-era candidate last year, they haven’t learned a thing.

This isn’t looking toward a brighter future, it’s looking back on a dark past.

Right now the party doesn’t seem capable of making the necessary changes to inspire confidence among an American voting electorate that is scared, suspicious, and uninspired by the status quo.

And, man, I’m getting sick and tired of typing that.

(D. Earl Stephens is the author of “Toxic Tales: A Caustic Collection of Donald J. Trump’s Very Important Letters” and finished up a 30-year career in journalism as the Managing Editor of Stars and Stripes. You can find all his work here.)

This senator helped Dems take control in 2020. Now a messy GOP fight could see him survive

Georgia is set to host what will likely be the most expensive U.S. Senate race in the country next year. But Republicans are still searching for a clear frontrunner to take on Democratic Sen. Jon Ossoff, who continues to raise huge sums of cash as he prepares to defend his seat.

U.S. Reps. Mike Collins and Buddy Carter, along with former football coach Derek Dooley, are locked in a three-way race to take on the first-term senator. But latest fundraising figures suggest that the party remains largely undecided on a consensus candidate.

Collins, a Butts County trucking company owner and the son of a former congressman, said he raised about $1.9 million since entering the race, plus an additional $1 million transfer from his congressional campaign account. His team is hailing the fundraising numbers as proof that Collins is the “unmistakable frontrunner” in the Republican primary.

Dooley, who boasts an endorsement from Gov. Brian Kemp, also raised a little less than $2 million since he joined the contest. The former Tennessee Volunteers coach and son of Georgia coaching legend Vince Dooley has to walk a fine line between satisfying both Kemp’s allies and MAGA loyalists. But he also has to alleviate concerns about his scant political history and thin ties to Georgia.

And Carter, a wealthy pharmacist from St. Simons Island and the only candidate who entered the race before the start of the third quarter, raised another $1 million over the three-month stretch and loaned himself an additional $2 million.

“We didn’t inherit anything from daddy,” he said in an apparent dig at his two rivals. “We’re earning it — every dime, every vote.”

With no leading Republican candidate, all eyes will now turn to President Donald Trump — who can single-handedly turn this into a completely different race with a social media post announcing an endorsement.

And the president said Wednesday that he is indeed keeping a close eye on the Senate race (and continued doubling down on false claims surrounding his 2020 defeat).

“The governor has spoken to me about [the Senate race] a lot, he likes [Dooley] a lot, and I understand that. I haven’t made a decision yet. But I’m following that race very carefully. I think it’s important for Georgia to get a real senator because [Ossoff] is a horrible senator.”

Ossoff continues to be among the top Senate fundraisers in the country, raising another $12 million between July and September and ending the period with more than $20 million stashed away. But it’s only a small fraction of what the race is likely to cost: nearly half a billion dollars was spent on Georgia’s 2022 Senate battle between Sen. Raphael Warnock, a Democrat, and Republican Herschel Walker.

And Ossoff has established a reputation as one of his party’s strongest fundraisers. His 2017 campaign in a congressional special election brought in over $30 million. The Atlanta Democrat has now raised more than $200 million since his 2020 Senate bid, when he and Warnock ousted Republican incumbents to deliver a narrow Democratic Senate majority.

“If we’ve learned anything from recent elections, it’s that raising more money isn’t necessarily an indicator of future electoral success,” said Adam Carlson, a Democratic pollster who has worked behind the scenes on several Georgia campaigns.

“But Jon Ossoff raising more than 250 percent of all three of his potential Republican opponents combined in Q3 is telling.”

Head-to-head polling between Ossoff and his Republican rivals has been sparse. But the incumbent appears to be starting out on solid ground: Morning Consult’s updated tracking poll found his approval rating at 51 percent with a disapproval of 34 percent.

But will these numbers hold by this time next year once negative campaign commercials start flooding the airwaves?

Niles Francis recently graduated from Georgia Southern University with a degree in political science and journalism. He has spent the last few years observing and writing about the political maneuvering at Georgia’s state Capitol and regularly publishes updates in a Substack newsletter called Peach State Politics. He is currently studying to earn a graduate degree and is eager to cover another exciting political year in the battleground state where he was born and raised.

Dems know damn well how to beat Trump — it's not with scaremongering like this

As I was finally kicking my feet up and settling into a football game Monday night, to get lost in some meaningless diversion from the relentless madness overrunning America, my phone buzzed.

