"When fascism comes to America, it will be wrapped in the flag and carrying the cross."
-- Sinclair Lewis
Monday, May 30, 2016
"Abortion Can No More Be Legislated Than Niagara Falls Can Be Dammed with a Spoon"
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Former right-wing evangelical Frank Schaeffer confesses his sins (seriously)
by Gaius Publius
Another in our series, "They knew and they didn't care." The video above shows ex-evangelical minister Frank Schaeffer talking about the birth of the anti-choice movement and how it's responsible, among other things, for the presidency of George W. Bush. Schaeffer on that:
"We [the anti-choice part of the right-wing movement] created that audience — alienated, angry people convinced of their own victimhood. So, they became a majority while the mainstream media slept, and when everybody suddenly woke up to the fact was when George W. Bush was sitting in the White House as a totally unqualified crazy person who launched two wars we didn't need to be in. So the fallout had a direct ramification on American history."
The title quote — "Abortion can no more be legislated than Niagara Falls can be dammed with a spoon" — comes after the four-minute mark, as Schaeffer says he's come to think of abortion as simply a fact of life, "like broken relationships, and abortion is no different ... part of the warp and woof of life, part of our mortality as a human being."
It's really a striking clip, both for the admission and for the language it's couched in. And yes, he admits he was in it for the money.
Schaeffer Knows What He Did
Schaeffer and his family are directly and personally responsible for the anti-choice movement in this country, and in this five-minute clip he sees unblinkingly — and profanely (this is not-safe audio if your boss is nearby) — what he, to his deep and passionate regret, helped do to the entire country.
It's not a surprise, this confession, because he's said many of these things before. But it's on the level of Lee Atwater's deathbed regret for his Willie Horton-ization of Republican politics. Schaeffer and his family had that great an impact on the political landscape of, let's face it, almost the length of our lives.
The interviewer is Samantha Bee, though she makes no appearance. Also, it really is a profane clip. Schaeffer is both colorful, a delightful speaker, and effective. Headset warning.
Aww, Senator Grasshole's feelings are hurt. Those fact-hating GOP-ers always hate it when you quote back what they've said.
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"When you see a bunch of people going around thinking that our president is the Antichrist, you have to draw one of two conclusions: Either these are racists, looking for any excuse to level the next accusation, or they're beyond crazy, and I think 'beyond crazy' is a better explanation, and that evangelical subculture has rotted the brain of the United States of America."
-- Frank Schaeffer, to Rachel Maddow on Wednesday's show
Schaeffer writes from the unique perspective of someone who was in on the creation of the modern Religious Right. His father, Francis Schaeffer (1912-1984), a Presbyterian minister, was one of its shapers, and Frank himself was an eager participant until he made his break in the mid-'80s. I call attention in particular to this section, at about 1:15 in the clip:
The mainstream not just media but culture doesn't sufficiently take stock of the fact that within our culture we have a subculture which is literally a fifth column of insanity, that is bred from birth through home school, Christian school, evangelical college, whatever, to reject facts, as a matter of faith. And so this substitute for authentic historic Christianity -- and I may add as a little caveat here, I'm a churchgoing Christian -- really brings up the question, can Christianity be rescued from Christians? And that's an open question.
And when you see a bunch of people going around thinking that our president is the Antichrist, you have to draw one of two conclusions: Either these are racists, looking for any excuse to level the next accusation, or they're beyond crazy, and I think "beyond crazy" is a better explanation, and that evangelical subculture has rotted the brain of the United States of America. We have a big slice of our population waiting for Jesus to come back. They look forward to Armageddon; good news is bad news to them.
When we talk about the Left Behind series of books that I talk about in my book, Crazy for God, what we're really talking about is a group of people who are resentful 'cause they know they've been left behind -- by modernity, by science, by education, by art, by literature. The rest of us are getting on with our lives; these people are standing on a hilltop waiting for the end. This is a dangerous group of people to have as neighbors, and they're our national neighbors. And this is the source of all these insanities that we see leveled at the president. One way or another they go back to this little evangelical subculture. It is a disaster.
[Boldface emphasis added by yours truly.]
Did you get that? A subculture that rejects facts, as a matter of faith. They reject facts as a matter of faith. As Schaeffer says later, "This subculture has as its fundamentalist faith that they distrust facts per se."
Wow! Can it be said much better than that?
I bring this up because Iowa Sen. Chuck Grassley, best known as Montana Sen. Max Baucus's BFF (one of them is chairman of the Senate Finance Committee and the other is ranking minority member, and even they never quite seem sure which is which, as long as the predatory corporatist agenda is being served), but known to our Noah as "Senator Grasshole," which I can certainly get behind, has lately been on a mission to buff up his image.
You remember that creepy post-election period when Chimpy the Then-Prez was still nominally the prez but seemed to lose most of his interest in the job and with it his always-limited focus, and concentrated instead on polishing his "legacy" -- as if the eight years he spent building that legacy could be tossed down a memory hole? Well, now Senator Grasshole seems to be searching for the opening to that memory hole. He's got a lot of crap it appears he'd like to dump down it.
I will stipulate at the outset that Chuck Grassley isn't the worst of the Republicans, or at least didn't used to be. He wasn't the best either. By Republican standards -- and I stress only by Republican standards -- he could legitimately pass himself off as a moderate. Remember that the Modern Movement Right has shifted the goalposts so that "right" is now way out in the vicinity of Uranus or Pluto, if not out of our solar system entirely, so that, relatively speaking, the "center' is, oh, out around Jupiter. By that standard our Chuck could pass as a moderate. I mean, using as our senatorial standard of comparison the likes of Arizona's John Kyl or South Carolina's Jim DeMint.
But that's only if our Chuck wanted to pass as a moderate. With the dawn of the new political alignment of 2009, he showed no inclination to buck the trend to make the GOP the Party of No. Well, perhaps he thought he was bucking it while he and his buddy Max played their joined-at-the-hip game of bipartisan health care whoring, for sale to the highest bidder.
Then Chuck had a bad August, a very bad August. Those angry mobs at his Iowa town halls seem to have unnerved him, which may not be difficult to do since he doesn't seem to have a whole lot of nerve, at least in the gumption sense. So he went with the flow and spent the month demagoguing his constituents.
Now he claims he's being attacked unfairly, because he was just answering constituents' questions. Right! Here he is, Senator Grasshole answering a constituent's question:
Senator Grasshole does say that he has nothing against "things like living wills" (here's the Young Turks' Cenk Uygur talking about it), except that they shouldn't be drawn up at the end of life but 20 years before. Try going to your lawyer and explaining, "I'd like to draw up a living will 20 years before I die." And if you miss the 20-year mark, does that mean you forfeit your right to a say in the decisions made on your behalf when you're no longer able to participate in them? And by the way, is Senator Grasshole, or Jesus Christ, his proposed solver of all end-of-life issues, doing anything to help Iowans face up to those end-of-life realities at that magic 20-years-before-death mark? Not that I've heard.
