It took them months and months, but last week Democrats seemed to settle on a consistent message to tout for party candidates in this year’s upcoming federal midterm elections.
Simply put, liberals are planning to make it all about former President Donald Trump and his 2016 campaign slogan, Make America Great Again, or MAGA -- with a slightly new twist added to inject insulting flavor.
Last week, in a speech designed to make senile president Joe Biden appear as though he understands the inflation wave engulfing the nation -- and to demonstrate that he cares about the suffering of the American people -- the doddering dunce chief executive attempted to lump all Republicans in under the same umbrella of ideas. In doing so, senile Joe introduced a new conservative villain in addition to the “great MAGA king,” Donald Trump himself.
When he released his 11-point plan to Rescue America back in February, Florida Republican senator Rick Scott couldn’t have realized then that the mentally challenged Democrat president would soon latch onto it and present the Floridian’s ideas as though they would bring down the Republic by requiring all citizens to pay at least a token morsel of taxes and by suggesting that every federal program should sunset after five years -- therefore, forcing Congress to get organized and renew the ones that had merit.
Scott’s was a bold proposal -- but just that, a proposal. To date, few Republicans fully endorsed the entirety of the former Sunshine State governor’s blueprint. For uniformly tying the plan to every Republican, the Washington Post gave Biden’s out-of-the-blue reference “nearly” four Pinocchio’s. When even the liberal press is calling him a liar, that’s bad for Joe,
Nevertheless, Democrats haven’t been too successful of late pitching the rapidly increasing inflationary trend as Trump’s and the Republicans’ fault. So, they needed a new tack. How did the evil party mavens come up with the “Ultra-MAGA” moniker in the first place? Perhaps the scenario looked a little like this:
At the White House one day last week:
“Lets call this meeting to order,” Biden chief of staff Ron Klain said to a conference room full of chatty and distracted Democrat operatives. Notably absent was vice president cackling Kamala Harris, who was purposely excluded from the gathering because she’d never contributed a useful idea yet, and besides, she was just getting over COVID, so the organizers had a ready excuse to lock her out of the discussion.
Klain continued, “No joke. Let’s cut the crap and get right to it. We need a message for our congressional candidates to use out on the stump this summer and fall. We got abortion already, and our strike forces are currently besieging the homes of conservative Supreme Court justices and blanketing the evening news coverage with scenes of fits and crying. But it ain’t enough. Here’s an idea that my neighbor came up with at a post-COVID mask-less neighborhood barbecue. I think it’s got promise.”
Klain passed out a three or four page memo with Senator Rick Scott’s name and “Ultra-MAGA” featured in bold in most of the paragraphs. He looked at his watch and counted three minutes down to give the meeting attendees time to read the important parts. Then he looked at his longtime boss. “What do you think, Joe?” “Who is this Senator Rick Scott, anyway?” Biden asked incredulously. “I heard there’s a misguided conservative black dude Republican senator from South Carolina named ‘Scott’, but I didn’t know he had a brother in my old stomping grounds, the upper chamber. Isn’t there a law against too many senators sharing the same last name or something? It’s confusing, and we’ve got enough to deal with trying to keep things straight over here in this big bland house.” “Joe,” an aide who Biden didn’t recognize interjected from across the room. “Rick Scott is from Florida, a state that you and Barack Obama won twice and used to be considered a purple-ish jurisdiction, at least for federal elections. You’ve probably seen Scott -- he’s about your height and thin and bald with bulging blue eyes. Unlike you, however, he looks remarkably youthful for his 69-years of age. Some of Scott’s critics call him ‘Skeletor’ because he looks a little like the villain from ‘He-Man and the Masters of the Universe.’ That show must’ve been past your time since it came out in the 80’s -- but I’m guessing Hunter would recognize it.”
Senile Joe stared into space trying to comprehend what he’s just heard. He thought, ‘Those Florida Republicans, they’re like a new breed of parasite, aren’t they? First there was Marco Rubio, the little Cuban boy who won in the Tea Party year and then this ‘Skeletor’ fella as governor and then senator and there’s that DeSantis devil who keeps stepping all over our woke Democrat agenda and rubbing our noses in it. And Trump -- he lives there too. No wonder all this MAGA stuff is coming from that source.