Good God, what now, I thought?

When I grudgingly reached for the overheated troublemaker, this is what confronted me:

Collapse imminent? Desperate call? Emergency sirens? What the …?

THIS is what I am being accosted with at 10 p.m., while trying to wind down from another insane day?

I slapped my phone down, and went into a slow boil …

To be honest, I had a lousy Monday, so maybe this message set me off more than it should have, but when I woke up this morning from a semi-sleepless night, I found I was still in a mood, and figured at least this much needed writing:

STOP IT WITH THESE LOADED MESSAGES, DEMOCRATS

Anybody who cares enough to pay attention to what is happening in (and to) the United States is to the point of being scared to death right now. Not an hour goes by that Trump and his nauseating Republicans aren’t terrorizing America.

We are dealing with a lot.

Preying on our emotions like this late at night by sending urgent missives designed to empty our pockets is insensitive at best, and abusive at worst.

Too often, it’s even worse than that, because a lot of the crap in all these damn messages — and last night’s in particular — is just plain nonsense.

That makes them insulting, and dangerous, because there are already more than enough political lies and misinformation destabilizing America.

To start, this election in Pennsylvania is nothing like what went down in Georgia, four-plus years ago. In fact, this election on Nov. 4, is like few others anywhere, and many Pennsylvanians don’t even know that.

Here’s what they do need to know: Vote YES to retain the three Supreme Court justices currently on the bench. You’d think a loud, obnoxious message like the one I was bombarded with above would at least say that much.

By voting to retain the three justices in this election, liberals will hold onto a 5-2 majority on that court, and protect Pennsylvanians from the evil machinations of the no-good Republicans in that battleground state.

If you want more, I encourage you to have a look at this tremendous article I found from Spotlight PA that gets into the particulars of the race: Pa. election 2025: What is judicial retention, and why does it matter for Supreme Court balance? Among other things, it does a thorough job of breaking down how Pennsylvania conducts its whacky Supreme Court elections.

(NOTE: I sent this piece, along with a few of my own choice words, to the devils at ActBlue, who accosted me with their fundraising message. They either have no idea how these elections are run, or worse, really don’t give a damn just as long as they can scare the hell out of everybody by screaming about some damn fictional, “imminent collapse.”)

The Spotlight PA write is lengthy, but I encourage you to read it. For now, though, here are some important bits I extracted from the piece, with passages I highlighted for emphasis:

These yes-or-no retention elections are a big deal, and if Republicans succeed in their stated goal of getting Pennsylvanians to vote “no,” they could set the stage for a total remaking of the court. But the process is also very different from a traditional election, and Republicans won’t automatically win a majority even if they get “no” votes.
Retention elections are not partisan, so when a judge appears on the ballot to be retained, their name won’t have a party next to it. These elections also don’t involve an opposing candidate. Voters are simply asked to say yes or no to giving a judge another decade on the bench. If the vote is yes, the judge stays on. If it is no, the governor can appoint a temporary replacement subject to the approval of the state Senate. An election for a replacement to serve a full 10-year term is then held in the next odd year, which means that if a judge isn’t retained this year, voters won’t pick a long-term replacement until 2027. The judges appointed as replacements traditionally don’t stand for full-term elections, though nothing actually prevents them from doing so.
Is a ‘no’ vote on retention the norm? Nope. It’s extremely unusual. Most judges up for retention win new terms by comfortable margins. Just one statewide judge has lost retention since 1968, when the state constitution was last updated — Supreme Court Justice Russell Nigro.

OK, me again.

From an historical standpoint, things look pretty good for the Left-leaning justices in this race. I should also add that recent polling has “yes” leading by double-digits. Democrats have also spent more than three times as much money as Republicans on the race according to the tracking service AdImpact.

All that, despite the bombastic claims in that loud fundraising message designed to get your heart beating and your head screaming.

Look, the Supreme Court race in Pennsylvania is important as hell. EVERY election in the United States of America is as important as hell, and should be treated as such.

From now until Nov. 4, we should all do what we can within reason to help our fellow patriots in Pennsylvania prevail at the voting booth. We do that by spreading the truth, and offering a hand up, not a punch in the face with late-night scare tactics.

I believe this constant assault on our senses is having a negative effect on voters right now. I believe we are in danger of burning people out who have been running hot for the better part of a decade trying to stand up for Democrats by putting down this Republican fascism that is overrunning this country.