If Senator Grasshole were really answering his constituent's question, he would have pointed out, simply, clearly, and unequivocallyl, that it's pure fiction, don't worry, nobody's going to pull the plug on Grandma -- except maybe the insurance companies if they get tired of paying out on her. He could have answered her terror with fact. If he really wanted to answer the question, he could have gone further still: explaining that the "death panels" were invented by cynical politicians who spit on reality, and for that matter on people like the senator's scared-silly constituent, and seek only to scare the bejeezus out of gullible people for personal and/or political advantage.
But Senator Grasshole was too smart to be caught trying to fight hysteria with facts. He knows better than anyone that now we have a subculture that rejects facts as a matter of faith. So instead he served up bullshit. He gave his crowd: (1) Jesus Christ. "Hooray!" (2) Government interference. "Boo!" In our clip he derides the woman who tries to point out that what he's saying has nothing to do with what's being proposed.
Out of either a desire for shameless partisan political profit or else just plain gutlessness, Senator Grasshole propagandized for the loony right, acquiescing in and even amplifying its lies, when it was his job to stand up to the liars and try to ease the groundless fears of people who had been driven into a frenzy by merchants of ignorance who seek to turn the country into an autocracy, or perhaps theocracy, that would impose a reign of ignorance and terror, and turn the founding principles of America on their head.
And now Senator Grasshole's feelings are hurt! Because the president spoke less than kindly (finally! what the hell has he been waiting for?) about GOP pols collaborating with fringe loonies to legitimize the bogus "death panels" rumors, and the administration intimated that Senate Finance Committee R's may not have been "negotiating" with absolute good faith. (Ya think?)
Whatever happened to "If you can't do the time, don't do the crime"? I mean, if you make the decision to stoop to that level of behavior, and keep it up over those periods of time, I'm sorry, you have to be prepared if you' get caught. You really don't get to whine about shocking allegations or your hurt feelings. If you don't have the plain gumption to own up to it and say you're fucking sorry for having been such a fucking asshole, you at least have to come up with an excuse above the "dog ate my homework" level. Really, I'm not sure the senator's protestations even rise to the "dog ate my homework" level.
When Queen Marie Antoinette declared, "Let them eat cake," at least she was thinking happy thoughts for those breadless French peasants. Of course she gave no thought to the question of where the peasants were supposed to get that cake to eat, and in this sense I suppose you could say that Senator Grasshole has more completely considered his program for the needs of ordinary Americans. When he says, "Let them eat bullshit," he at least supplies the bullshit.
He seems to have a limitless supply.
AFTERTHOUGHT: DOES SENATOR GRASSHOLE KNOW WHAT END-OF-LIFE COUNSELING IS?
Since writing the above, I've been thinking about Senator Grasshole's craven performance at those town halls, and it occurs to me, I'm not sure he even knows what end-of-life counseling (or planning) is. He does know enough to relate it to "things like living wills," which he declares he has no problem with. But then there's that whole "20 years before you die" business, not to mention the truly disgraceful demagoguery of invoking Jesus Christ for end-of-life planning. If there were any reason to think he believes that Jesus Christ can counsel you on how much suffering your incapacitated grandparent or parent should be forced to endure, then he should simply commit himself voluntarily to the nearest loony bin, and ideally have a staff member apologize to his constituents for treating them like brain-dead robots.
I've written before about this matter of end-of-life planning, and quoted from some of the (surely standard) language in my mother's living will, noting that she didn't have it drawn up until she was 74. As it turned out she has lived another 16 years, which means that by Senator Grasshole's standard she was too late, and I guess has to be thanked for playing our game and sent home with a consolation prize and no end-of-life plan. Well, sorry, senator, but fuck you!
I don't imagine that it came naturally to my mother to talk to her lawyer about a living will -- and as I mentioned, when she did, she not only made sure I had a copy but made it emphatically clear to me that when her time came, she didn't want her life uselessly prolonged by heroic measures, which can't have been easy for her to talk about either. My mother also planned as much as she could with regard to bank financial matters and funeral arrangements. Now that she's dying, I bless her not just for my sake and the sakes of her care providers, but for her own. Difficult as it is to watch this process, which has been going on now for more than a year and a half, we know that she doesn't want us to do anything to prolong it when there's no hope for meaningful recovery.
If Senator Grasshole and the rest of the legion of Republican rat bastards had even the tiniest shred of intelligence or honesty or decency or compassion, they would be applauding the long-overdue initiative of the government to assist all American to educate themselves about the kinds of issues that confront us at the end of life and how we can prepare for them. The people Grasshole and his kind are demagoguing on the "death panels" issue are probably the very people most desperately in need of information on the subject.
I'm hard put to think of a gentler word for such demagogues than "monsters." They better hope that this God they make such a mockery of every time they invoke Him doesn't exist, because if He does, they're in for an eternity of torment.
When a son of a bitch like Senator Grasshole invokes the name of Jesus Christ, I always wonder if he's smart enough to thank God that Jesus isn't around to speak for himself. But then, these Crap Christians, for all their hysterical fake religiosity, are shockingly ignorant of the actual teachings of Jesus, which are routinely falsified, even ridiculed, by the Religious Right.
One last point: On this matter of "just answering constituents' questions." If you're as genuinely uninformed on a subject as Senator Grasshole appears to be on end-of-life planning and what was proposed in the draft plans, then you can say, "I can understand why you're concerned, and that's something I will definitely have to look into."
A GOP theocracy coup against checks and balances is gaining momentum through Trump’s court picks. Trump’s legislative failures are in the news but his far-right theocracy-facilitating judicial appointments are the bigger story. Trump’s picks will have a lasting outsized impact on American life. Trump has many judicial vacancies to fill because the GOP anti-Obama-obstruction worked. Trump doesn’t care about the religious right’s agenda but since he has ceded the selection of judges to the Federalist Society and Heritage Foundation, ultra-right groups that do care, the religious right is literally being put in power in ways most Americans don’t seem to understand. I do understand because in the 1970s and 80s I helped craft this plan. We’re well on the way to making Evangelical Sharia Law permanent. Trump’s Federalist Society and Heritage Foundation judges will roll back the expansion of civil rights and civil liberties that have developed over the past seven decades. Women, gays, blacks-- beware. America is headed for Saudi-style repression and religious theocracy in the name of “religious liberty.” What’s been astounding in filling the open seats left because of GOP- Obama obstruction is the rapid pace of committee hearings and confirmations for Trump’s Federalist Society-Heritage Foundation far-right religious extremist judicial nominees. The breakneck pace is unprecedented. This is not a coincidence. It fulfills a dream hatched by my late father Francis Schaeffer and me. We crafted this in Dad’s book A Christian Manifesto (1983). It sold hundreds of thousands of copies. The media paid no attention. The ideological evangelical/conservative Catholic extremism of Trump’s Federalist Society-Heritage Foundation appointments should alarm anyone not willing to live in what will amount to an American version of Iran. The nominees are deeply conservative and often unqualified. No one on the right cares about their lack of qualifications because they will reverse abortion rights, gay rights, voting rights and affirmative action. One of Trump’s judicial nominees has supported “conversion therapy” for LGBTQ youth and supported legislation that would allow employers to discriminate against gay employees under the guise of religious liberty. Another Trump judicial nominee called Justice Anthony Kennedy a “judicial prostitute” for supporting gay rights. Another Trump nominee stated that being Muslim is synonymous with being a terrorist and called transgender children “part of Satan’s plan.”
