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I had a conversation with a woman in her late 70’s from Lincoln, Nebraska. A Democrat her whole life, she’s been very politically active for most of her life, but due to family obligations, she’s not as active these days. Though she does pay attention religiously to everything that’s going on. She prides herself on staying informed.
It was an emotional conversation, pretty much from the start. She worries deeply that this country will never recover from the damage that Trump has done. And then she said something that most people might find surprising, but not me. She said the reason America will never recover from the damage Trump has done is because of the Democrats. She quite literally told me that if the country doesn’t recover from this, Democrats will be the ones to blame. I asked her to explain.
She said she worries Democrats aren’t up for this moment. They don’t understand the gravity of what Trump is doing and has done. And she made clear she was talking about Democratic elected officials and what she called the Democratic establishment. For her, the country only recovers if the people committing all this damage are held accountable — if the people in Trump’s administration, his cabinet, in DHS, in ICE, etc., etc., are impeached, prosecuted, and jailed. If Trump and his family and friends are forced to give back all of the money they stole. If every edifice to Trump is torn down, and his name ripped off of every building. Trump and the people around him, she said, must be publicly held accountable and put on trial.
And she started to tear up and admitted that she didn’t think Democrats were up for all that. This lifelong active Democrat didn’t believe her party, once in power, would do what needs to be done for this country to heal and move forward. “They haven’t met the moment these past 20 months. What makes you think they will the next 20 months and beyond?”
Without public accountability, arrests, and convictions for Trump and his people, she feels that the American people will never fully grasp how wrong everything Trump has done truly is. Americans will come to believe most of what Trump has done is just “normal.” And then, slowly but surely, things will just keep getting worse until the lines and norms of our democracy finally come completely undone. To prevent that, people in this “regime” need to be made examples of and put in jail.
And she does not believe Democrats will be capable of doing that.
I’ve heard this before in my conversations. But still, this woman in her late 70’s, so committed her whole life, resigned now to thinking we’re finished — not because of Trump, but because of the opposition party not holding Trump accountable — really shook me. I told her I had the same worry. She thanked me for listening.
BE BRAVE,
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IN CASE YOU MISSED THIS
***Supreme Court blocks sweeping mail ballot restrictions for midterm elections - WaPo
***Donald Trump Jr.’s Wedding Bankrolled by Putin-Linked Russian Oligarch — ProPublica
***Jared Kushner’s Dollar Diplomacy - NewYorker.com
I***CE is quietly firing new hires. For one recruit, it was devastating. - WaPo
***DHS leaders arbitrarily cut FEMA staff by 50% even though it damaged the agency’s ability to fulfill its mission - and leaders hid their comms about it on auto-delete Signal chains - @kylecheney on X
Catch Joe tomorrow on The Social Contract with Joe Walsh and every weekday at 11am ET on Substack, Youtube and all social media platforms
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***‘Alligator Alcatraz’ Used Small Cages as ‘Calming Areas,’ Report Says
***The First Amendment protects verbal criticism of law enforcement, including offensive profanity. - @walshfreedom on X
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