Since last November’s nightmare, Democrats have fared incredibly well in elections all over the country, including the battleground state of Wisconsin, where the liberal justice running for that Supreme Court won by a whopping 10 points in April.

You’ll remember that election because it is the one the grotesque Elon Musk used to bribe voters with all his blood money. Turns out, it takes more than just money to win elections ...

I’ve had enough of all this repellent fundraising, and these offensive scare tactics.

I say we could stand a pat on the back, instead of a kick in the ass.

I say we give each other a break, before we are broken for good.

I say thank you for all you are doing.

(D. Earl Stephens is the author of “Toxic Tales: A Caustic Collection of Donald J. Trump’s Very Important Letters” and finished up a 30-year career in journalism as the Managing Editor of Stars and Stripes. You can find all his work here.)

'Terrorizing Americans': Dems slam Trump's federal firings as shutdown pain worsens

WASHINGTON — In the midst of this government shutdown, President Donald Trump’s war on the federal workforce isn’t just angering his Democratic counterparts on Capitol Hill — it also seems to be uniting them.

While a federal judge temporarily halted the administration’s firings on Wednesday, damage has been done. And Democrats are more furious with Trump now than they were throughout the two impeachment trials that marked his first administration.

“When he says he's going after 'Democrat programs,' he seems to mean poor people, folks with disabilities, folks who are already struggling. I don't think that's the brand he thinks it is," Rep. Mary Gay Scanlon (D-PA) told Raw Story.

"We're here, and with respect to how that plays out, I don't think cruelty is a winning argument. I don't think terrorizing Americans or bullying companies and law firms and universities is a winning argument."

Even so, the president doesn’t look to be backing down anytime soon.

‘Empowered to be autocrats’

In March, Senate Democratic Leader Chuck Schumer (D-NY) gave Republicans the votes they needed — including his own — to avert a government shutdown.

Times have changed.

"A lot has changed since March, and one of the big changes is all of the layoffs, all of the gutting of federal services,” Scanlon said.

"I've spent a lot of time over the last couple of weeks with the federal employees in my district and they're saying, 'No, he's he's already done so much damage, there has to be a line in the sand.'"

Last weekend, the Trump administration gutted federal special education programs: the Office of Special Education Programs (OSEP) and Office of Special Education and Rehabilitative Services (OSERS).

In response, Democrats only dug in more.

“It continues this pattern of going after the most vulnerable," Scanlon said.

"I spent a decade advocating on behalf of kids in special ed, with special needs, and, of course, there's the overlay there with Medicaid because so many of the services they need are supplied through Medicaid.”

Speaker Mike Johnson (R-LA) still refuses to gavel his chamber back into session, a move Democrats say is only empowering President Trump, his deputy chief of staff Stephen Miller and budget director Russ Vought.

While almost all House Republicans are staying away from this overheated Washington, on Wednesday, House Democrats came out in force on Capitol Hill — and feeling talkative.

"Trump, Miller and Vought do not give a damn what the law says or what the Congress has instructed them to do,” former House Majority Leader Steny Hoyer (D-MD) told Raw Story.

"They somehow have the idea that they have been empowered to be autocrats, and I would be shocked and extraordinarily disappointed and concerned for our democracy if the courts don't hold these [firings to be] unconstitutional. This has never happened before."

This time, Democrats say, it’s just different.

"The public is smart enough — and [it’s] why our democracy has worked for a long time — to know the difference between a disagreement and an autocratic response," Hoyer said.

While recent government shutdowns have focused on specific policy disagreements, this one seems to be about nothing — at least to Trump and co, who are cutting special education workers never mentioned in recent policy debates — and, to Democrats, everything all at once.

“Does this shutdown feel dumb?” Raw Story asked Rep. Rosa DeLauro (D-CT),

“Yeah. There's no reason,” DeLauro said. “There is no reason for this shutdown.”

DeLauro’s the ranking member — the top Democrat — on the House Appropriations Committee, and she says Democrats aren’t even tempted to cave because the GOP never even consulted them on this fall’s continuing resolution, or CR.

“Johnson just jammed you guys?” Raw Story pressed.