Theocracy looms. Put it this way: Mike Pence’s Francis Schaeffer inspired ideology looms! A memorandum made public last week proposed a court-packing plan that will give Trump hundreds of new appointments to the federal judiciary. These partisan religious right picks will make the federal judiciary a theocracy stronghold that won’t shift for decades. Remember that facts don’t matter here anymore than judicial pick’s qualifications. Trump doesn’t deceive his followers rather he creates an environment in which whether something is true or not becomes irrelevant. All that matters is if it feels good for a moment. And Trump’s white evangelical supporters crave winning the culture wars I helped start-- even while Trump’s GOP shafts them by raising their taxes to make rich GOP donors richer. And nothing distracts (middle-class voters from the fact their Medicare is about to be cut) better than sharply focused hate. “Those most powerful in society have always been able to wield religious freedom arguments for their own interests,” says Tisa Wenger, associate professor of American religious history at Yale. The Christian right’s religious freedom talk is designed to be a distraction as used by Trump. But there is an underlying reality: Religious conservatives are set to impose their cultural mores on broader society. Trump’s borrowed theocracy policy began gradually in the late 1970s and ’80s, following Roe v. Wade. My dad Francis Schaeffer and I led the way on this with C Everett Koop who then became Ronal Reagan’s surgeon general. Forty years later the white evangelicals gave us Trump out of frustration because their agenda wasn’t winning. Now it is! And I found myself writing these words in my new book, LETTER TO LUCY-- A manifesto of creative redemption in the age of Trump, fascism and lies:
“I ask myself these questions silently and inwardly: How may I atone for helping to poison America with certainty addiction? How do I defend my grandchildren against the religious right juggernaut I helped create? How do I reject what my parents stood for (fundamentalist fanaticism) and yet honor the love they gave me? How can I help my grandchildren stumble upon the goodness of life before they’re sold towering mounds of brain-damaging garbage? How do I help save the world? (And what kind of deluded messianic fool am I to believe that this is even possible?)”
Evangelicals and conservative Catholics settled on a highly effective framing of “religious freedom” painting any participation in (or association with) gay rights or abortion as an infringement on their “sincerely held religious beliefs.” As I describe in Letter to Lucy, Dad and I began this strategy in reference to taking away women’s abortion rights as a matter of Christian “conscience.” Evangelicals and conservative Catholics have successfully taken what we did and 40 years later are framing their opposition to gays and abortion rights in a compelling way making freedom of conscience their claim but ALSO forcing their religious fundamentalism on millions of Americans-- in fact on the majority-- who have no connection to extremist religious beliefs. This is tyranny. “Religious freedom” litigation in the 21st Century has increasingly attempted to expand the definition of what may be considered a religious practice. A ruling in favor of Masterpiece Cakeshop against gays would expand this sphere to the very gates of theocracy. And this is just a foretaste of what Trump’s deluge of court-packing appointments will do. With legal recognition for LGBT people Trump’s evangelicals are recycling the “religious freedom” argument to oppose gay and women’s rights. The Alliance Defending Freedom (ADF) a “Christian” legal nonprofit is leading the way imposing theocracy as “religious freedom.” It models its strategy on the Christian legal groups Dad inspired in the 1980s like the Rutherford Institute. Just as evangelicals today use the arguments Dad and I forged against legal abortion rights to bash gays, so too using the “religious freedom” evangelical argument white supremacists will soon also be using religious exemption non-discrimination laws. Their plan will be to facilitate the resurgence of Nazis and white supremacist activities as above the law, exempted from restraint because bigotry too will be a religious right. Trump’s far-right white judges will rule in their favor. Given the highly effective Evangelical/Catholic legal framing of “religious freedom” Dad helped invent, look for Nazis and white supremacist (Trump’s “good people” carrying torches) working on rulings in favor the right to a faith-based Nazi hate bubble. Anti-Semitism is also a Christian tradition! Bedrock American religious liberty ideals have been used to justify imperialism, racism, slavery, misogyny, and (recently) anti-LGBT animus. Trump’s far-right religious zealot judicial picks will soon be deciding cases in favor of overt discrimination as a bedrock all-American “religious freedom.” Despite the long history of Supreme Court adjudication of religious freedom claims, the precise nature of what the Court considers to be a legitimate faith-based issue used to vary widely. It’s now tilting to the far theocratic right.
I want to add one thing to what Frank has to say. Trump will continue nominating reprehensible and dangerous judges for as long as he's in the White House and the Senate will continue rubber-stamping confirmations for as long as the Republicans control the Senate. It's absolutely crucial to defeat every Republican senator up for reelection in 2018. Every one of them has rubber stamped every single Trump nomination, regardless of their lack of competence. The Democrats you'll find by tapping on the ActBlue 2018 senatorial thermometer on the right are vetted progressives who can be counted on to fight against the spread of theocracy. Replacing Ted Cruz with Beto O'Rourke in Texas is especially important-- as is going to the wall to reelect incumbents Tammy Baldwin in Wisconsin and Sherrod Brown in Ohio. The health of what's left of our democracy depends on it.
