Experts in autocracies have pointed out that it is, unfortunately, easy to slip into normalizing the tyrant, hence it is important to hang on to outrage. These incidents which seem to call for the efforts of the Greek Furies (Erinyes) to come and deal with them will, I hope, help with that. As a reminder, though no one really knows how many there were supposed to be, the three names we have are Alecto, Megaera, and Tisiphone. These roughly translate as “unceasing,” “grudging,” and “vengeful destruction.”
“2020 is kind of like in the WWE,” said a former White House official, “where they have seven or eight guys fight for the majority of the match and then the Undertaker strolls up and pins everybody after they’ve exhausted themselves.”
So, Elizabeth Warren has announced her candidacy for President in 2020. So has Kamala Harris.
Julian Castro* has an exploratory committee. Tulsi Gabbard’s name has been mentioned. Trump has attacked Bernie Sanders, Cory Booker, and Joe Biden as if they were running. And that list by no means exhausts the list of people potentially qualified to take on the Presidency. And every one of those people can expect to be savaged by Trump and his minions.
What is Trump’s plan to become “The Undertaker” in this scenario? Because, in a kind of a sort of a way, he has one, and it’s not just confined to
“So far, I’m dreaming of those candidates,” Trump said at a rally in Kansas late last year. “I see those candidates before my eyes. Every night before I go to sleep. Sometimes while I’m sleeping, I love them so much.”
No, there’s a very definite plan (not that Trump came up with it himself, of course):
The pair of outside groups tied closely to President Donald Trump has retained the top Republican opposition group in an effort to smother Democrats seeking to challenge him — and perhaps even help pick his 2020 challenger.
So who are these people?
America First Policies is a 501(c)(4) “nonprofit” founded in January 2017 by six of Trump’s former campaign aides. It is allied with America First Action, a super-PAC. “Allied with” means the PAC essentially launders the money which the “nonprofit” spends, keeping dark the names of the donors and the individual amounts “donated.”
And there is lots of money to spend. Well, we all know that. I won’t belabor where it is coming from (and they’ll never tell), but we can get an idea where it goes. For instance, $1.2 million went to get Brett Kavanagh confirmed. $1.5 million each to confirm Gina Haspel and promote the Trump “Tax Plan.” All together, approximately $9.5 million in 2018. Which means they still have an estimated $20.5 million from 2018 at their disposal. And the donations will keep coming.
America First Policies and America First Action are the “pair of outside groups” referenced above. The “top Republican opposition group” is America Rising PAC. “Opposition” is short for “opposition research” which is Newspeak for “finding and exaggerating any dirt which exists and planting it where it doesn’t.” Their “mission statement” is “to hold Democrats accountable and expose any hidden hypocrisy. We use video tracking, research, and communication strategies to ensure they must account for every word and action.” In accordance with site policy, I won’t link to them, but you can google them easily. As I type, their home page has articles smearing Harris, Warren, Pelosi, Bernie, Biden, and House Democrats as a group. If you have blood pressure issues, perhaps you should stay away.
It crossed my mind while skimming – can you imagine how many people, and how much ink/bandwidth, would be required to put Republicans under the same scrutiny they are applying to us? And no one person could ever read it all.
It’s no secret that I have been hoping that our Democrats would hold off a little longer before starting to declare, and this systematic character assassination is a big reason why. But that ship has now sailed. And we must deal with it. But how? How is the best way we can protect our party from splintering as we did on 2016? Should we try to jump on board as people announce? Should we try to remain uncommitted as long as possible to attempt to maximize our commitment when we do have a nominee? I don’t know.
I’m sure there is an individual temperament factor. It will help if each of us will be honest with him- or herself as to how difficult it will be to change course if one’s preferred candidate does not survive the primaries.
And we must stay aware that Republicans will be doing this systematically, and more and more viciously, with particular vitriol being aimed at anyone who looks like a front runner at any given time.
Alecto, Megaera, and Tisiphone, please help us keep our facts and our priorities straight. Don’t allow any of us to fall for any Republican crap. The future of civilization, in fact of life on earth itself, depends on it.