“Right,” DeLauro said. “Look, I believe Johnson takes his orders from the president because the president says, ‘It's a waste of time to talk to Schumer and to [House Minority Leader Hakeem] Jeffries.’ He also said, ‘Let's jam this Republican CR down the Democrats’ throat.’

“That's not a good faith negotiation.”

“What do you make of the cuts this weekend?” Raw Story asked. “It seems like they want it to be as punitive as possible?”

“Oh God,” DeLauro said. “No, no, no, it really is and most of what most of what they're doing is illegal. Moving money around. It's illegal.”

‘Not ping-pong balls’

“I have a lot of government workers in my district, which people don't realize," Rep. Debbie Dingell (D-MI) told Raw Story.

"They are not ping-pong balls in the midst of this. That's not the way government is supposed to work.

"A lot of government employees are just angry. And we’ve got to understand that they make all of our lives better every single day, and we need to appreciate what they do for us and I don't see how that's contributing to anything."

Still, Democrats are "unified” in their shutdown stance.

"Yeah," Dingell said. "We're here. We should be at the table having bipartisan discussions with them."

GOP's 'ticking time bomb' is about to detonate: senator

A Democratic senator slammed the Trump administration Tuesday for "viciously terrorizing federal employees" by using the government shutdown as an excuse to fire them and separately warned Republicans left a "ticking time bomb" — that's about to detonate.

“The Trump administration is now viciously terrorizing federal employees," Sen. Chris Van Hollen (D-MD) told CNN anchor Kasie Hunt. "Some of them claim that when you're in a shutdown, they have to fire federal employees. That's just a lie. You furlough federal employees, but there's no previous shutdown where administrations have fired federal employees. And I think it's very important that the public understand that this is gratuitous cruelty that's also hurting the American people by depriving them of the benefit of that good work."

Van Hollen argued that the shutdown was bad for the American people, and particularly bad for federal workers.

"I see this as being bad for the country. Republicans or Democrats. And the reality is, these patriotic federal employees are being unfairly punished for something they had nothing to do with. And when you punish federal employees, you're actually punishing the American people by depriving them of the benefit of the important services that those federal employees perform," Van Hollen said.

Van Hollen said he's now voted seven times in the Senate, and will vote again for an eighth time Tuesday night, to open the federal government. He accused Trump of attacking government employees and hurting Americans — something he wants to challenge the president about now that it is the second shutdown during Trump's second administration.

"But to do so without giving Donald Trump a total blank check to continue his illegal activities, which from day one have harmed federal employees, and to deal with the healthcare crisis that is about to be triggered because Republicans left a ticking time bomb on healthcare," he added.

"And we would like to have a discussion with the president of the United States. He's been working to try to bring an end to the conflict in the Middle East. But he's unwilling to address the situation right here at home and talk to Democrats about ending the Trump shutdown," Van Hollen said.

The GOP should heed this unlikely messenger — it warns of what's coming for them

It’s tempting to believe the Democrats are winning the shutdown fight. After all, if Marjorie Taylor Greene, she of Jewish space laser fame, is now the voice of reason, something is surely going their way.

Last week, the Georgia congresswoman tweeted that “WE HAVE TO DO SOMETHING ABOUT THE ABSOLUTELY INSANE COST OF INSURANCE FOR AMERICANS,” after revealing that her adult kids are going to see their own Obamacare premiums increase by 100 percent.

Taylor Greene said: “Not a single Republican in leadership talked to [the House GOP conference] about this or has given us a plan to help Americans deal with their health insurance premiums DOUBLING!!!”

The tide seems to be turning.

“How can you tell Democrats have the upper hand in the week-old shutdown fight?” said MSNBC anchor and columnist Catherine Rampell. “Marjorie Taylor Greene just endorsed their key demand.”

Indeed, others are putting the Democrats’ demand in a larger theory of political change. Symone Sanders Townsend, another MSNBC anchor and columnist, said the Democrats are winning because they are asking for something clearly defined in exchange for their support, not “some abstract principle or unreasonable demand.”

She added:

“Fighting is the only way to win. Progress is never handed over; it is wrestled into being. From the Civil Rights Movement to the labor movement, history tells us that those who wait patiently for justice are the ones left behind. As Frederick Douglass said, “Power concedes nothing without a demand.” Democrats are demanding something concrete: health care security for the people they represent.”

I don’t see any reason to doubt the assertion that the Democrats are currently winning the fight over the government shutdown, as polling suggests broad agreement in blaming Donald Trump and the GOP.

