The Political Landscape December 18, 2019December 17, 2019 Have you seen this? We Are Republicans [Including Kellyanne Conway’s Husband] and We Want Trump Defeated Patriotism and the survival of our nation in the face of the crimes, corruption and corrosive nature of Donald Trump are a higher calling than mere politics. . . . That’s why we are announcing the Lincoln Project, an effort to highlight our country’s story and values, and its people’s sacrifices and obligations. This effort transcends partisanship and is dedicated to nothing less than preservation of the principles that so many have fought for, on battlefields far from home and within their own communities. . . . The American presidency transcends the individuals who occupy the Oval Office. Their personality becomes part of our national character. Their actions become our actions, for which we all share responsibility. Their willingness to act in accordance with the law and our tradition dictate how current and future leaders will act. Their commitment to order, civility and decency are reflected in American society. Mr. Trump fails to meet the bar for this commitment. He has neither the moral compass nor the temperament to serve. . . . But this president’s actions are possible only with the craven acquiescence of congressional Republicans. They have done no less than abdicate their Article I responsibilities. . . . What Bloomberg is up to. Beating Trump whoever the nominee is. And (in the same column) a word about his mistakes. “Really good mayors make mistakes all the time,” said Sheekey. “And you know why? Because they do things. You know who doesn’t make mistakes? People that don’t do anything.” John E. “Re yesterday’s ‘Listen To Lindsey … You’re right. Republicans have now set the precedent that it’s okay to lie, cheat and steal in order to get what you want in politics. There’s no going back. So when will the Dems start getting with the program? The high road leads to a cliff that they all jump off. The low road leads to victory. I refuse to participate any longer in this thoroughly corrupt system.” → No. Please participate. We won in 2018 without cheating. If all of us vote, volunteer, and give what we can, we’ll win in 2020. One of the many things your DNC dollars are going to support: the hyper-local war room. Jim Burt: “Once upon a time, there was a political party that had seen some electoral success, but experienced a declining share of the vote, at least partly because its actual program did not appeal to the voters. So it adopted a ‘perpetual campaign’ and employed racist and nativist rhetoric and relentless negativity [“I’ve heard unemployment as high as forty-two percent” – A.T.] to distract voters from its actual plans. “Through a fluke resulting from the delusion of hard-line conservatives that they could control the party leader, it gained power and immediately began subverting democratic norms. “I’m describing, of course, the Nazi Party, which was virtually invisible in the 1928 elections but gained voters rapidly with its perpetual negative campaigning while the elected government of the Weimar Republic issued decrees to deal with the problems caused by the onset of the Great Depression. The Nazis reached a high point of 32% of the vote in the early 1932 elections, but in further elections that year saw their percentage erode. The top leadership of the party saw continued erosion in their future, but were saved when old-line conservatives decided they could work with Hitler. “The rest is history. Or is it the future?” → It is history! Our next president will not lie constantly and use words like “scumbag” and “bullshit” in front of TV cameras. As Lindsey Graham so rightly said, ““Impeachment is not about punishment; impeachment is about cleansing the office.” So even if Trump is not convicted in the Senate, enough good Republicans — and there are loads of good Republicans — will join everybody else and help to vote him out of office.