Frank Schaefer Travels To Agua Dulce To Meet CA-25 Progressive Candidate Katie Hill
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Neither Frank Schaeffer nor Katie Hill is a Trump fan— though Katie’s opponent, Steve Knight, is as Trumped-up as possible. He's one of Trump's most devoted partisans in Washington. Katie takes care to explain why her campaign is more than just an anti-Trump endeavor. I urge you to watch the clip above. But I want to offer you a little background as context. CA-25, which spans the Antelope Valley, the Santa Clarita Valley and Simi Valley, has a Democratic voter registration advantage— and a very weak Republican incumbent. Why? Hillary won CA-25 pretty substantially— 50.3% to 43.6%. But on the same day, the clown who the DCCC had parachuted into the district as "their" candidate, Bryan Caforio, lost 138,755 (53.1%) to 122,406 (46.9%). Caforio is running again but he’s still viewed as an outside by many people in the district, probably because he is. He’s another garden variety Democrat whose campaign is about him and his career trajectory. Is he better than a Republican? Sure. But in primary season why not go for the better Democrat— and the Democrat who is part of the winning grassroots energy, not the pitiful, sad, more-of-the-same DC energy people are sick and tired of? If candidates like Bryan Caforio win— and there are dozens of them everywhere in the country thanks to the DCCC— it’s just another version of the Establishment that takes over when the GOP is swept out of power, a version of the establishment that will eventually infuriate Democratic voters, giving another Trumpist another chance to reclaim the seat, the same way all the pathetic, clueless DCCC candidates from the 2006 wave were swept away in the next midterm (2010). See that thermometer on the right. You probably already know, but it’s the ActBlue thermometer where you can help turn California bluer. Please take a look— and consider supporting Katie Hill in one of the most flippable districts not just in California, but in the whole country.
Just this morning, Katie told us in no uncertain terms that “So many of our district's families will be hurt by the loss of the property tax deduction and after facing the largest fire in California history it is absolutely disgusting to see Steve Knight vote for a bill that removes the deduction for fire damage. I feel this is the nail in Steve Knight's coffin as our community realizes the he doesn't represent us but instead votes only on the party line and for special interests."
The video below is a direct, heartfelt, message from Frank Schaeffer. If Katie is working to offer an alternative to Trump and Trumpism, with specific approaches and specific policies, Frank is just acting as a Paul Revere warning voters— and potential voters— that America has a problem that we must address… urgently and with due diligence. “In 2018, the aim must be,” he wrote, “to destroy Trump and the Republican’s intolerance… the only path to the victory of good over evil. The Trump-shill Wall Street Journal gloats: ‘Democrats want to win back control of Congress and state capitals during next year’s elections but they begin this mission with precious little cash to finance it.’ So my fellow Trump haters, where’s your contribution to your local Democratic candidates?” (Again, that’s what that California thermometer is for.) Watch:
Frank Schaeffer's Roadtrip To Orange County, Part I: Laura Oatman
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As you may know-- I hope so-- Frank Schaeffer is driving around the country making a film. He's interviewing progressive Democrats who can beat Republicans next year. Meanwhile he's been posting videos each time he gets to a district. He started with Randy Bryce in Wisconsin and then went to Forsyth County, North Carolina to see Jenny Marshall. Last week he was here in Southern California speaking with and filming Sam Jammal (CA-39), Kia Hamadanchy (CA-45), Doug Applegate (CA-49) and Laura Oatman, Dana Rohrabacher's progressive opponent in coastal Orange County (CA-48). I think he's up in Maine now talking with Jared Golden. Please take a look at Frank's raw video of Laura up top. Laura introduced herself to DWT readers back in October. She's in a crowded primary field with a bunch of inauthentic-sounding centrists. One calls himself a "Reagan Democrat" and two others are multimillionaires already endorsed by the New Dems, the Republican wing of the Democratic Party. In fact the two of them and some Republican in the jungle primary-- Paul Martin-- all sound pretty interchangeable. Laura is the progressive in this election... and the grassroots candidate. When Laura saw the video she had the same reaction I did when I saw the clip of the hand-help camera shoot Frank made of me. Seeing all the unfiltered footage made in the bright morning sunlight reminded her that she's not in this for ego, but to be real-- wrinkles, forgotten words, and all. She reminded herself that Orange County "needs an architect-- someone who can take a dream, put together a diverse team, design a plan, and make it a reality." That's kind of become a mantra for her campaign. Then she reminds CA-48 voters that "Making America Great Again was all about taking America back to a past that really was only great for white men. It would be impossible, even if we wanted to, to take America back to that past. The world has changed since the 1950’s, with automation, globalization, population growth, and climate change all impacting the global economy, America, & Orange County. We need more leaders who can envision a future that adapts to and embraces these changes, and makes the economy work for all of us so that everyone has a fair shot at the American dream. A future for our country, and for our district, with sustainable jobs, clean air and water, healthcare and education for all, and a society that embraces diversity and inclusion. The diversity of our nation is what makes us great. Let’s make America smart again, kind again, compassionate again."
Even With The Pandemic Ravaging The World, The Greediest And Most Repulsive Among Us-- Take Lloyd Blankfein-- Still Oppose Medicare-for-All
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My friend Frank Schaeffer hasn't been a Republican for many, many years and he is most certainly a #NeverTrumper. But he's been absolutely fiendish in his instinctual opposition to Bernie. Yesterday, though, he tweeted that after hearing from Trump and Pence that you could get a CODID-19 test at Walmart, he drove over to the one closest to his home in Massachusetts. "All I saw were Walmart employees with no health coverage smoking in the parking lot wondering how they can miss work with no childcare, no money, no savings. Yep, Walmart will save us! Thanks Donald." I don't know how Frank feels about Medicare-for-All. But I do know how Lloyd Blankfein feels about it. The former Goldman Sachs top bankster hates it as much as he hates Bernie. Here's a Bankster Blankfein tweet from Saturday afternoon advocating for the kind of privatized, for-profit healthcare that Frank Schaeffer found in the Walmart parking lot Sunday morning:
And I found this popular tongue-in-cheek meme in one of the responses to Blankfein's tweet:
This was the video Bernie posted-- narrated by Bernie endorser actor H. Jon Benjamin ( Bob Belcher in Fox’s Bob’s Burgers and Sterling Archer in FX’s Archer)-- that the bankster objected to. Bernie's campaign's description may have ruffled Blankfein's feathers: "From Roosevelt’s attempt to create a New Deal national health insurance program, to the Trump administration’s repeal of the Obamacare individual mandate-- the three-part Bernie’s Damn Bill video series reveals how decades of influence by greedy special interests have led to the present health care crisis. Bernie has waged a four decades-long fight to implement Medicare for All and explains how his administration will take on corporations and the billionaire class to finally make it happen."
Tell me, did you find that clip more informative and more inspiring than Bankster Blankfein did? Here's the second video in the series:
And the third in these series-- a series that you can see helps explain Bankster Blankfein's enthusiasm for Status Quo Joe, who has recently threatened that if he's nominated by the Democratic Partyand elected president then and Medicare-for-All finally passes, he would probably veto it:
At times like this-- and all other times-- Trump can't help taking on the role of the Ugly American and has offered a German medical company a fortune for exclusive access to a COVID-19 vaccine. The German government is trying to fight off what it sees as an aggressive takeover bid by the U.S. The U.S. Pig-man has "offered the Tübingen-based biopharmaceutical company CureVac 'large sums of money' to gain exclusive access to their work, wrote Die Welt... Trump was doing everything to secure a vaccine against the coronavirus for the U.S., 'but for the US only.'" The loathsome monstrosity sounds like he actually wants to spend eternity roasting in hell.