I question the cause, though. The consensus among liberals and Democrats seems to be that a concrete “kitchen-table issue” like rising health insurance premiums is pushing public opinion and, therefore, forcing at least one highly influential House Republican to break ranks.

But what if it’s simpler than that?

What if public opinion is turning against the president and his party, because the shutdown has exposed something true about them?

Trump has acted like the Congress doesn’t matter, like the courts don’t matter, like the electorate doesn’t matter, like the law and the Constitution don’t matter. All the while, the Republicans have greased the skids of his impunity. That includes the Republicans on the Supreme Court. They occasionally legalized his crimes after the fact.

The president has been telling us for going on a decade that the Democrats are part of a vast, secret and malign conspiracy to destroy the country from the inside — the Democrats are now “the enemy within” same as “domestic terrorist organizations” — and that he is not only the solution to America’s problems but America’s retribution.

And for the last 10 months, the administration, the congressional Republicans and, to a large extent, the Washington press corps have been talking about Trump as if he were less a man than an act of God whose mandate by “real Americans” shall not be denied. The accumulated effect of all this effort has been turning the president into a tiger burning so brightly there’s no point in resisting him.

Yet, despite the hype, the government is shut. The Democrats revealed a tiger made of paper. And all it took was the simple act of saying no.

That’s a better explanation for polling that blames Trump. It’s not that the Democrats are making concrete demands. It’s that they’re fighting, period, using Obamacare subsidies as a credible pretext. They are forcing the president to step off, thus proving he’s neither invincible nor inevitable. Mostly, however, they’re proving he’s not what he seems, and the longer this fight goes on, the clearer that will get.

Even to Republican voters.

And that right there is the thing.

From the point of view of the congressional Republicans, there’s nothing wrong with health insurance premiums going up by two or three or four times. They don’t care, even if their own people are suffering. This is evidenced by Medicaid cuts. They will devastate GOP voters, over a decade, out of public view, giving the Republican enough time to devise a plan to prevent their people from knowing Trump and the Republicans have been scamming them the whole time.

What they do care about is the shutdown giving the Democrats a chance to link the pain that GOP voters are about to feel to Donald Trump. That risks them knowing that he’s the one hurting them, not the Democrats, as well as knowing that the Democrats are trying to help them. The Republicans don’t care about pain, only the lessons of pain.

The consensus right now seems to be that the Democrats are winning the shutdown, because Greene appears to be standing up to the president. (Politico is calling it her “populist rebellion.”) More likely, however, is that Greene is like the canary in the coal mine, an early warning to Trump that something bad is coming, and it’s coming fast, namely, that the Republican Party is about to experience what happens when GOP voters realize what they have done to themselves.

She suggested as much. Though she’s the first House Republican to endorse the Democratic side, she’s trying to shield Trump from the coming blowback.

“I'm actually putting the blame on the Speaker [Mike Johnson] and [Senate Majority] Leader [John] Thune,” she told CNN. “This should not be happening ... We control the House and Senate and have the White House."

The Democrats are winning, but not because they are sticking to economic issues that affect millions of Americans (including me, by the way). They are winning, because the consequence of their choice to fight has been to expose Trump’s weakness. He’s not what he seems.

Perhaps, the same goes for Greene. Though it’s a running joke that she’s suddenly the voice of reason, it’s rational for her to protect Trump. Among the worst things to happen to him and their party would be for GOP voters to learn the truth about them.

Lying Republicans just admitted their victory strategy — and it can be stopped

Last week, House Speaker Mike Johnson said there would be no votes this week. (That’s after canceling votes last week.) The White House, meanwhile, said it has begun mass firings of federal workers because the congressional Democrats haven’t caved to reopen the government.

The combined news is being reported as a “leverage,” as if these were normal rounds of negotiation between equal sides. The AP said it was an “attempt to exert more pressure on Democratic lawmakers” — the blandest possible way of saying coercion. “Take the deal or else” isn’t a reason for anyone to say yes. It’s the best reason in the world to say no.

But coercion isn’t the Republicans’ only tool.

In a call with the House Freedom Caucus, Johnson said, "We worked on rescissions, and there'll be more of that, we expect, in the days ahead." And: "Now, we would like to do another reconciliation bill this fall, before the end of the calendar year, and potentially, a third one in the spring, where we will also show more and more fiscal responsibility."

