Hey Friend, I did a quick Twitter video yesterday and thought I’d jot down a few takeaways from the hearings on Tuesday that I think are really going to matter.

The first one is that the Republican image of the swaggering bold “macho man” has become this weird sort of stupid cliché. You saw it with Eric Greitens playing dress up with this and a bunch of guys dressed as Navy SEALs pretending to hunt RINOs. (So scary!)

Contrast this with the personal courage you saw from Speaker Bowers. An unabashed conservative. Hardcore Republican. He didn’t dress up as a SEAL or pose with a big gun.

He told Donald Trump no.

He said, no, I’m not doing it. I’m not breaking my oath or the trust Arizona has given me. I'm not gonna give you an election you didn't win.

As someone who told Trump where he could shove it before most of my former GOP colleagues, I say this to Speaker Bowers: welcome to the pro-democracy coalition. Proud to be with you.

Same with Georgia Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger. Same kind of persistence. No matter what Trump did in his broad criminal conspiracy to get him to change the votes, he just said “no, you're wrong.” That kind of courage is increasingly rare in elected officials today. (You saw that same courage from Jocelyn Benson, who held the line despite a mob outside her house). 

But the star of the show for me? Shaye and Ruby. Talk about examples of people who just do the right thing. Not public figures. Not trying to be in the public eye. In fact they don’t want to be there. But they’re literally on the front lines for our democracy and they just did their damn jobs and did them well. And you saw how they took the enormous amount of abuse and sh*t from the Trump folks. Nobody should ever have to take that kind of abuse.

Maybe my biggest takeaway is just how totally dependent GOP tactics have become on threats and violence.

That’s the ultra-MAGA methodology we are trying to fight. I will add that we are currently building the pirate ship to take these guys on – particularly in places like Arizona and Wisconsin where this is really going to come down to a few swing votes. I hope you’ll support our efforts to do so.

I have a feeling Thursday is going to blow the damn doors off. I’ll try to do another quick recap video and get a few others to do the same.

-Rick

PS – if you aren’t already, follow me on Twitter and be the first to know about another video!