Because Trump's top New York congressional crony, Chris Collins, was arrested and convicted on multiple charges stemming from his own Blankfein-like advocacy of for-profit (his own) healthcare-- involving a company he owned a plurality of the stock in, Innate Immunotherapeutics-- Collins was forced to resign from Congress, though not before he lied to NY-27 voters about the crime spree and managed to get-- narrowly-- reelected. Nate McMurray, the progressive Democrat who wrestled him to the narrowest congressional win in the whole country-- 140,146 (49.1%) to 139,059 (48.8%)-- will face off in the April 28th special election against hereditary billionaire, gambling magnate and right-wing state Senator Chris Jacobs. Jacobs' reactionary views on healthcare are about the same as Bankster Blankfein's. McMurray made his own clear in a simple tweet yesterday:
McMurray has a slightly longer version on his campaign website:
For years, we have watched large pharmaceutical and insurance companies set higher and higher prices that ultimately barred our access to affordable healthcare. We can’t continue to let companies set prices and collect massive paychecks while our family members are dying from rationing insulin. The current system hurts families, it hurts businesses and it hurts our community. Common-sense healthcare reform will lower our costs and create a system that benefits everyone. With access to the greatest modern medicine in the world, American citizens deserve to not be kept up at night worrying about whether or not they can pay for their medical needs. As your Congressman, I will support "Medicare for All" and fight for a system that keeps families healthy. I know we can do better for the citizens of New York 27 and I intend to fight like hell for that when you send me to Washington.
Bordering on McMurray's district, Robin Wilt is the progressive Democrat running for the Rochester, NY congressional seat held by pointless New Dem Joe Morelle. She told us that "NY Governor Andrew Cuomo issued a directive requiring New York health insurers to waive co-pays for Coronavirus tests, as well as any related emergency room, urgent care, and office visits for those who already have insurance. However, if one is not covered by insurance (and in the state of New York, that applies to almost 1 million people), the reality is that the lack of coverage presents a barrier to being tested and treated for the virus. This increases the overall risk of exposure for the population, at large. Steffie Woolhandler, founder of Physicians for a National Health Program, recently observed that the lack of Medicare for All is essentially forcing the United States to fight the COVID-19 pandemic with one hand tied behind its back, thereby increasing the threat to everyone--including the wealthy and people-- with-- insurance. By her example, it is estimated that 25% of cab drivers don’t have health insurance in this country (and that number is probably modest because it does not include rideshare providers like Uber and Lyft); 12% of home health aides lack health insurance; 15% of housekeepers lack health insurance. Essentially, those with means cannot avoid coming into contact with this epidemic just because they’re rich. The amount of wealth one has does not singularly eliminate one’s risk of exposure during a pandemic. We’re all in the risk pool for contracting COVID-19, so we all need to be in the system of care provision for maximum efficacy. That’s why Medicare for All is so important: because everyone being in the system means that no one has barriers to testing or treatment. It’s all about flattening the curve of the spread of the virus. Any barriers to testing or treatment when exposed to the virus, increase the risk of additional exposures. A global pandemic like COVID-19 is the perfect argument for a Medicare for All system."
Qasim Rashid is running for the Virginia congressional seat held by Trump lackey Robert Wittman, VA-01, which includes all of Caroline, Essex, Gloucester, King George, King William, King and Queen, Lancaster, Mathews, Middlesex, Northumberland, Stafford, Westmoreland, and York counties, Fredericksburg city, Williamsburg city and parts of Newport News city plus parts of Faquier, James City, Prince William and Spotsylvania counties. He told us yesterday that "In the richest, most industrialized country on Earth, Americans should never have to worry about the cost of medical care when they are facing injury or illness. In the midst of a global pandemic, guaranteed quality healthcare is even more of a necessity. To treat those afflicted and prevent spread of the disease, we must have a healthcare system where cost is not a barrier to access. We cannot afford to have Americans deciding against getting treatment-- further endangering public safety and creating a scenario where this pandemic overwhelms our hospitals and our communities. A single payer healthcare system that guarantees that every American has access to treatment and care is needed now more than ever." On the other coast, Mark Gamba is the mayor of Milwaukie, Oregon and running for the congressional seat held by Republican-friendly Blue Dog Kurt Schrader. "This pandemic," he told us, "should be the starkest wake-up-call as to why a national healthcare system that covers every single person is so critical. When millions of people fear going to the doctor because they can’t afford it, they won’t go. Even if they are sick, even if they have a disease that is easily communicable. Those same people are the ones who cannot afford to stay home from work either when they are feeling ill. Instead, they will 'tough it out' and go to work so that they don’t get evicted because they haven’t earned enough money that month to pay the rent. So that means that literally millions of people will be working anyway, even if they are sick. Some of those work for the TSA, some work in restraunts, some in schools, some deliver the mail in busy offices, some work in nursing homes and day care centers. Think about who the people are, that are doing jobs that don’t pay well enough to afford health care. They are the jobs that we count on every day. In some ways, these are the people that we NEED to be the healthiest. They come in contact with the most people. They keep our society functioning. Imagine. Instead, a robust new Medicare for All world. Where everyone has easy, and free access to healthcare when they need it. A world in which there are more doctors. A world in which there are more hospitals and clinics, even in rural areas because they no longer need to 'make a profit,' they simply need to provide healthcare. In this world there are more hospital beds and more ventilators because even in normal times there are more people to treat because EVERYONE gets healthcare. No one is left at home to just die alone because they are too poor. This Medicare for All world is the one that is most prepared for a major pandemic. It’s a world where drugs are invented to solve medical issues, not to maximize profits. We would employ thousands, researching and manufacturing those drugs and other critical materials, like masks and gloves, right here in America rather than farming that out to the lowest international bidder who can then cut us off when it serves them to do so. We need a CDC that is fully funded and working to stop pandemics before they start, and we need Medicare for All to make sure that when they do, we are prepared. We need new leadership in the Whitehouse and Congress to make these things come to pass. The status quo, neo-liberal movement of a world designed for maximizing profits for the rich has failed us."
Will The Real Howie Klein Please Stand Up, Please Stand Up-- A Little Film By Frank Schaeffer
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Frank Schaeffer got me to step away from my computer last week and this morning he sent me the little film he made about me. He's in the middle of traveling around the country filming progressive congressional candidates. He was out here in L.A. for his movie... driving around Orange County and L.A. County, speaking with Doug Applegate, Katie Hill, Laura Oatman, Kia Hamadanchy and Sam Jammal. Previously he had shot Randy Bryce in Wisconsin and Jenny Marshall in North Carolina. I think he's in Maine today with Jared Golden, the state House Majority Whip who's running to replace Trumpist Bruce Poliquin. So, tonight... instead of a post... how about the clip of Frank and I chatting in my house? And if you like it at all, think about contributing a couple of bucks to your favorite Blue America candidate(s) by clicking on the Act Blue thermometer below.