Translation: if the president has to give in to the Democrats’ demand for renewing health insurance subsidies, don’t worry. We can come back later with clawbacks (“rescissions”) that require a simple majority (“reconciliation bill”) to pass a Republican-controlled Congress.

In other words, Johnson is announcing his intention to cheat.

The Democrats are demanding a suite of concessions related to the Affordable Care Act and Medicaid (namely, restoring cuts made to it under the One Big Beautiful Bill Act). But their demands will mean nothing if the Republicans can steal back money after promising it.

The Democrats’ demands will also mean nothing if Trump later finds a way to send some health care money to people who voted for him but not to people who didn’t. This is called impoundment and impoundment is illegal. The regime, even now, is impounding money intended for cities and states run by Democrats. It’s yet another bid to extort the Democrats in the Congress into accepting Trump’s terms.

(The Republicans on the USSupreme Court know impoundment is illegal but have occasionally ruled that it’s legal if a Republican does it.)

Any deal involving the Democrats’ demands on health care must have reassurances that Trump and the GOP won’t go back on their word. I don’t see how that’s possible with the speaker of the House saying out loud that Hell will freeze over before the Democrats can trust him.

Indeed, during a presser, Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries was asked: “If Republicans were to commit to putting forward a vote on extending the ACA subsidies, would that bring Democrats to the negotiating table?”

His reply: "Republicans have zero credibility, zero."

I don’t know how this is going to end. Neither does Tiffany Carlock. She’s an activist who uses her newsletter, Candidly Tiff, to educate people about civics, strategy and what’s really happening in politics.

In this brief interview, we touch on whether the Democrats are “winning” the shutdown fight, the role of “the Epstein files” in their thinking, how they are breaking through a media landscape coded in Trump’s favor, and what to do in this age of rampant lawlessness.

“Democrats have truth on their side and are using it,” Tiff said.

JS: First, are the Democrats winning the fight over the government shutdown? I'm skeptical, but what do you think? And why?

TC: Democrats are “winning” on the messaging front but personally, I don’t think anyone wins when the government shuts down. Republicans went into the fight thinking Democrats would cave, but they have held strong. This has stunned the legacy media as well as some Democrats.

House Speaker Mike Johnson’s decision to keep his caucus home is a very poor strategy and he looks weak. Refusing to negotiate and swear-in Adelita Grijalva looks so bad on his part. Johnson has proven he has no idea how to govern. Even Majorie Taylor Greene, of all people, has called Johnson and John Thune out. The “clean CR” framing did not work for Republicans like they thought it would.

What do you think of the role of the Epstein files? Some Democrats are making the case that Johnson is keeping the government closed to protect Trump. How does that fit into your thinking?

I think it’s a legitimate talking point considering Congresswoman-elect Grijalva is the 218th vote needed for the Epstein file petition to make it to the House floor. Sometimes 1 + 1 = 2, so why not use Johnson’s weakness to create a Democratic advantage? This issue has been a major point of contention since right before the August recess.

Is it being done to protect Trump? I doubt it. I think Johnson is just scared of losing control of his conference and leadership. A vote on the files will be embarrassing for him. Trump has the Department of Justice to protect him, so he seems unbothered.

As you know, the mainstream news is coded in ways favorable to the Republicans. And yet the Democrats' messaging seems to be getting through to people. What's going on? How do you explain that?

Two things that are working:

One, Democrats are calling lies LIES! This is something they have never been good at because they like to play nice. But the gloves are off. Finally!

Two, the messaging is simple: healthcare costs will rise. In this economy, that message resonates and people will get premium increases in the mail soon enough. Democrats have truth on their side and are using it as leverage. Repetition matters and they are marching to the same beat. Unity is important.

How does this end? If Trump caves, what have the Democrats accomplished — protecting GOP voters from their choices?

I have no idea how this ends, but I have a few guesses. Marjorie Taylor Greene putting pressure on Johnson is a significant development. Trump will never admit to caving and even if did, he is Trump.

Letting the credits expire would hurt Republicans, but do we want to dismantle the healthcare system to get a win? I am conflicted on this.

The most likely outcome is Democrats back off the immigration language changes and get an extension of Affordable Care Act premiums for one year. That would be a win for the American people. Trump can pretend to work on a new fabulous concept of a plan.

