Jiu-Jitsu Red to Blue: Crushing MAGA Under The Weight of Their Own Arguments

As governor of Minnesota, Tim Walz signed an education bill mandating that menstrual sanitary products be made available, free of charge, in all public middle and high schools in Minnesota — and that they be available to all students who menstruate; not just girls, but also non-binary kids, and trans boys. Walz also signed legislation that made Minnesota a “refuge” state for trans people, who would be granted access to gender-affirming care and shielded from some of the legal effects of anti-trans laws passed in other states.

As governor of Minnesota, Tim Walz signed an education bill mandating that menstrual sanitary products be made available, free of charge, in all public middle and high schools in Minnesota — and that they be available to all students who menstruate; not just girls, but also non-binary kids, and trans boys. Walz also signed legislation that made Minnesota a “refuge” state for trans people, who would be granted access to gender-affirming care and shielded from some of the legal effects of anti-trans laws passed in other states.

Fresh from winning the Democratic nomination for the U.S. Senate, Tennessee State Representative Gloria Johnson — one of the “Tennessee Three” famously known for their protests after the Covenant School shooting in Nashville — updates host Tish Durkin on her plan to upset incumbent Senator Marsha Blackburn. That plan is to meet Blackburn where she is: on the wrong side of the issues that matter most to real voters in Tennessee. 

U.S. Army vet turned veterans’ advocate Naveed Shah joins host Tish Durkin for a conversation that runs the gamut: from the necessity of the PACT Act to the insanity of active-duty families on food stamps, with accusations of “wokeness” in between. 

In the worst vice-presidential rollout ever, JD Vance has become famous for cruelty toward unmarried childless women and nostalgia for the stay-in-the-marriage era of battered wives.  In this quick take, host Tish Durkin notes an even bigger group of vulnerable Americans that Vance has also attacked: divorced women — and men.  

Joe Biden leaves the presidential ticket, Kamala Harris smoothly sails into his place — and MAGA starts crying “foul!” on behalf of the 14 million Democrats who voted for Biden only for him to bow out before nomination. Speaking as one of those 14 million, host Tish Durkin would rather be dead than have her vote or voice defended by the Christo-fascist cult that tried to deny the will of the American people in 2020. Whether the president had been replaced by Harris, Gavin Newsom, Gretchen Whitmer, Wes Moore, Josh Shapiro  or some other sane, unindicted non-insurrectionist, Durkin would have been absolutely delighted to be “disenfranchised” in such a Trump-thwarting way. 

Host Tish Durkin rides the roller coaster that is life as a Democrat since Joe Biden’s implosive debate. First, she loses her mind, and her lunch, at the performance of the glaringly old president. Then she wonders why so much of the what-now conversation has skipped straight over the perfectly good, definitely-not-old vice president. Finally, she arrives at the only conclusion that any normal, small-d democrat can reach: At this point, any number of potential alternatives might or might not run better than Biden — but Biden on a ventilator is better than Donald Trump at his absolute best. Therefore, anyone who is not a delegate, an operative, or a member of the Biden inner circle needs to quit fretting over the question of who would be the best Democratic nominee, and get back to work defeating the worst Republican imaginable.

Host Tish Durkin has said it before and will say it again: ignore the polls. They’re basically bin liner. Lest this sound like happy talk to calm the nerves of Biden supporters freaking out over the bad numbers that are sticking to a good president, consider Michigan — where Biden’s numbers may be artificially good. In that swing state's Democratic primary in February, more than 100,000 Michigan voters backed “uncommitted,” and many insist they remain a definite ‘no' on Joe.  This isn’t a game ender, but in a tight race, it could be a game changer. Yet this does not show up in public polls, in which Biden’s numbers are the same as they were before the October 7 Hamas attacks.  So: beware the polls. Better yet, ignore them.

Donald Trump insists that his status as a convicted felon actually helps him  — and not just with his base, but with a crucial part of Joe Biden’s: African-Americans. Trump and his GOP swear that Trump’s legal troubles make him relatable to Black men in particular, because they are all victims of a justice system that is rigged against them. Once she is finished choking on that ridiculous argument, host Tish Durkin shows how Biden can turn it right back on Trump, by having African-American male surrogates hammer, and re-hammer,  the many, many ways in which a rich and famous white real-estate heir who has got other people paying millions to cover his lawyers’ fees is *nothing* like the average Black defendant, and has no business pretending he is. 

In rhetoric, MAGA men are made to run the world. In reality, they don’t even rule the roost.

Kansas City Chief/conservative Catholic spokesmodel Harrison Butker recently went viral admonishing female college graduates to stay home and support their husbands‘ worldly dreams.  Meanwhile, Samuel Alito became the second MAGA man on the Supreme Court who couldn’t keep his own wife away from the insurrection. (Clarence Thomas was the first.) Host Tish Durkin considers the talk versus the walk.