I have a new friend who I'll be meeting soon in person-- someone I've been writing about for over a decade: Frank Schaeffer. Frank's story is pretty well known. He is the son of right-wing extremist Francis Schaeffer, one of the founders of the religious right. Eventually Frank saw the light and rejected the crazy conservatism he had been raised in. In 2007 he wrote the much-acclaimed Crazy for God: How I Grew Up As One of the Elect, Helped Found the Religious Right and Lived to Take All (or Almost All) of It Back. His newest book is Letter To Lucy: A Manifesto of Creative Redemption In The Age Of Trump, Fascism And Lies. (You can read the first chapter online for free.) Lately, Frank has been busy driving around the country meeting progressives running for Congress as part of his ambitious goal of helping the Democrats win back the House. He started in Racine with Randy Bryce, drove down to Winston-Salem to meet Jenny Marshall and is on his way to film Doug Applegate, Laura Oatman, Sam Jammal and other Southern California Democrats. I hope Frank's example inspires someone else who now says he's seen the light and has given up on the far right, British neo-Nazi Kevin Wilshaw, who just announced he's giving up on the white nationalism and all the hate doctrines that have been motivating him for 4 decades. Paraic O'Brien reporting:
After a lifetime of involvement with the far-right Kevin Wilshaw announces on Channel 4 News that he is leaving the movement-- at the same time publicly coming out as gay. The well known National Front organiser in the 1980s was still active in white supremacist groups earlier this year-- including speaking at events. But tonight on Channel 4 News he explains for the very first time why he is publicly disavowing the movement – sharing his secrets, explaining how he was both a Neo-Nazi and of Jewish heritage , while admitting to violent acts and what motivated his hatred. Kevin Wilshaw also opens up about his Jewish mother. “She was part Jewish, maiden name was Benjamin, we have Jewish blood on that side. On an application form to join the National Front, he wrote about his hatred of “the Jews.” “That term ‘the Jews’ is the global faceless mass of people you can’t personalise it, not individuals. That’s the generalisation that leads to 6 million people being deliberately murdered. “I didn’t have many friends at school, I wanted to be a member of a group of people that had an aim, and I thought getting involved in that kind of thing would be comradeship.“ “Even though you end up being a group of people that through their own extreme views are cut off from society, you do have a sense of comradeship in that you’re a member of a group that’s being attacked by other people.” “On one or two occasions in the recent past I’ve actually been the recipient of the very hatred of the people I want to belong to … if you’re gay it is acceptable in society but with these group of people it’s not acceptable, and I found on one or two occasions when I was suspected of being gay I was subjected to abuse.” Mr Wilshaw admits that being a Nazi who is gay-- but with a Jewish background-- is a contradiction. “It’s a terribly selfish thing to say but it’s true, I saw people being abused, shouted at, spat at in the street-- it’s not until it’s directed at you that you suddenly realise that what you’re doing is wrong.” “You have other members leading National Front who are overtly gay. And nobody could see the contradiction of it that you have an overtly gay person leading a homophobic organisation, makes no sense.” “Then you have someone like Nicky Crane, one of the hardest people who would be gay.” “Even when people found out, they’d rationalise it, ‘He’s not really gay’ or ‘gay and ok’.” He said he had hurt people, “but not unprovoked, in defence. In a by-election in Leeds I smashed a chair over someone’s head.” But he denied ever having approached minorities and assaulted them. “I’d never do that, but I have seen incidents where people were singled out because they were black by a group of people. It turned my stomach, I rejected that, I pushed it to the back of my mind.” Mr Wilshaw was arrested for vandalising a mosque in Aylesbury in the early 1990s-- and in March this year he was arrested for online race hate offences. He joined the BNP after being part of the National Front and flirted with dangerous fringe groups like the Racial Volunteer Force. Mr Wilshaw says he remembers meeting David Copeland-- the Brixton and Soho nail bomber. More recently he took to social media-- and until the start of year was still speaking at rallies. Former National Front activist Matthew Collins, who now works for the anti-racist group Hope not Hate said: “One of things we noticed is there was someone who was struggling, he was becoming more and more extreme.” “We almost expected the phone call and a cry for help, and that’s what he’s done.” “I feel appallingly guilty as well, I really do feel guilty, not only that, this is also a barrier to me having a relationship with my own family, and I want to get rid of it, it’s too much of a weight.” “I want to do some damage as well, not to ordinary people but the people who are propagating this kind of rubbish-- want to hurt them, show what it’s like for those who are living a lie and be on the receiving end of this type of propaganda, I want to hurt them.” Fearing some level of revenge, Mr Wilshaw says “one or two would want to sort me.. they’d see it as betrayal.” “I am going to find it difficult, granted, to fill a void that has occupied my life since childhood.”
Jenny Marshall Gets A Visit From Frank Schaeffer In North Carolina
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A couple weeks ago we talked a little about Frank Schaeffer's road-trip around America meeting progressive candidates working to take back the House in 2018. His first stop was Racine, Wisconsin, where he spent time with Randy Bryce, Paul Ryan's opponent. This week, he made his way down to Winston-Salem in Fosythe County, North Carolina to meet up with the progressive Democrat running for the 5th district seat held by radical right Republican Virginia Foxx. Watch the video above of Frank and Jenny talking about the campaign. And, remember, most people outside of North Carolina who have ever heard of this unfortunate batshitcrazy extremist just know Virginia Foxx for her tight embrace of bigotry and radical right buffoonery. In North Carolina, everyone knows she hates immigrants and she hates gays and she hates... well... she sure hates public education. She just doesn't believe in it. Like so many Republicans, she doesn't think education is for everyone, just for the wealthy. So it's completely appropriate that this year, she's fighting for her political life against Jenny, a dedicated public school teacher.
When Frank sent me the video, he also said that "I was stunned to meet Jenny Marshall. In this day and age intelligent sincere authenticity is shocking to encounter in a political candidate. I literally mean it when I say that my hopes and prayers are offered for Jenny. America is lucky to have her and THIS I pray is the new face of the Democratic Party. On to 2018!"