Eventually Republicans will need to negotiate or kill the filibuster to pass a continuing resolution. This is on them.

My theory is that the Democrats should reclaim law and order, and perhaps use the lessons of the shutdown as a foundation for that. This president is lawless. His party is lawless. You want to heal our divisions? Well, enforce the law! Thoughts?

My rebuttal to that is: Who is going to enforce the law? The DOJ? They are compromised. The judiciary branch for the most part is seemingly the only non-compromised check and balance we have left. While slow, the courts are holding up the law for the most part.

Congress cannot enforce the law. Its role is to legislate. So now we have to rely on states to sue and win in court to stop the lawlessness of the DOJ, the FBI and the White House. This is why democracy is dying. The legislative branch has mostly ceded its Article 1 power. We are in hell, as I like to say, and it will take the courts and the American people to save what little of our democracy is left.

Why should Dems buy guns for Trump to point back at them?

Last weekend in Norfolk, Virginia, at a uniform-mandatory commemoration of the Navy’s 250th anniversary, Donald Trump addressed the troops as if it were a MAGA rally. He told hundreds of sailors, SEALS and Marines that the nation had to “take care” of this “little gnat on our shoulder called the Democrats,” then proceeded to disparage Democrats to cheers and applause from the assembled troops.

His comments drew criticism because the US military is a non-political fighting force, kept that way to protect the nation. But his Norfolk appearance followed a similar speech in Quantico, Virginia, where he informed 800 ranked officers from all fighting units that they’d soon be let loose on “the enemy within,” meaning, again, Democrats.

It is extraordinary, but not hyperbole, to say that Trump is conditioning all branches of the US military to devalue citizens who do not support him politically. As he sends red-state National Guardsmen into blue states against their wishes, Civil War-style, Trump is reshaping historically apolitical forces into his own image, turning armed soldiers against Americans they have sworn an oath to protect.

Rule of law holds – barely

Trump’s authorization for the use of excessive force in ICE raids in Chicago, LA, and D.C. — resulting in several deaths —is well documented. In Portland, a Trump-appointed judge cited the disconnect between violence Trump claims is happening on the ground, and the largely peaceful protests occurring in reality.

It is clear to everyone outside the Fox News bubble that Trump is trying to destabilize Democrat-run cities, as he encourages the use of tear gas and pepper spray to create the appearance of mayhem. His goal is to provoke violent reactions and civil unrest, which will allow him to declare martial law to keep himself in power.

Legal challenges to these actions are stacking up across the country, and so far, judges at the federal district court level are holding the line. However, after the Supreme Court just eviscerated the Fourth Amendment by allowing Trump’s masked agents to harass and detain people based on race, the hope that the judiciary will save us is fading.

Whether the same Republican justices will let Trump continue to terrorize the nation with armed military forces is unclear, but so far, in Trump 2.0, they have sided with him on 21 out of 23 emergency applications. It does not look good. However they ultimately rule on Posse Comitatus, the justices have already enabled a rogue president with malice and criminal intent toward half the nation.

Broken social contract

Trump’s violence against Democratic-run cities is consistent with his goal of strangling them financially. Although it is grossly unconstitutional to condition the receipt of federal tax-funded resources on political affiliation, Trump weaponizes government resources like a mob boss. Small wonder some taxpayers question whether they should fund their own destruction.

After already withholding billions from states governed by Democrats, Trump is now using the government shutdown as a pretext to withhold even more federal funds from them, even though blue states disproportionately fund the federal government compared to red states. Last week he threatened to use the shutdown to cut “many Democrat Agencies, most of which are a political SCAM.”

Sen. Chris Murphy (D-CT) summed the situation up frankly: “Let’s open our eyes. This isn’t a functioning democracy any longer when — in the middle of a high stakes funding fight — the President illegally suspends federal projects in states run by Democrats as a way to punish the political opposition.”

Why buy the guns aimed at our heads?

By all indications, Trump wants to cleave our nation in half, to stay in power past his expiration date. But by withholding federal resources from Democratic-run states as political retribution, Trump is also building a permission structure for people living in those states to question their own federal taxation, asking why they should pay for the guns pointed at their own heads.

No lawyer worth their salt would advise people to break the law by not paying federal taxes that are due. However, while tax evasion is illegal, tax avoidance is not. Trump, who calls himself “smart” for his own history of tax avoidance, is now literally waging war on Democrats as they foot the bill for the violence.

