Defending democracy

Created
Thu, 21/09/2023 - 00:30
Updated
Thu, 21/09/2023 - 00:30
More strange bedfellows MSNBC’s “Deadline White House” on Tuesday featured a long segment with members of Operation Saving Democracy. Led by Lt. Col. Amy McGrath (USMC, ret.), the group boasts “almost 600 retired Generals, Admirals, Ambassadors, cabinet and service secretaries, appointed leaders, elected officials, and Senior Executive Service leaders have come together at this time of significant threat to the essential tenets of our Democratic institutions and values.” Joining McGrath were Adm. Steve Abbot (USN, ret.) and Rear Adm. Michael Smith (USN, ret.) The group believes “The extreme far-right authoritarian ideology that has taken hold in the GOP is an attack on democracy itself.” They hope their credentials and numbers will make an impression on the Trump cult, or else help mobilize ordinary Americans against the domestic terror threat Trumpism poses. “Donald Trump is an existential threat to democracy,” Abbot states into the camera. “Donald Trump” is a collective noun here, shorthand for a deeper problem. Here’s another bipartisan group (albeit less illustrious) out to save the country from that existential threat. Led by former Biden speechwriter, Mathew Littman, and including former Georgia Democratic congressional candidate Marcus Flowers, former Republican congressman Joe Walsh, and former Trump press secretary Stephanie Grisham, Mission: Democracy is more blunt about calling fascism fascism: Our mission is to educate all Americans about the dangers posed by MAGA fascism and to encourage them to use our democratic process to help diminish the MAGA influence in our government. Their ad is more over the top, beginning with a staged…