Five month ago, when we first endorsed Jenny, she told us that when she introduces herself to folks in the mixed urban, suburban and rural district they wish her luck, almost with a chuckle. Her response though is to tell them "It isn’t about luck, just hard work... hard work deep canvassing 263 precincts and a message that reaches out to voters. That is our plan, simple yet effective. Get out there and meet people where they are." And that's exactly what she's been doing for the last 5 months-- in a district Trump won 57.4% to 39.8%. It's worth noting, though, that in Watauga Co., Hillary won, albeit narrowly, but in the primary, where Jenny helped organize Bernie's field operation, Bernie didn't just beat Hillary in a landslide-- 5,811 (68.5%) to 2,514 (29.6%)-- he also beat Trump's 2,321 primary votes by more than double. In fact, Bernie won more votes than Cruz and Trump combined (5,040)! Foxx, she points out, "feels so secure that she refuses to hold town hall meetings and her letters in response to voter questions are cut and pasted together from her website." Foxx's carefully gerrymandered district was a red district literally taylor-made for her-- until last year when a court order redistricted it, adding in something like 33,000 more Democrats. She told us that "The new district lines, coupled with the kind of campaign that we are amassing, is a recipe for us to send Foxx packing." Here's her formula for victory. If you want to help her with that, please consider contributing by tapping the Blue America Act Blue thermometer below.
Our campaign focuses on a strong economic platform of raising the minimum wage, providing opportunity for job skills training, and adding jobs through rebuilding America’s infrastructure. Everywhere I go in the 5th, economic issues are at the top among people’s concerns. From the teacher who is working a second job or the waitress who picks up a second shift just to make ends meet, people are struggling. In 2007, Virginia Foxx voted no to increase the minimum wage to $5.85 with a cap of $7.25. She does not support people earning a living wage. She has little empathy for people’s plight to make a better life for themselves. People have lost hope in our government. They need someone who will stand up and fight for their families and communities. I will fight to raise the minimum wage to $15.00 and include wage increases for service workers. I will fight for the right to unionize and will work to protect employees from pay schemes like comp time that can be controlled by their employer. Another major worry of voters is healthcare. A recent survey found that 68% of Americans have less than $1,000.00 in the bank. One major illness can be financially devastating. Virginia Foxx wants to repeal the ACA and replace it with what I call The John Grisham’s Rainmaker AHCA where states like North Carolina will apply for waivers to gut provisions like pre-existing conditions and coverage limits. So, not only have you maxed out your insurance coverage, you are destitute and stuck in a high risk pool for the rest of your life. Thanks, Virginia. 40,000 people in the 5th district are covered under the Affordable Care Act. 30,000 receive substantial subsidies to buy their plans. They will lose their coverage when she votes yes on the repeal and replace. With 75% of Democrats and 60% of all Americans supporting single payer health plans, there is no reason for Congress to continue to stonewall the progress of bills like HR 676. I will be a strong voice in support of a single payer program. We must protect our most vulnerable by protecting Medicare, expanding Social Security and Medicaid. I spoke to an elderly woman at the Earth Day festival who lives on $820.00 per month. She visits the food pantry and other charities just to scrape by, yet she still volunteers to help others in hospice care. In the wealthiest country in the world, why do we have people living their senior years in abject poverty? We all know the answer is greed. I support raising the cap on Social Security Income tax moving towards abolishing it completely. I will fight to prevent the privatization of Medicare and propose to increase the income eligibility guidelines to qualify for Medicaid. You have to have the right message and the strength to stand up and fight for it. Bernie Sander’s progressive populist message resonated with the people in the 5th district as was evident in his primary results. These people of the 5th want equity from a system they feel has left them behind. They want a representative that isn’t bought out by corporate interests and big money. They want their voice heard and to know that their opinion matters. And I agree. In the words of Bernie Sanders "Enough is enough." Let’s get to work.
Unhinging A Society-- An Apology From A Follower Of Jesus Christ
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Frank Schaeffer, author of Crazy For God, blew the whistle on the murderous domestic terrorist network that is ripping our country apart. The video below is extremely powerful-- and very revealing. Yesterday Schaeffer wrote a post for HuffPo, How I (And Other "Pro-Life" Leaders) Contributed To Dr. Tiller's Murder.
My late father and I share the blame (with many others) for the murder of Dr. George Tiller the abortion doctor gunned down on Sunday. Until I got out of the religious right (in the mid-1980s) and repented of my former hate-filled rhetoric I was both a leader of the so-called pro-life movement and a part of a Republican Party hate machine masquerading as the moral conscience of America.
...When evangelicals on the right call President Obama a socialist, a racist, anti-American, an abortionist, not a real American, and, echoing the former Vice President, someone who is weakening America's defenses and making us less safe, the logical conclusion is violence. If you take these words literally you might pull the trigger to "make America safe" and/or free us from communism or to even protect us from-- what some "Christian" leaders claim-- Obama as the Antichrist.
He apologized: "I am very sorry," he wrote. It's more than a far worse culprit in this case, Fox News' Bill O'Reilly has done. Schaeffer blames himself-- as well as his father, the far right maniac "Dr. Francis Schaeffer, Dr. C. Everett Koop, who became Reagan's Surgeon General, members of the Republican Party who worked with us to make abortion part of the Republican agenda, the Roman Catholic allies that we had... We talked and our talk got more and more extreme and less and less democratic... This is what helps unhinge a society."
OK, but it's nothing compared to the 24/7 worth of Hate Talk Radio and Fox TV--Limbaugh, Coulter, Ingraham, Dobbs, Hannity, Imus, Liddy, Beck, Savage... the whole slew of them poisoning America from within, infecting our society with racism, xenophobia, misogyny, homophobia... all the divisive Republican Party values. Today John Amato sent me a video to look at. It sickened me and it reminded me of why I never watch Fox. I don't even know where it is on my TV set. Just one course lie after another without any grounding in factuality, in this case directing their vitriol towards working people and unions. Having this right wing hatred being spewed over the public airwaves is a disservice to America and to decency.
