In November we think about giving thanks, but there are other important days on the calendar. November is election month. Our local election was on the 7th, and Republicans in Virginia took a trouncing. I will give thanks that our governor, now without any legislative support, will not get to track women’s menstrual cycles. Nor will he get his abortion ban. Democrats now control our legislature, and that is a fine thing. Voters across America realize that this election was between the party that wants to take away our rights and the party who wants all citizens to have the right to control their -own lives without governmental interference. Most Americans know that we, the people, should be in charge of what we do with our bodies and who we love, not politicians. Another - often overshadowed by the others - holiday in the November calendar is Veteran’s Day. It used to be called Armistice Day, to celebrate the end of WWI and pay homage to the many who gave their l...
You know the commercial for home insurance where Mayhem (in the guise of actor Dean Winter) comes to call, wrecking garages, cars, and houses.
Have no fear, the insurance company says, “We’ve got you covered.”
I’ve been wondering: What insurance coverage do Americans have to protect ourselves against the mayhem and chaos caused by the MAGA Republican Party?
We have a lot.
We have the ballot box, for one thing. Democrats have proven their ability to defeat the MAGA Mayhem threatening democracy.
Earlier this month, there was an election to fill a seat on the Wisconsin Supreme Court, and the Democrat won by a wide margin.
Previously, because of Republican gerrymandering, Wisconsin Democrats have been unable to control their General Assembly, but voters elected a Democrat who will help cease that anti-democratic practice in their Supreme Court.
She is also a supporter of women’s reproductive rights. The political orientation of the Wisconsin Supreme Court has been in Republican hands for the past fifteen years. No longer.
According to historian Heather Cox Richardson, “Far-right activist Ali Alexander, who was deeply involved in the attempt to overturn the 2020 presidential election, tweeted: ‘We just lost the Wisconsin Supreme Court. I do not see a path to 270 in 2024.’”
If a MAGA Republican sees his party as a losing one, isn’t the end of that party just around the corner ?
And again, in Wisconsin, Republican-backed candidates for school board also fared poorly. Moms for Liberty, a right-wing group linked to wealthy Republican donors, said only eight of its endorsed candidates won election to school boards. Other conservative groups also reported disappointing performances.
In Illinois, Democrats said more than 70% of school-board candidates it had endorsed won their races last week, defeating the anti-LGBTQ+ culture-warrior candidates.
MAGA Republicans just aren’t doing well. They had a paltry victory in the 2022 House elections and a loss of the presidency in 2020. The American people do not stand with them. Americans, especially young Americans, are voting against their extremism.
We have our voices too. In Florida, students are marching for democracy (freedom of speech, freedom to read what they want, freedom to choose who they love, freedom to be who they are).
The younger generation realizes that MAGA Republicans are far more interested in their genitalia and women’s wombs than they are in governing.
When Marjorie Taylor Greene showed up in NYC with her MAGA act, she was shouted down and forced to leave. No blue city wants to hear her insane screaming.
The sane voices are stronger than hers and pack more of a punch. So she was forced to keep her mouth shut.
In Tennessee, the state with the latest school slaughter, 7,000 students, parents, and teachers marched to the Capitol to demand gun safety.
Included in that protest in the well of the state capitol building, along with children, teenagers, grandparents, and teachers, were two young Black freshmen Democratic members of the Tennessee legislature, Representative Justin Jones and Representative Justin Pearson.
The 7,000 citizens that day were demanding that Tennessee take measures to protect children in schools and provide safety from weapons of war manufactured to kill as many people as possible in as short a time as possible.
In response to their constituents — who are in mourning — the Tennessee legislature called the protest against the slaughter of children “an insurrection,” and then they expelled Representatives Jones and Pearson.
The story quickly became national news, and the expelled Democrats instant stars in America’s ongoing struggle for social justice. They now have a much bigger voice than before.
Money poured in to support them via GoFundMe, and Jones and Pearson had almost 24 hours of wall-to-wall news coverage.
Once again, Republican leadership went too far, and the backlash against them is enormous. The Representatives have been restored to their places in the Tennessee General Assembly; they emerged victorious, and Republican leadership looks petty.
In Oklahoma, after county commissioner Mark Jennings was heard on tape lamenting that he could not lynch people and threatening journalists with death was forced to resign by that state’s governor.
Fox News fired ultra-lying, mayhem-producing Tucker Carlson. As a result, Fox lost the defamation lawsuit that Dominion brought against them — and him.
Carlson’s lies are partly responsible for Americans dying unnecessarily due to Covid. And his support of The Big Lie (that our current president stole the election in 2020) caused people to be murdered on Jan. 6, 2020.
He knew he was lying. But he was happy to make a lot of money with those lies.
Today saner voices silenced him. At last.
And of all things, we have Disney. So of all our insurances against mayhem, this one may not be as revered as voting and voicing, but it’s certainly fun.
As ultra-right wingnut Florida Governor DeSantis wages war against schools, the entire LGBTQ+ community, and whatever he believes “woke” is, he’s trying to take over the running of the Disney Corporation, one of the most influential companies in the world.
Why ? Because Disney believes people should live as they identify, and that should be respected. DeSantis will never win.
Disney and the American people understand that while MAGA Mayhem may cause a whole lot of trouble, we are insured against it by the strength of our democracy.
Exactly!
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