The big news going around is that four open socialists won in the Dem primaries, bragging that Pennsylvania is turning the right kind of red. For people who think “this makes them easy to beat,” two of those socialists have already won, because they face no challenger. Those are very safe Dem seats. Also, socialism is not a bad word anymore. I don’t care that most young people don’t know what socialism is when they mention they support it; they didn’t grow up with it being a bad word. Venezuela can happen here. It’s nothing to take lightly. Eventually, I believe the loons will be firmly in charge of both parties. That’s just the way things are going. But which side’s loons are closer to the mainstream?
Those of you who live in my district, the 8th 1st Congressional District, no doubt know that Dean Malik was trounced by Brian “I Love Assault Weapons Bans” Fitzpatrick. This isn’t surprising. Malik ran an awful campaign. Fitzpatrick’s last minute ads on Facebook touting his conservative bonafides were so awful as to be laughable, but only if you’re paying attention, which most people aren’t.
Malik ran on a “Real Republican” and “Real Conservative” message. Guess what the new voters Trump has bought into the coalition don’t give a crap about? Malik never really made the case for why it was better to replace Fitzpatrick with himself. He ran on a more conservative than thou platform rather than building a case against Fitzpatrick with voters. If he did, I never noticed it. The only TV ad for Malik I saw was vague and generally awful. While I’ll grant that “Real Republican” is at least not so awful as “The Time is Now” as a campaign message, it’s not a deal sealing message.
I am a Gen Xer, but I consume information more like millennials do. I don’t have cable, and don’t watch TV. I am really only reachable these days via social media, e-mail, and streaming video ads. I saw a ton of ads for Scott Wagner. I knew who he was early. Neither Malik nor Mango (seriously, if your last name is Mango, you don’t have a future in politics) reached me with anything, and the stuff I sought out wasn’t compelling. Facebook ads are dirt cheap and very effective. I hate Facebook, but there’s no excuse, other than cluelessness, for not using it heavily. This is not even about reaching young voters: young voters use different social media. Facebook is for reaching core political demographics of middle aged and older voters.
That said, if I’m Brian Fitzpatrick, I’m not feeling too good that 1/3rd of my base hates me enough to vote me out for a candidate that ran a ho-hum campaign. I am feeling good that the Dem establishment candidate got beaten from the left. But the redistricting isn’t going to help Fitz any. Neither is the fact that neither myself nor a lot of other gun voters will ever vote for him again. Once you endorse gun bans, what difference is there between you an the Democrat? Wallace is a nut, but do I hate the nut enough to vote for the worm?
I get this is not a solidly conservative district, and any candidate is going to have to be left of the base, but my problem with the Fitzpatricks is that they’ve never played that game well. They play the game like they don’t really understand their base. Any candidate standing more center than their base is going to do a few things here and there to disappoint, but the Fitzpatricks are constant disappointment. I say this as someone who volunteered for Mike Fitzpatrick’s campaign to oust Patrick Murphy. As it is now, I would have been better off with Murphy, who at least supported National Reciprocity! The Fitzpatricks have made clear they don’t give a shit about gun owners, so I no longer give a shit about them. I’m done with the Fitzpatricks.
Out here in the west, Reschenthaler beat out Saccone for the new 14th, which he should win easily now that the district no longer carries some of the more liberal South Hills suburbs of Pittsburgh. Saccone had a very strong 2A and conservative record, but Rescenthaler is just younger and more energetic, and he also ran a very ‘Trumpian’ campaign. It’s just a shame that I now live in the 18th, which Doyle will represent until he gets arrested or croaks.
“Venezuela can happen here. It’s nothing to take lightly.”
The problem – in addition to our proto-fascists riding the “dirty socialists” horse until there was no mileage to be gotten out of it – is that a younger generation has now seen that Franco’s Spain or Mussolini’s Italy can happen here, too, and is nothing to be taken lightly.
My apologies. I forgot to include Pinochet’s Chile in my list.
None of these should be taken lightly.
Wait! You ACTUALLY think we have a Fascist Dictatorship? I thought your shtick was just an act. You’re a true believer that Trump is an actual fascist, as are everyone who supports some of what he does.
“You’re a true believer that Trump is an actual fascist, as are everyone who supports some of what he does.”
No, not everyone who supports him is a fascist — any more than everyone who supported Mussolini was a fascist. They just supported fascism in return for having the trains run on time.
But there is no disputing that our genuine fascist elements are diehard supporters of Trump for a reason. You did watch the video long enough to see whose signs the people chanting “Pinochet” were carrying, didn’t you?
First, I have yet to see any evidence that Trump is more fascist than Obama or George W before him. If anything, he’s probably a little less fascist. And I see no evidence that Hillary would have been any less fascist, and plenty of evidence than Bernie would have been even worse.
We live in troubling times indeed.
Having said that, there’s a certain…jokiness…about admiration of Pinochet. He’s a dictator, but he came to power because he knew that if he didn’t take power immediately, a communist *would* take power, and he was on the hit-list if that were to happen. I’ve seen a meme state “When I went for the Communists, no one spoke for them, because they weren’t Communists. I then implemented free market principles, so I didn’t have to go after anyone else!”
I’ve seen one person discuss how the Left is bothered by Pinochet, because (1) although he was a bloody dictator, he was only mildly bloody, compared to what others have done on the Left, and (2) after he took power, Chile prospered. Contrast this with Venezuela, Cuba, and other hard socialist “utopias”.
And I can’t help but be more than a little annoyed by the people who are so offended by a right-wing dictatorship, who also have nothing but praises for Castro’s brutal regime.
And all this is a moot point anyway. Just what has Trump done that warrants his being compared to Pinochet? How are we on the path of fascism right now? (Well, besides the fact that Trump is trying to dismantle Federal regulations, particularly ones put in place by Obama without legislative oversight — which is probably the absolutely *most* fascistic element of our government right now, one that no one is addressing: the fact that unaccountable bureaucrats are given power to create and enforce laws out of whole cloth, based on how they feel as much as anything else. *This* fascist element of American governance has been around for *decades*, and almost *no one*, Left or Right, seems to care.)