Will Religious Voters Finally Abandon Their Golden Calf-- The Narcissistic Malevolent Cult Of Incompetence
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Frank Schaeffer asks a good question in the video above. With 11% of the evangelicals and conservative Roman Catholics who voted for Trump in 2016 no longer supporting him, Schaeffer wants to know why are any evangelicals or conservative Roman Catholics still voting for Trump. I bet you've wondered that yourself. "If anything comes through from the teaching of Jesus," said Schaeffer, "it was kindness. Donald Trump has never been portrayed as a kind person, or even one with basic civility by anyone. The question for evangelicals is... a very simple one: does your idea of God feed your ego or feed your heart? Has your own self-centeredness grown into a self-righteousness in the name of God? ... Is malevolent narcissism, combined with incompetence, coming from someone who serves only themselfves, something that an evangelical Christian is attracted to. Put it this way: Is the evangelical faith itself changed to the place where we now assume that evangelical Christians themselves are so consumed by an egocentric desire to win politically that, like Donald Trump, they will sacrifice everything to this pyrrhic dream which is turning into a nightmare?" This week, writing for Politico, Gabby Orr reported that "Trump’s overtures to religious voters appear to be falling flat. Months after worries first exploded inside the Trump campaign over his eroding support among white evangelicals and Roman Catholics, some of the president’s top religious allies are now in a panic-- concerned that Joe Biden’s attentiveness to Christian voters, whom Democrats largely ignored in 2016, is having an impact where the president can least afford it. One prominent evangelical leader close to the White House said Biden’s policy positions on abortion and religious freedom, which would normally spoil how some religious voters view the Democratic presidential nominee, have been overshadowed by the contrast between the former vice president’s palpable faith and Trump’s transactional view of religion. Another chided Trump for his 'cold response' to the nationwide reckoning over systemic racism, claiming the president’s law-and-order messaging has given Biden an opening to connect with churchgoing Americans who are accustomed to calls for courage and justice." And that brings us to the study of evangelical voters in battlegrounds Florida, Michigan, North Carolina, Pennsylvania and Wisconsin, commissioned by our friends at Vote Common Good. They found that "Trump is poised to lose a sizable chunk of his Christian voters in November, raising questions about his path to reelection and the potential value in religious outreach that Biden’s predecessor Hillary Clinton largely eschewed." That's where Schaeffer got the 11% number-- evangelicals and conservative Catholics who voted for Trump in 2016 and plan not to in November. That has always been Vote Common Good's goal-- to reduce his evangelical vote by between 10 and 20%. They're still working hard to accomplish that.
“The cumulative effect of the convention and the way that faith has been woven into Biden’s messaging speaks to the kinds of numbers we’re now seeing,” said Michael Wear, who directed faith outreach for President Barack Obama’s 2012 reelection campaign... Trump’s blunt messaging on coronavirus and race has created an opportunity for the Democratic nominee to “overturn the who-shares-your-values debate that Republicans have been winning.” ...According to the study, evangelical voters are split over which presidential candidate is more virtuous, while Catholic voters selected Biden over Trump by a 21-point margin. The largest gaps in voter perceptions of Biden and Trump emerged when respondents were asked to weigh each candidate against commonly recognized Christian virtues, including generosity, diligence, chastity, kindness, patience, modesty and humility. Only 22 percent of respondents gave the president a higher rating on his displays of humility and modesty versus Biden’s, while the pollsters cited Trump’s perceived lack of kindness-- 44 percent of respondents said Biden is more kind than Trump, while 30 percent said Trump is kinder-- as the leading cause of defections among Catholics and evangelicals who supported him in 2016. “While it was baked in back in 2016 that Donald Trump was bombastic and crude, he always hinted that he would be presidential when he needed to be presidential,” said Doug Pagitt, a Minnesota-based pastor and an executive director of Vote Common Good, adding that some 2016 religious Trump voters have since “woken up to the fact that [Trump] has not changed one bit.” “People of faith who didn’t vote for Hillary Clinton saw her as more corrupt and less kind than Donald Trump, and now some of those same voters see Donald Trump as more corrupt and less kind than Biden,” Pagitt said. The Trump campaign sees it differently. In its view, most religious voters are less concerned with a candidate’s religiosity or virtuosity than they are with the impact of proposed policies. Biden, campaign officials claim, has adopted unreasonable positions on the issues that matter most to Catholics and evangelicals, including judicial appointments, religious freedom and abortion. ...A new book by Trump’s former attorney Michael Cohen claims the thrice-married New York businessman once remarked to aides after meeting with evangelical leaders in 2016, “Can you believe people believe that bullshit?” The president was also roundly criticized earlier this summer for waving a Bible in front of St. John’s Episcopal Church near the White House minutes after law enforcement officials tear-gassed protesters to clear the area for his arrival.
“This is a different election for several reasons, but one of them is that the sheer disgust most religious voters felt for Hillary Clinton in 2016 doesn’t exist with Joe Biden,” said the Trump adviser. “If President Trump wants to ensure those voters still view him as the best choice, he needs to show he’s not just a champion of their causes but a believer in the cause himself.” While it’s unlikely Biden will pull in a majority of Catholic or evangelical voters on Election Day, Trump could find himself in serious jeopardy if the Democratic nominee shaves off even a couple of percentage points in the president’s support among white evangelicals and Catholics. A central question of the president’s reelection strategy is whether he can marginally improve his 2016 levels of support among religious Americans, and black and Hispanic voters, to offset anticipated declines in his support among white women and suburban voters. Pagitt believes the current environment-- with a Covid-19 death toll nearing 200,000 in the U.S. and recent police-involved shootings igniting a nationwide conversation about racism-- will preclude Trump from expanding his appeal among religious Americans before the Nov. 3 election, in addition to making it more difficult for him to maintain his grasp on the evangelical and Catholic voters who backed him four years ago. “Joe Biden is getting support from religious voters who don’t even know what his religious background is,” he said. “This isn’t tribal voting. There’s an enormous amount of religious Americans who didn’t think there were good options in 2016 and voted for Trump, but now see Biden as the superior option.”
Cathy Kunkel is a progressive populist running in West Virginia against Trump stooge Alex Mooney. "Evangelical voters also share many of the same concerns as everyone else in West Virginia-- healthcare, basic infrastructure needs, and economic security. These issues have not gotten better in the last four years-- and, indeed, the botched response to COVID-19 has only worsened them. It is not surprising that some voters are reevaluating their choices." Adam Christensen is counting on that reevaluation as well. He's the best shot from a progressive to flip a red congressional seat blue in Florida and he told me that most people following his race already know that he grew up a conservative Republican. "I was in church in the 7th row on the right side every Sunday from the time I was 7 days old. I grew up in Sunday school learning about the fruits of the spirit, learning about how to be moral and live a life of integrity. And as I got older I began to realize that the people who I went to church with lived their lives during the week completely differently than on Sundays. On Sundays they would read scripture and talk about how we are supposed to take care of the hungry and the sick. But during elections they would vote for politicians who blamed the hungry and the sick for their own problems. This was one of the main reasons that I became a radical progressive. It is the reason so many young people are leaving the church and the Republican Party. It is because we understand that people should come before anything else. That 'Greed is not Good.' And that real 'Christians' aren’t afraid to stand up to the religious leaders and politicians and call them what they are, hypocrites."
and before that Dave Neiwert's 
I myself found a half-price copy (sorry, Max!) of Max Blumenthal's 
and have it at the top of my approaching-Everest-size reading pile. We've talked about Jeff Sharlet's 
and Chris Mooney and Sheril Kirshenbaum's 
and I'm sure I'm leaving out a bunch of significant titles.
Somehow I missed Schaeffer's previous appearances with Rachel Maddow, but I got a jolt from Wednesday's.