The Furies and I will be back.
Cross posted to Care2 HERE.
*Just got an email that he announced today.
7 Responses to “Everyday Erinyes #152”
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How most unfortunate!! Respect for our 2020 candidates has gone out the window, as the repugs don’t play nice on the playground. imho. We need to be ever vigilant to these attacks, we are not a vicious/lying/corrupt/mean party, and try to do right to the American people. I certainly don’t have the answer, but…truthfully…if an R appears after a name, be on the lookout for false slander, and contempt aimed at our candidates.
Thank you, Joanne for your post.
Very interesting, and truly pointing directly at the lowest, scuzziest, politically aligned people since Karl Rove. Where in all the maelstrom is that SOB? Oh, maybe on the board of AFP? “America ” firsters would be “Firsters in whatever country they happened, by biological mistake to have been born into, would be “THIS” country firsters, be it Argentina, Scotland, Pakistan, or whatever. They are stupidly blind nationalists who suffer from extreme tunnel vision!
Julián Castro, former mayor of San Antonio, Senator Elizabeth Warren of Massachusetts, Representative Tulsi Gabbard of Hawaii, former State Senator Richard Ojeda of West Virginia and former Representative John Delaney of Maryland are now all officially in the Democratic race for president. In the next months enough candidates will have joined them to give every state and every major city its own candidate.
On the one hand that is good, because it means all these dark Republican groups operating in the background will have to spread themselves thin in trying to hang out the dirty loundry and defame every one of these candidates.
But in fact it is bad for Democrats. They will have to spend a lot of time, energy and a lot of campaigning to show they are the better Democratic candidate, while at the same time they already lag two years behind on Drumpf who has never done anything but campaign since he came into office. And while there never is an outstanding candidate who outshines the rest this early in the race, there seems to be little hope of that young(er) but experienced, progressive, but not shockingly so, charming and eloquent, but above all unifying leader who will also dare to look beyond America’s borders, to grow a pair in the next two years.
As you’ve already mentioned, with so many candidates too many Democrats will have to reinvest their trust and enthusiasm in another one when their favourite bites the dust. And with slim pickings that will be even harder to do.
So, for now I’d like the Furies to do their level best to:
1. Make sure Drumpf is in such deep Mueller-sh$t by the time that campaigning really starts that he hasn’t got time for it and is on his way out even before the finals begin.
2. Bring some sense into those Democratic heads and not flood the field with candidates so deep that they all drown.
3. Please do not give Hillary a third stab at the presidency. She wasn’t the right candidate in 2016 and, damaged beyond repair, certainly isn’t the right one now.
Very astute. And well researched. Thanks.
I guess the only good thing with having so many, is the fact that we will have more to choose from.
Plus with them starting off early gives us time with researching them and filtering out the ones we don’t.
I know I’ll certainly want one who is open honest and shares their financial information.
Totally the opposite from the illegal fraudulent creep we have in office now.
Thanks
No matter who the Democrats run, they will be better than any Republican.
Good one JD!
With some Democrats out in the market already, I certainly hope the primary does not end up looking like the 2016 Republican primary with its 17 candidates. That is a recipe for voter confusion and thus disaster. Not to mention that attention is turned to the differences between candidates rather than the policies that Democrats want to bring forth for We the People.
We’d better hope too that some voters do not stay home just because their preferred candidate was not the successful candidate as happened with Bernie’s supporters. When Bernie was not chosen, many of his supporters could not even hold their noses to vote for Hillary. They either went third party or stayed home. No candidate is ‘one size fits all’ and no candidate is perfect. Stick with Democratic values not charisma. Look what we got when voters followed the hollow promises of Trump.
And what would a modern election be without the influence of social media and Russians. Voters need to do their homework and be diligent in their information gathering and ask themselves “does this make sense?”. Pizzagate comes to mind. Don’t listen to Faux Noise and other right wing echo chambers.
Get out and vote and take people with you.