28 Comments
Feb 26Liked by Steven Beschloss

Absolute power corrupts absolutely. The GOP is a clear and present danger to our constitution.

Brilliant writing as usual.

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Feb 26Liked by Steven Beschloss

When Trump loses, we need to remember all these people and what they did.

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This is actually against our laws! These monsters should be charged with working with russia and destroying our democracy! TREASON!

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Feb 26Liked by Steven Beschloss

Excellent piece, thanks Steve. We also need to be vigilante with how the votes are counted - I suspect old fake elector schemes will be so tame compared with what is being planned. I hope I’m wrong.

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Feb 26Liked by Steven Beschloss

What a week with tha Alabama court propping the Bible above the Constitution and then the whole chorus claiming J6 was supporting the Constitution. I was wondering about "gaslighting" vs just lying. It's in both claiming they are the Christians and believers in the Constitution while declaring that actually they care squat about those things if Trump gets his way.

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I'd also point to the ignorance of the low-information Trump supporters. They just don't know any differently. And Trump & Co. (read "sycophants") are simply believed at face value for the outrageous things they say.

The truly disturbing part about this is literally millions of people are doing this.

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Right now, we find ourselves at a defining moment, at the crossroads between the democratic ideals we've long cherished and the shadow of authoritarianism creeping closer. The scenes we've witnessed at events like CPAC – they're more than just political theater. They remind us of the early chapters of history, like those leading up to Hitler's rise, where the power of words and the sway of public opinion were harnessed not to unite, but to divide and conquer.

And speaking of wake-up calls, Steven's newsletter today couldn't have been more timely or more jolting. The tone, the choice of words, the vivid descriptions – it's a departure from his usual style, and it hits you like a splash of cold water. It's as if he's channeling the urgency of the moment, pushing us to see the reality of our situation with stark clarity.

This moment demands our attention, highlighting the dangers of complacency in the face of tyranny's subtle advance. The allure of power, the compromises on principles for personal advantage – these stories are as old as time, yet their outcomes threaten to lead us down a path where corruption and oppression could become the norm.

So, the question we face is profound, touching on the kind of future we envision and whether we're at a point of no return. It's a conversation we need to have, grounded in our shared history and the lessons it teaches us about the cost of inaction, made all the more pressing by Steven's blistering narrative today.

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Each person has a personal threshold for tolerating evil. The 20% of American adults who are MAGA members have no moral concern about lawlessness. They prefer that the laws of our country don't apply to them. And they admire crooks who get away with law breaking. It's this segment of our citizens that Trump and Fox and Putin and RT cater to. They are our time's version of the German American Bund of the 1930s.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/German_American_Bund

Today the GOP has become the MAGA Russia Bund.

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Ginni- why has she NOT been charged? Confidence in the justice system has eroded horribly. Why are there seditionist Congress people still sitting and being paid by taxpayers? The justice system needs to step up and do their job.

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And the huge amount of congressmen,women, and senators that are still doing damage in charge of major decisions that affect us. This is what starts horrible wars, and slavery, etc. The Salem witch trials.....Darfur, Germany 1930s, so many tragedies.....isis.....and some of our leaders are working towards this fervently. I don't agree with alot of people political views, but I don't cosign treating those people like criminals. Unless they are actual criminals.

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In relation to your insightful article about this terrible “boot licking” phenomenon we find so craven and abhorrent, Steven, I would like to share an LTE that was published in the “Columbus Dispatch” recently. It was in response to a previous OpEd by a regular contributor to the Dispatch, Thomas Suddes, who regularly writes the truth in defense of Democracy in our deeply corrupt, gerrymandered, GOP Supermajority, Ohio Statehouse:

Letter to the editor - The Columbus Dispatch - 2/21/24:

“ Wannabe Vance says he will break the law

Thomas Suddes’ Feb. 11 column 'Groveling by Vance won’t impress Trump' spotlights the depths that certain people will sink to in their blind ambition to seek power.

Like the current GOP front-runner, Sen. J.D. Vance, has declared he would act unconstitutionally.

