Panic rises. The press hides. Start prebunking.
Republicans are uneasy. Panicked maybe. With good reason (Politico):
Democratic wins have come even in deep red states, including Texas, Arkansas and Mississippi, and often by margins that make Republican leaders uneasy.
“I’m ringing the alarm bell,” said Brendan Steinhauser, a Texas GOP consultant who has run campaigns for Republicans in the state, including Sen. John Cornyn and Rep. Dan Crenshaw.
Tara McGowan, publisher of Courier Newsroom, describes for The Daily Blast’s Greg Sargent the concrete block Donald Trump has tied around Republicans’ ankles:
Clearly these tariffs have hurt the economy and our alliances abroad. The cost of living has only gone up. It was a huge promise of Trump and his campaign that that would be a priority for them, as was releasing the Epstein files.
They have bait-and-switched on every single promise made. And instead now we’re in a billion-dollars-a-day war in Iran that no Americans want and that Congress did not approve—a war that is now increasing gas prices that could skyrocket to $5 a gallon on top of how Americans are already feeling squeezed. So of course Republicans are panicking.
Trump demands passage of the SAVE Act. To save his presidency, that is. He and SAVE Act supporters are not just telegraphing their desire to rig the 2026 elections for Republicans. They are practivcally shouting their interest in canceling them altogether.
And so this is the situation they’re in. I think it’s so important because we all need to be pre-bunking this to the American people, right? Making it very clear what they’re trying, and their desperation out of this administration, because the writing is on the wall.
As their panic grows, Trump administration figures sound more like Soviet censors intent on punishing reporting that challenges the party line:
Brendan Carr, the chairman of the Federal Communications Commission, threatened on Saturday to revoke broadcasters’ licenses over their coverage of the war with Iran, his latest move in a campaign to stomp out what he sees as liberal bias in broadcasts.
As the war entered its third week, Mr. Carr accused broadcasters of “running hoaxes and news distortions” in a social media post and warned them to “correct course before their license renewals come up.”
“Broadcasters must operate in the public interest, and they will lose their licenses if they do not,” he said.
The press presents such threats as isolated incidents. But the pattern is clear for those who have survived oppressive regimes. The arc of the MAGA universe is ragged, but it bends toward dictatorship. And their would-be dictator is a madman. Imagine Carr’s response if the press reported that.
Prominent Trump critic George Conway:
For the life of me I’ve never understood why the press and the political class find it so difficult to talk about @realDonaldTrump‘s severe and manifest personality disorders.
These disorders may be impossible for any professional to treat, but they are easily understandable to any intelligent lay person who can read and follow along.
Indeed, Donald Trump’s mental illnesses and the American press and political class’s appalling and shameless cowardice in failing to address them will be someday be a mandatory part of the curriculum for secondary-school and university students the world over.
Conway issued that warning in response to this Aaron Rupar tweet:
The writing is on the wall. Start prebunking.