FIGHTING BACK: WHAT A CONCEPT!

The GOP is the party of insurrectionists, abortion banners, LGBT bashers, and politicians who do this:

Gov. Ron DeSantis on Friday signed a bill stripping Disney World of its status as an "independent special district" ...

The bill ... could impose a steep cost on Orange and Osceola counties, where the theme park is located. The two counties would inherit the Disney district's debts, which officials say would result in higher taxes....

The Florida Senate's own financial impact analysis of the bill states that in most cases when a county takes over a special district, it "shall also assume all indebtedness of the preexisting special district." In Disney's case, that could put local governments on the hook for about $1 billion in bond debt.

... Danielle Prieur of member station WMFE in Orlando reports, "homeowners here could see property taxes jump by 20% to make up the difference. And even then, it probably wouldn't be enough to cover all the money that would be lost."

And this:

Gov. Greg Abbott increasing inspections of commercial trucks entering from Mexico in the hopes of staunching illegal smuggling activity resulted in zero migrants detentions or illegal drug seizures, despite allegedly costing the Lone Star State billions of dollars.

Agriculture Commissioner Sid Miller stated in an email to supporters this week that the enhanced truck inspections cost Texas consumers and businesses an estimated $4.3 billion "despite not catching a single illegal alien or confiscating a single gram of illegal drugs."

And this:

Since its publication in 2001, “Everywhere Babies” — a whimsical, lyrical ode to infancy, illustrated by Caldecott Medal-winning illustrator Marla Frazee — has become a staple of family bookshelves, a common recommendation in new parent groups, and a celebrated title on Best Books lists.

But for the first time in its history, “Everywhere Babies” was featured this week on an entirely different kind of list: The book was among dozens of works recently banned from public school libraries in Walton County, Fla.

When I first saw the news, I grabbed a copy of the book and flipped through it in search of what might have led to it being included on this list. All I noticed were a few illustrations that might be depicting same-sex couples, which are not specifically identified in the text.

It's the party whose rhetoric led to this:

A California man threatened to bomb Merriam-Webster's HQ over the dictionary's definition of the word female as 'a gender identity that is the opposite of male.'

Jeremy David Hanson, 34, of Rossmoor, California, faces a federal charge of interstate communication of threats to commit violence.

Hanson's alleged antics forced the firm to shutter its offices for five days.

... Hanson is ... accused of sending the following message to the 'Contact Us' page: 'You [sic] headquarters should be shot up and bombed. It is sickening that you have caved to the cultural Marxist, anti-science tranny [sic] agenda and altered the definition of 'female' as part of the Left's efforts to corrupt and degrade the English language and deny reality. You evil Marxists should all be killed. It would be poetic justice to have someone storm your offices and shoot up the place, leaving none of you commies alive.'

... He also once emailed the gaming website IGN decrying their positive review for Superman coming out as bisexual in a comic book and Hasbro over dropping the 'Mr.' from 'Mr. Potato Head.' He similarly threatened to bomb both companies.

And yet:

The collective mood of Democratic insiders has darkened appreciably in recent weeks. Pollsters and prognosticators are forecasting increasingly dire results for their party in the November midterm elections....

Democrats are still weighing, too, how much to emphasize their accomplishments versus how much to sharpen their points of contrast with Republicans.

Gosh, do you think we should contrast ourselves with Republicans? YES, YOU IMBECILES! Your message should be "These people are dangerous extremists and we're not" -- because that's been the Republican message about Democrats for years, and it works.

Earlier this week, a Democratic state senator from Michigan named Mallory McMorrow laid into a Republican colleague who'd used a fundraising pitch to accuse McMorrow of being a "groomer."

Senator Lana Theis accused me by name of grooming and sexualizing children in an attempt to marginalize me for standing up against her marginalizing the LGBTQ community...in a fundraising email, for herself.

Hate wins when people like me stand by and let it happen. I won't. pic.twitter.com/jL5GU42bTv

— Mallory McMorrow (@MalloryMcMorrow) April 19, 2022

Fellow Democrats responded as if it had never occurred to them that a Democrat could fight back in this way. Greg Sargent interviewed James Carville, who a few months earlier had denounced Democratic "wokeness."

Was that “wokeness”? Yes, at least in a sense. But either way, Carville appeared transfixed by it.

“Enormously effective piece of communication,” Carville told me. “There’s really no comeback to it.” ...

... “She wasn’t defensive at all.” He noted that McMorrow personalized the issue, drew a sharp and legible contrast with Republicans, and even added in an argument about “roads and schools.”

“I’d show this clip as an instructional video,” Carville said. Asked if he’d advise other Democrats to talk this way, he said: “I would. I’m going to start talking that way.”

Dude, why weren't you talking that way already? Why were you unable to conceive of a response like this to Republican McCarthyism? Why don't national Democrats understand that calling Republicans out is the proper response to their aggression?

It's as if national Democrats don't understand that millions of people are outraged at the appalling extremism of the GOP. It's as if they don't think we want our politicians to stand up and fight for our values. It's as if they don't understand that we regard inclusivity and basic decency as values.

I hope there's more of this, but I predict that Democrats won't follow up. I expect them to conclude that McMorrow's speech was a miracle, a once-in-a-millennium event, and certainly not something that can be replicated by every Democratic politician, every day -- yes, those Republicans seem awfully extreme, but you can't expect us to just say that on a regular basis.

And then when the midterms are a disaster for Democrats, they'll blame Defund the Police and people who say "LatinX."