Don’t Count Him Out, Retiree From Florida Still Holds Plenty Of Clout
It’s alright to sit for a little while on the pink cloud after the Democratic victories on election day but back in reality, the trumpers and election deniers and the white supremacists are not going away.
Case in point: A week after election denier and trump lackey supreme Matthew DePerno lost a bid for Michigan Attorney General, DePerno announced that he will be a candidate to lead Michigan’s Republican party.
And there was Doug Mastriano, the Republican Christian crusader who lost the race for governor in Pennsylvania. It took Mastriano five days after the votes were tallied to concede he had lost to Democrat Josh Shapiro. Mastriano had relied on nutjob psychics and far right religious zealots who also adhere to the philosophy of Christian nationalism and the idea that America is a Christian nation and that it should be run by Christian leaders. That doesn’t sound like someone who is going to fade into the political woodwork.
And for anyone who is heartened by the flood of “criticism” from Republicans who blame trump for the GOP poor showings, please remember that trump was roundly and sanctimoniously and hypocritically harangued when he said he could “grab them by the pussy” and we know how that ended.
And here is a quiz. What do these people all have in common?
Jerry Carl, Barry Moore, Mike Rogers, Robert Aderholt, Dale Strong, Gary Palmer, Steve Marshall, Kay Ivey, Katie Britt, Debbie Lesko, Paul Gosar, Rick Crawford, Bruce Westerman, Leslie Rutledge, Doug LaMalfa, Tom McClintock, Kevin McCarthy, Darrell Issa, Doug Lamborn, Matt Gaetz, Neal Dunn, Kaat Cammack, Michael Waltz, Cory Mills, Bill Posey, Daniel Webster, Gus M. Bilirakis, Greg Steube, Scott Franklin, Bryon Donalds, Brian Mast, Mario Diaz-Balart, Carlos Gimenez, Buddy Carter, Drew Ferguson, Rich McCormick, Austin Scott, Andrew Clyde, Mike Collins, Barry Loudermilk, Rick Allen, Marjorie Taylor Greene, Russ Fulcher, Mike Simpson, Brad Little, Mike Bost, Mary Miller, Darin LaHood, Jim Bank, Jim Bair, Greg Pence, Diego Morales, Kim Reynolds, Tracey Mann, Jake LaTurner, Ron Estes, Hal Rogers, Rand Paul, Andy Harris, Jack Bergman, John Moolenaar, Bill Huizenga, Tim Walberg, Lisa McClain, Tom Emmer, Michelle Fischbach, Pete Stauber, Trent Kelly, Michael Guest, Ann Wagner, Blaine Luetkemeyer, Mark Alford, Sam Graves, Eric Burlison, Jason Smith, Eric Schmitt, Matt Rosendale, Adrian Smith, Jeff Van Drew, Elise Stefanik, Claudia Tenney, Gregory Murphy, Virginia Foxx, Daivd Rouzer, Dan Bishop, Richard Hudson, Brad Wenstrup, Jim Jordan, Bob Latta, Bill Johnson, Max Miller, Warren Davidson, Kevin Hern, Frank Lucas, Tom Cole, Stephanie Bic, Markwayne Mullin, Cliff Bentz, Dan Meuser, Scott Perry, Lloyd Smucker, John Joyce, Guy Reschenthaler, Glenn Thompson, Mike Kelly, Joe Wilson, Jeff Duncan, William Timmons, Ralph Norman, Russell Fry, Alan Wilson, Kristi Noem, Diana Harshbanger, Tim Burchett, Chuck Fleischmann, Scott DesJarlais, John Rose, Mark Green, David Kustoff, Dan Crenshaw, Keith Self, Pat Fallon, Lauce Gooden, Jake Ellzey, Morgan Luttrell, August Pfuger, Ronny Jackson, Randy Weber, Pete Sessions, Jodey Arrington, Troy Nehls, Beth Van Duyne, Roger Williams, Michael C. Burgess, Michael Cloud, John Carter, Brian Babin, Chris Stewart, Burgess Owens, Rob Wittman, Bob Good, Ben Cline, Morgan Griffith, Dan Newhouse, Cathy McMorris Rodgers, Carol Miller, Alexander Mooney, Scott Fitzgerald, Tom Tiffany, Harriet Hageman, Chuck Gray, Anna Paulina Luna, Ashley Moody, Ron DeSantis, Nicole Malliotakis, Dave Yost, Andy Ogles, Monica de la Cruz, Ken Paxton, Greg Abbott, Dan Patrick, Derrick Van Orden, Maria Elvira Salazar, Burt Jones, Tedd Budd, J.D. Vance, and Jen Kiggans.