Current candidate Trump clearly wants to break NATO, which is a violation of our Constitution, and his VP wannabe, Vance, has said he would unconstitutionally obstruct an electoral count if he were vice president.

The big question is this: When did openly saying you would break the law of the land, the Constitution, still make you a viable candidate for any office in our country?

And, related to that question is another: When did sycophancy become a desirable trait for anyone seeking any leadership position?

Mike Halaiko, Pickerington, Ohio”

What is encouraging and uplifting is there are voices like yours, Steven, and Columbus Journalist, Thomas Suddes, who are regularly calling out the looming threat that corrupt, power hungry, anti-democratic politicians are

posing to our fragile democracy. We all hope that our citizens, who love freedom and democracy, are listening and will vote to preserve it.

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Feb 26Liked by Steven Beschloss

You have such an ugly story to tell and you are so skilled and talented you make it palatable. I’m informed and not fearful just hopeful you will keep us aware of the crazy. Thank you

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Feb 26Liked by Steven Beschloss

I’m surprised they didn’t click their heels and call out a resounding “heil” in response to the mention of the dictator of the GOP! They will do his bidding, whether he is against a bipartisan immigration bill or calls out any republican who does not fall into line 100%.

I’m not surprised they are against democracy and cheering for its demise.

May democracy prevail!

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Feb 26Liked by Steven Beschloss

I’ve seen some of their voters embrace dictatorship. Some said they were doing it reluctantly but it is what the country needs.

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These rallies remind me of the ones that hitler and his criminal cronies held…

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A Vice President used to be a man with nothing to do.Try to recall the names of several of them in the past. Can't.Now, we have a whole cast of sniveling brown nosers spouting,repeating trump's absurd,bordering on dementia spurious remarks.

Bannon, still on the loose after a fine and prison sentence, appeals being Republican's best friends, has been trump's chief strategist, a Harvard Business School grad intellectual with fanatic beliefs for nationalism and a Christian underpinning of government (trump would never have come up with these), supports fellow Harvard grad, Elise Stefanik . Once a moderate Republican, sometime critic of trump who still under Bannon's influence, calls her a killer, she who refutes Biden's election and calls the insurrectionists, hostages. J.D.Vance is in the running, he who grew up poor, calls his own kind lazy hillbillies (sort of like so many trump followers) once called trump America's Hitler, now supports fake electors and says t would not have to obey the Supreme Court. There is Noem who claims the Democrats take away freedoms, never revealing which ones?? Sarah Huckabee Sanders, member of a party that blames Biden for our large nat'l debt, buyer with state tax money of a $19,000 lectern, says freedom is under attack by woke radical leftists. If you have ever read Marsha Blackburn tweets, you know her mental acuity. Keri Lake is backed by QAnoners, said despicable things about John McCain,and if trump dropped crumbs on the floor from his "hamberder," she would get down and lick them up.As for Uncle Tim Scott, I think that talk is only to get the black vote. Who knows who else? trump is playing them off against one another, keeping them groveling, hoping for power and a chance to themselves, someday, be president.

I think of them and trump's followers as a flash mob, hoping to become insiders, part of something big and upcoming, motivated by rallies, desire to take over America. May they run the course and disperse quickly. Give 'em hell, Harry, where ever you are !!

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Tim Scott reminds me a lot of our former AG here in Ky. A McConnell protégée, Daniel Cameron made DJT’s list of potential SCOTUS nominees at one point. He won the GOP primary for governor and tried to take back the Governorship for the magas. We have a 2nd term Democratic governor who won by 12x the votes as the 1st term - just as the GOP feared.

The RNC and state GOPs are in a worse situation and their fear is palpable.

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Feb 27·edited Feb 27Liked by Steven Beschloss

OUTSTANDING summary of the seedy cast of the CPAC. Thanks very much, Steven.

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Feb 27Liked by Steven Beschloss

Thank you Steven once again for sounding the alarm and for keeping us informed on this horrifying situation. I've run out of words. Just know we appreciate you and are standing with you in this fight to save our Country from itself. Much gratitude. ❤️🇺🇸💙

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Feb 26Liked by Steven Beschloss

Right on Steve.

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