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

Another week, another round of Democrats claiming to admire the accomplishments of Joe Biden’s first term while calling upon him not to seek a second. Clearly, these people have never heard of Richard Nixon or Ronald Reagan, both of whom sailed into the White House on the backwinds generated by Democrats bellowing against the leader — their own leader — already occupying it. As Reagan might have put it: here we go again. Perennially mocked and underestimated, Biden has pulled off one improbable feat after another — on infrastructure, on NATO, on workers’ rights — and is trying to pull off many others — on climate change, on reproductive rights, on student debt, on the rule of law. Democrats could and should be pounding relentlessly on all that Biden has done FOR ordinary Americans, and making very clear the contrast with what every single Republican candidate would do TO ordinary Americans.  Instead, too many Democrats are spending too much time helping Republicans mount their favorite attack on the president: the attack over his age. Host Tish Durkin entreats everyone to pipe down, step up and stand behind the president who stands between democracy and disaster. 

Another week, another real Biden achievement for real Americans that almost nobody has noticed.  Host Tish Durkin draws attention to just one of the significant pro-worker rulings made by the National Labor Relations Board since it has been run by pro-worker Biden appointees. Thanks to Team Joe, unions will once again be able to unionize, and employers will less able to stop them they have been in a very long time. Contrast that with the record of Donald Trump, who talks a good game about the American worker — the same American worker that Trump’s NLRB tossed under every bus that went by.

Last week's GOP presidential primary debate seemed to cover the whole range of issues, from abortion to Ukraine, with climate change and the economy in between. But with the exceptions of Chris Christie and Asa Hutchinson — two horses so dark they are barely in the race — every candidate on the stage self-destructed in answering the question that mattered most. Asked whether they would support Donald Trump if he became the nominee of their party, Ron DeSantis, Vivek Ramaswamy, Mike Pence, Nikki Haley, Tim Scott and Doug Burgum all said, or indicated,  “yes.” Meanwhile, over on the platform formerly known as Twitter, the X president was showing Tucker Carlson, and the world, how tethered to the Big Lie — and untethered from the most basic realities of daily existence — he remains. Host Tish Durkin blasts the irreconcilable illogic that is the candidates’ congratulating Pence for doing the right thing in thwarting Trump on January 6, 2021, while pledging loyalty to him for purposes of November 5, 2024. This is, of course, a very obvious point — but to far too many Americans, not obvious enough.

The absolute most important thing missing from the first Republican primary debate was definitely not Donald Trump. It was any serious discussion of the most serious issues facing the United States, because MAGA won’t allow any. Climate change, immigration, gun safety, public education and racial justice are just a few examples of the pressing issues that aren’t issues so much as labels for a whole host of sub-issues that urgently need to be hashed out before solutions can even be attempted. But in too much of the country, they aren’t being hashed out because MAGA won’t even allow the country to get to square one: accepting that such problems are problems, to which slogans aren’t solutions. Host Tish Durkin highlights the debates we’re not having.

For years now, Ohio has been moving right ideologically. But on August 8, the people of the Buckeye State were just plain right. Asked to weigh in on Issue One, a ballot initiative aimed at squashing majority rights in general and reproductive rights in particular, voters of both parties didn’t just say “no.” They shouted "NO F*&@!ING WAY”,  handing a 14-point defeat to Issue One and an even greater humiliation to the hypocrites who pushed it. Host Tish Durkin resists the urge to interpret this result as a good omen for Democrats — but does see it as something better: a win for small-d democracy.

Another month, another criminal indictment for Donald Trump — and that means another flood of MAGA lies, distortions, distractions, ironies, hypocrisies and willful self-mortifications. Yet again, they insist: up is down, black is white, the vice president decides what electoral votes to count, and conspiracy to defraud the American voter is a right under the First Amendment.  It’s hard to counterbalance the weight of even a few such horrendous “arguments", but host Tish Durkin gives it a try. 

In the biggest culture-war duel of the summer, Barbie: the Movie competed against another blockbuster — and it wasn’t Oppenheimer.  It was the coincidentally-released Florida state standards for the teaching of African-American history. While MAGA went nuts over a barely-seen cartoon map and gender-warring dolls, Democrats (and a few Republicans) took aim at the state-sanctioned soft-pedalling of slavery. Host Tish Durkin compares the controversies.

In any universe that values democracy, war-torn Ukraine is the center, and NATO is the indispensable force of gravity. In the mind of MAGA, Ukraine is an invisible dot on a map that no American need bother looking at, and NATO is an old bit of clutter America might as well throw away. Host Tish Durkin delves into the distinction between those polar-opposite positions — and why it truly, madly, deeply matters.

Of course, you haven’t. Between MAGA and the media, Joe Biden would get more attention for tripping over a sandbag than for saving the world.   Host Tish Durkin lists a few of the major disasters that have not hit the headlines because they have not happened: the crippling strikes that have been avoided, the global economy that has not crashed,  the giant surge of migrants across the southern border that has not come — all due, in no small part, to the quiet but persistent efforts of the Biden White House. Time for some loud and persistent efforts to highlight these “negative” accomplishments.

Independence Day has come and gone, but there’s no end to the fireworks over what, and whom, to celebrate. In this encore episode, host Tish Durkin revisits a theme of even greater relevance than it had when first recorded in 2022: the true legacy of America’s founders — a legacy that MAGA claims to defend, but works hard to destroy.