The answer: All won election to local, state and federal posts and all are election deniers.
And what about these fine patriots?
Dominic Rapini, Derek Schmidt, Kristina Karamo, Tyler Kistner, Kim Crockett, Karoline Leavitt, Audrey Trujillo, Bo Hines, Steve Chabot, Madison Gesiotto Gilbert, Mehmet Oz, Mayra Flores, Yesli Vega, Tim Michels, Regan Deering, Paul LePage, John Gibbs, Tudor Dixon, Don Bolduc, J.R. Majewski, Kelly Cooper, Erik Aadland, Catalina Lauf, Scott Jensen, Lee Zeldin, Sandy Smith, Doug Mastriano, Hung Cao, Beatrice Nichols, Luis Pozzolo, Rudy Recile, John Dennis, John Briscoe, Jennifer Qualteri, Heidi Ganahl, Lee Murphy, Scotty Moore, Calvin Wimbish, Drew-Montez Clark, Dan Franzese, Jesus Navarro, Carla Spalding, Mark Gonsalves, Caesar Gonzales, Joe Akana, Darren Bailey, Nicolee Ambrose, Chris Palombi, Scott Collier, Michael Anthony Peroutka, Dan Cox, Gordana Schifanelli, Chris Chaffee, Jeffrey Sonna-Paquette, Caroline Colarusso, Donnie Palmer, Geoff Diehl, Leah Cole Allen, Rayla Campbell, Brian Flowers, Darius Mayfield, Michelle Garci Holmes, Thomas Zmich, Yuri Dashevsky, Benine Hamdan, Courtney Geels, Tyler Lee, Joanna Harbour, Charlotte Bergmann, Irene Armendariz-Jackson, Carmen Maria Montiel, Kyle Sinclair, Jenny Garcia Sharon, H. Brooke Paige, and Leon Benjamin.
All election deniers, they followed trump off the cliff like lemmings and lost. If I was any one of these I would be jumping mad because in his “announcement,” the retiree from Florida did not once mention his big lie, that he lost the 2020 election because of voter fraud. I would go out on a teensey weensey limb and say that by failing to mention voter fraud, he was giving a lie to his own big lie. And I would go out on that same teensey weensey limb to say that the Florida retiree lost not a wink of sleep over having lead his minions into the abyss.
But if you thought Republicans would desert trump like rats scurrying from a sinking ship, think again.
For example, the day after trump made his big announcement of a 2024 run for the White House, Rep. Jeff Van Drew, R-N.J., said he will be firmly on board the 2024 trump train. It’s no surprise as Van Drew had been part of a Republican congressional move that asked the Supreme Court to throw out the election results that gave Biden the presidency.
“He’s a guy who did it all,” said Van Drew, who represents the second congressional district. “He’s the guy who had the guts to go in there and break this whole thing open and show the underbelly of Washington. He was the guy that had us two years ago, whether it was economic issues, foreign affairs issues — the Abraham accords — just anything that you can think of, we were doing better.”
Yes, he did it all: Impeached twice; deaths of tens of thousands of Americans because he dithered or denied COVID-19; tried to strong arm the Ukrainian president; lied and lied and lied about non-existent voter fraud and then riled up the mob to attack the Capitol; is the target of numerous federal and state investigations; pressed Israel into the Abraham accords, probably destroying any chances of a solution to the Palestinian apartheid; sexually assaulted numerous women; courted white supremacists and militias. And that’s just a brief look back on trump who “did it all.”
Rep. Marjorie Taylor-Greene, noted Christian nationalist, white supremacist, election denier and all-around far left flake, began her campaign of toadyism, sycophancy and bootlicking in hopes of being trump’s 2024 running mate. Taylor-Greene announced that “President Trump has my full endorsement and my support as our Republican nominee in 2024.”
Greene praised trump for having selflessly “put everyone else ahead of himself” during the midterms by not announcing his candidacy during the November elections. Yes, trump was totally unselfish when, before the elecvtion, he referred to Florida Republican Gov. Ron DeSantis as “Ron DeSanctimonious” and inferred that he will brutally smear DeSantis if they ever meet up in the GOP presidential primary.
