Civil Commotion

That’s why I will vote Democrat next Tuesday. I have many issues with the Democrats, as regular readers well know. None of that matters compared with this emergency. I don’t care, in this instance, what their policies are. I am going to vote for them. I can’t stand most of their leaders and fear their radical fringe. I am going to vote for them anyway. Because it is the only responsible thing there is to do.

This president is quite clearly unfit for his office. If he is checked by the Congress, he will still be a danger — to the rule of law, the Constitution, and civil peace. But if he remains unchecked — and even vindicated by a midterm Republican success? After the themes he has involved and exploited — especially in this final week? After the massive lies he has told, in greater frequency these past few weeks than ever before? What he will learn from all that beggars belief.

Andrew Sullivan, New York Magazine

I’m with Sullivan, Krugman, Friedman, all the others … annihilate the Republican Party next Tuesday. Drive it off the earth.

It is now impossible to have intellectual integrity and a conscience while remaining a Republican in good standing. Some conservatives have these qualities; almost all of them have left the party, or are on the edge of excommunication.

Those who remain are either fanatics willing to do anything in pursuit of power, or cynics willing to go along with anything for a share of the spoils. And it’s foolish to imagine that there are any limits on how far a party of fanatics and cynics will be willing to go. Anyone who might have had a sticking point, some uncrossable red line of bad behavior, has already taken the offramp.

Paul Krugman, New York Times

If you’re sick and tired, too, here is what you can do. Vote for Democrats on Tuesday. For every office. Regardless of who they are. And I say that as a former Republican. Some Republicans in suburban districts may claim they aren’t for Trump. Don’t believe them. Whatever their private qualms, no Republicans have consistently held Trump to account. They are too scared that doing so will hurt their chances of reelection. If you’re as sick and tired as I am of being sick and tired about what’s going on, vote against all Republicans. Every single one. That’s the only message they will understand.

Max Boot, Washington Post

Correct. Again, then, vote for the annihilation of the Republican Party; it is a destructive presence in American life, and we won’t have a properly functioning two-party system until it is utterly destroyed.

What do you know? An important investor in the odious GAB social media site is a family-values guy from right here in North Carolina.

A Republican politician is an investor in Gab, the now-shuttered social media network used by the Pittsburgh synagogue gunman, DailyMail.com can disclose.

Dan Bishop, a state senator in North Carolina who is up for re-election next week, boasted in August 2017 that he had backed the site because he was ‘about done with SF [San Francisco] thought police tech giants.’

According to Right Wing Watch:

Thanks to his anti-LGBTQ efforts, Bishop is a favorite of Religious Right groups. In 2017 the North Carolina Family Policy Council presented him with its “Life & Liberty Award.” Bishop, the group said, stands “unwaveringly” for “the inherent dignity of every individual.” That same year, Concerned Women for America’s North Carolina chapter honored him as “Outstanding Legislator in Defense of Family Values.” The state director for CWA praised his “unwavering commitment to Biblical family values.”

This will not cost Bishop votes next Tuesday. This is the Southern Baptist south, y’all, and these people are just as mean and hypocritical and oozing piety as in the worst Grade-B movie you ever saw.