Americans pay federal taxes under a social and legal contract. While we often disagree with our presidents, every four or eight years, there’s a new one. Some will be conservative, some will be liberal, and over time, it balances. But now we have a president teasing a third term after he tried to violently block the transfer of power the last time he lost an election, backed by a corrupt Supreme Court as he turns cities into war zones to stay in power.

Ezra Klein, no fan of Democrats, writes, “Democrats, morally speaking, should not fund a government that Trump is turning into a tool of personal enrichment and power … The machinery of the state is being organized to entrench Republican power … to create a masked paramilitary force roaming the streets and carrying out Trump’s commands. Do you just let that roll forward and hope for the best?”

Do you?

Sabrina Haake is a columnist and 25+ year federal trial attorney specializing in 1st and 14th A defense. Her Substack, The Haake Take, is free.

This Georgia mom highlights the price Republicans will pay for rising health care costs

It has taken some time, but the American public is finally beginning to understand what Republicans in Washington are doing to our nation’s health care system, including the Affordable Care Act that now covers an estimated 24 million people.

“When the tax credits expire this year my own adult children’s insurance premiums for 2026 are going to DOUBLE,” one North Georgia mother exclaimed this week on social media. “Not a single Republican in leadership talked to us about this or has given us a plan to help Americans deal with their health insurance premiums DOUBLING!!!

“WE HAVE TO DO SOMETHING ABOUT THE ABSOLUTELY INSANE COST OF INSURANCE FOR AMERICANS,” she concluded, in all capital letters.

That exasperated mother is Marjorie Taylor Greene, the Republican representing Georgia’s 14th Congressional District. And her adult children are not the only ones experiencing sticker shock because tax credits are expiring at the end of this year.

For example: “On average, a 60-year-old couple making $85,000 would see yearly premium payments rise by over $22,600 in 2026, after accounting for an annual premium increase of 18 percent,” according to health care analysts at KFF. “This would bring the cost of a benchmark plan to about a quarter of this couple’s annual income.”

If you’re wondering what the government shutdown is all about, this explains a lot of it. Democrats have been warning for months that the ACA subsidies that keep health insurance affordable will expire at the end of the year without congressional action, but as Greene notes in her typically flamboyant fashion, Republican leaders have done nothing to address the problem.

Democrats say that if the subsidies are reinstated, they’ll provide enough Democratic votes in the Senate to fund the government. In response, Republicans say nothing.

Current projections are that without such action, 450,000 Georgians will be forced to drop their insurance coverage through the ACA because they can no longer afford it, and that in turn will send ripples throughout the state’s health care infrastructure.

According to a second analysis, this one by the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation, that would mean a loss of $1.6 billion in revenue to hospitals and other health-delivery systems in Georgia, with particular impact on struggling rural hospitals.

But if you believe Republican leadership in Washington, none of this is happening. They continue to claim that Democrats are demanding free health care for illegal immigrants as their price for reopening the government, while Democrats continue to insist that is not true.

Democrats point out, correctly, that longstanding federal law bars illegal immigrants from coverage under Medicaid, Medicare and the Affordable Care Act, and Democrats say they have no intention of trying to change that.

Essentially, Republicans are caught in a trap of their own making. Polls continue to show stronger and stronger support for the Affordable Care Act, also known as Obamacare. Two-thirds of Americans now say they support the program, compared to just 33 percent who are still opposed. Last month, a KFF poll found that 78 percent of Americans support extending the tax credit subsidies, while just 22 percent oppose it.

That 22 percent, however, is largely the MAGA base. With Republicans in charge of the House, Senate and White House, any move to extend the Obamacare subsidies would have to come with Republican approval and Republican votes. That would be seen as a deep, intolerable act of betrayal by the GOP base, which has been taught that Obamacare is the work of the devil.

So they do nothing, and doing nothing will come with a price, both for Americans who will lose their health insurance and for the politicians who allowed it to happen.

Jay Bookman covered Georgia and national politics for nearly 30 years for the Atlanta Journal-Constitution, earning numerous national, regional and state journalism awards. He has been awarded the National Headliner Award and the Walker Stone Award for outstanding editorial writing, and is the only two-time winner of the Pulliam Fellowship granted by the Society of Professional Journalists. He is also the author of "Caught in the Current," published by St. Martin's Press.