‘Whatever happened to Jeb Bush? Wasn’t he secretly on our payroll?’
Impatient to get something sent out from DNC headquarters, Klain interrupted Joe’s daydreaming. “This is the best we got, people. Mitch McConnell himself said he wouldn’t necessarily endorse Rick Scott’s plan, but the Republican establishment is keeping mum on what they really intend to do if they get their claws on Congress again. That would be a disaster because it would spell the end of ‘Build Back (More) Better’ and our efforts to federalize voting from coast-to-coast. If we can’t convince the suckers -- I mean our voters -- that their rights are being ripped away from them by the anti-democratic rightwing fascists, we’d be in even worse trouble than we are now. We might as well pack up boxes and send in the moving trucks. It’d be over, baby.”
“Ron’s right,” Biden blurted out. “We’ve got to act with some urgency here. Our polls are terrible and people are starting to talk about how it’s mine and Kamala’s fault. Where is she, anyway?”
The president scanned the room, but couldn’t spot his VP, so he continued, “We’ve got to find a way to blame all of this on Trump and then bring in this Rick Scott person, even if he doesn’t represent the whole party. We’ll call it ‘Ultra-MAGA’ and I’ll go on the road talking about how awful the Republicans are in taxing everyone and denying climate change and wanting to starve and kill senior citizens. And I’ll get really, really, really ANGRY, like I always do!”
“What about inflation?” Someone queried nervously from behind a tall vase of flowers in the middle of the table so as not to be recognized.
“Oh yeah,” Biden shot back impatiently. “We’ll blame that on ‘Ultra-MAGA’ too. It’ll be brilliant, you’ll see. I’ve never lost an election and I’m not about to start now. I’m turning 80 this year, and I want everyone to love the name of Joe Biden again. Trump would ruin everything.”
--Whatever the reason for Biden’s sudden shift into “Ultra-MAGA” mode (could it have been from a poll?), the battleground has been defined, and the specter of Donald Trump still haunts Democrats, even if the “king” himself is keeping a relatively low profile these days, at least by his standards. They just can’t stop talking about the 45th president, regardless. Today, North Carolina and Pennsylvania hold their crucial primary elections. Will Donald Trump’s magic hold? CNN’s Chris Cillizza wrote last week:
“In North Carolina, Trump has endorsed Rep. Ted Budd, who finds himself in a tight race with former Gov. Pat McCrory, who possesses residual name identification from his time as the state's chief executive.
“In Pennsylvania, Trump has sided with celebrity doctor Mehmet Oz in a primary that remains deeply muddled despite -- or maybe because of -- heavy spending by Oz, as well as wealthy businessman Dave McCormick and their aligned super PACs. Kathy Barnette has also gained some late momentum in the race.
“[Next Tuesday], Trump will face what is likely his biggest -- and highest-profile -- test of his influence: the Georgia governor's race. Trump, incensed by GOP Gov. Brian Kemp's unwillingness to overturn the 2020 election results in the state, recruited and endorsed former Sen. David Perdue to run a primary challenge to the incumbent. Perdue has centered the entirety of his campaign on the false idea that the election was stolen -- and has struggled to pull support from Kemp, who had compiled a conservative record during his first four years in office.”
Polls show that Budd has an overwhelming lead over RINO former Gov. McCrory in North Carolina, so Trump will almost certainly chock up another impressive victory there. Pennsylvania’s a little harder to decipher since many principled conservatives are dead-set against TV healer Dr. Oz representing the MAGA movement. Given the concerns, we’re not sure why Trump chose to endorse Oz, but here’s thinking the “MAGA king’s” say so will be good enough to come through for him in the Keystone State.
Georgia is a much tougher call. Former Senator Purdue seems confident that Brian Kemp’s primary total will be kept under fifty percent, which will trigger a runoff election in the Peach State. I don’t know much about Georgia’s internal politics, but Trump’s endorsement doesn’t appear to be as powerful as it was in other places. We’ll see next week.
More than likely, Democrats’ new fixation on branding all Republicans as “ultra-MAGA” won’t do much good for them in the voting booth. If given a choice between Trump’s vision for the country and senile Joe’s, Americans would almost certainly choose the former. Biden can’t escape from his inflation trap no matter how much he lies, distorts, and name calls.
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