Greene also said that trump deserves a second term and that he has to be given a chance to “finish the job.” Evidently, trump needs to complete his plans to undermine democracy through disenfranchising people of color, to maneuver himself into the new American dictator and to cash in the millions he was making by conflict of interest investments into trump hotels and other properties. Yes, trump has a lot to do to “finish the job.”
And for those still floating the la la land of trump’s fall, consider this: Sen. Mitch McConnell, R-Kent., was reelected by his peers to be the Senate minority leader while Sen. Joni Ernst, R-Iowa, was elected to replace the retiring Sen. Roy Blunt, R-Mo., as head of the Senate Republican Policy Committee.
A little about Ernst, who bears a striking philosophical resemblance to trump. She rejects the scientific consensus on climate change, opposes a federal minimum wage and wants to eliminate the Internal Revenue Service, Department of Education and the Environmental Protection Agency.
During her primary race for election to the Senate, Ernst promoted a conspiracy theory that a United Nations sustainable development plan, Agenda 21, could lead to farmers being forced off their land and made to live in cities.
In August 2020, Iowa had the most new COVID-19 infections per capita of any state in the preceding seven days. Ernst reacted by repeating a debunked conspiracy theory that the case numbers were greatly inflated and that health care providers might be falsifying them. She also praised trump’s response to the COVID-19 pandemic, saying, “he was right on it from day one” which is true, if his goal was to kill tens of thousands of Americans.
She voted to acquit Trump on both articles of impeachment and said that trump had learned his lesson, and that he would not ask a foreign leader to investigate his rivals again without going through the proper channels. Trump learned his lesson but the lesson was that he could get away with anything and his base would back him as would all the sycophants in Congress.
Kari Ann Lake, the former TV news anchor turned rabid Republican election denier wasn’t exactly graceful in defeat after she lost her race for Arizona governor. After the results were certified, Lake tweeted: “Arizonans know BS when they see it.” A less than rousing showing of fewer than 20 people supporting Lake gathered outside the state capitol in Arizona on Tuesday to protest her loss in the race for governor.
Lake has still not acknowledged what everybody other than 20 loonies know, that she lost the election. Lake is considering whether to be trumpian and challenge the election results, even if there wasn’t a scintilla of evidence of voter fraud. If it was good enough for trump, Lake figures it’s good enough for Lake who should just jump in the ...
And after last votes were tallied, Republican election denier Kristina Karamo lost in her bid for Michigan secretary of state. Rather than gracefully concede, Karamo told supporters to “stand by” for more election fraud conspiracies. Karamo lost to Secretary of State Jocelyn Benson by 14 points, the largest margin of any top statewide race.
On and since Election Day, Karamo has tweeted unfounded accusations that Detroit, Ann Arbor, Redford and some Oakland County cities like Novi did not comply with Michigan Election Law. Karamo said that her team has “received multiple reports of election law violations and other irregularities throughout multiple counties.” As is typical, no facts were presented to back her claims.
There were some thoughtful Republican voices after the election dust had settled. Arizona state Sen. Wendy Rogers, a strong supporter of Lake, ruminated that her party didn’t lose because of wackos like herself, who had told a gathering of white nationalists that “we need to build more gallows.” It wasn’t the substance of philosophy by those of Rogers’ ilk, she who also suggested throwing county officials in solitary confinement and spent years lying about the 2020 election. Rather, said Rogers, it was a messaging problem where Republicans made their case in an echo chamber and not to the public at large. Well, Rogers’ comments were not really thoughtful. In fact, the voters turned away the rabid election deniers because they sounded crazy and not because of any echo chamber.
The sore loser of the day trophy has to go to Republican Bud Marty May, who lost his race to unseat his mother on the South Dakota House of Representatives.
Days after the election, May,37, was in court on a charge of second-degree rape, facing 50 years in prison. The victim claimed that May forced himself on her in a bathroom stall at a bar, telling her, “I am 6′8, white, it is all consensual.” May then fled the scene but was later detained by police. The Republican candidate initially denied involvement, but then claimed, “it was simply a hug.”
May ran for one of the two South Dakota House seats in District 27. The seats were won by Democrat Peri Pourier with 29 percent of the vote, and May’s mother, Elizabeth, a Republican, with 26.7 percent of the vote.