It’s been a hard cheese week for right-wing kleptocracies, as Harold Meyerson explains at The American Prospect: “By any empirically based metric, this has been a lousy week for the global right. Hungarian voters overwhelmingly repudiated their Christian nationalist kleptocratic prime minister, Viktor Orbán. Here at home, Donald Trump took ownership of the Strait of Hormuz blockade, ensuring the continued rise of oil and gas prices at a time when the foremost concern of American voters is the unaffordability of life’s essentials…Sensing he’d left something undone, Trump also accused the pope of being “soft on crime” (hey, it worked against Michael Dukakis; why not the pope?). And just in case he still retained the support of those right-wing Catholics who’d railed against Francis and were holding their tongues against Leo, not to mention the Protestant evangelicals who’ve never quite made their peace with Catholics, he then decided to post an image on Truth Social that depicted himself as Christ the Healer…The 1960s comic Mort Sahl would always interject a line into his act: “Is there anyone I haven’t offended?” Sahl never offered that line up, however, as a political strategy…Trump’s supporters are disproportionately evangelical Protestants, so attacking the pope merely harked back to the classic evangelical fear of satanic popery (the main reason, along with that hardy perennial of antisemitism, that the U.S. banned immigration from Southern and Eastern Europe from 1924 through 1965). But equating himself with Jesus was a bridge too far even for many evangelicals. Trump was compelled to take down that Truth Social post, though if he now looks at it at all askance, I suspect it’s because he realizes he should have identified himself with God the Father, who was made of sterner stuff than his Son, who was way softer on crime (“Let him who is without sin cast the first stone”) than Leo, or, for that matter, Dukakis…”
Meyerson continues, “In looking at the defeat of Orbán, there are enough parallels with the current state of American politics to make Republicans even more nervous than they already are. For one thing, discontent with the stagnating Hungarian economy was widespread, and heightened by voters’ awareness that Orbán had redistributed the nation’s wealth both upward and to his cronies, whom he’d turned into oligarchs. There are some parallels to this here at home. Trump’s cultivation of Elon Musk, Jeff Bezos, Mark Zuckerberg, and their ilk, and the deals he’s cut with Silicon Valley billionaires to support a rapid and unregulated expansion of their AI ventures (wildly unpopular with the public at large, fearful of jobless futures and data centers in their backyards), from which, he surely hopes, his family will get a cut—all this is in sync with the kleptocratic policies of Orbán and, for that matter, Orbán’s other great champion, Vladimir Putin…Indeed, the course of Christian nationalist nations compels us to wonder if there’s a causal link between Christian nationalism, illiberal democracy, and kleptocracy. Christian nationalism elevates a particular segment of the population, which at some point tends to claim both spiritual and material rewards. Illiberal democracy—the suppression of rival or unbiased media, the attack on other sources of knowledge (universities) and power (courts, unions)—creates a “get out of jail free card” mentality among the leader’s favorites. The defenders of Christian nationalism and illiberalism have yet to explain away the drift of nations pursuing those policies toward full kleptocracies…What should even more immediately alarm Republicans is the failure of the right’s campaigns, in both Hungary and the U.S., to make any plausible positive claims. Orbán understood he had to divert attention from the economy, so he ran against his opponents by alleging they’d send Hungarian boys to fight in Ukraine, and with whatever culture-war golden oldies he could play once more. Neither worked…For their part, U.S. Republicans are beginning to sense that running against the specter of “transsexuals in ladies’ rooms” may no longer be as salient as it once was. Republican gubernatorial candidate Winsome Earle-Sears campaigned across Virginia last year by linking her Democratic opponent, Abigail Spanberger, to the cause of trans rights. Spanberger won by 15 percentage points.” More here.
At Endless Urgency, Mike Nellis reports that “Trump Just Exposed Every MAGA Influencer & Politician in One Post, They’re All Bootlickers” and writes that “I appreciate the days when Donald Trump does something so ridiculous that it captures the nation’s attention. That doesn’t mean I enjoyed yesterday’s scrambling by the White House and the MAGA movement to justify and explain away Trump posting an AI-generated image of himself as Jesus Christ healing the sick. I did not. As a practicing Catholic, I was as offended by it as every other American…But the one good thing that came out of it is how much it exposes this administration—and the influencers and politicians who cling to Donald Trump in order to get access to money, power, and influence…Incidents like this cut through the white noise and force a level of attention that makes it harder to ignore the bigger problem we’re dealing with and just how deep it goes. They show who’s willing to defend it and who isn’t willing to own the disaster they’ve created…Yes, he attacked the Pope. And very few of his MAGA influencers were willing to come to the defense of tens of millions of Catholics who were offended and upset about Trump attacking their faith leader. Yes, Trump posted an image of himself as Jesus. What was most revealing was how he tried to explain it away…Trump then proceeded to take questions from the press, which were mostly focused on his attacks on the Pope and the AI-generated image. His explanation for it was, basically, “I don’t understand why the media is so offended. It’s an image of me as a doctor healing the sick”—an image of Donald Trump as a doctor healing the sick. In fact, he said he was a Red Cross worker, I believe, because we all know Red Cross workers are frequently depicted wearing flowing robes, halos, and fighting demons with glowing hands that can heal whatever ails you…It goes to show you how stupid Donald Trump thinks the American people are. That’s how dumb he thinks his own supporters are—and how highly he thinks of himself—that he can say something like that and expect it to pass without question. He knows there are people in his orbit who will immediately go sell that lie, and it’s unbelievable.” More here.
Ken Mitchell, a 24-year military veteran who served in the White House under Presidents HW Bush and Clinton, is running as a Democrat to flip VA-6, and he’s got a smart pitch: “I worked to bring telecommunications to rural Virginia, modernized Monticello, and helped rebuild contaminated water lines throughout rural VA so that we could have clean drinking water…But none of that – none of it – was as important as raising two daughters to be strong women in a society that doesn’t always make space for them…That’s why I’m running for Congress in Virginia’s 6th District on a platform of affordable housing and good paying jobs, accessible healthcare, lower costs for working families, and fighting MAGA tooth and nail. I’m fighting to make sure that our kids and grandkids inherit the same opportunities I had—and the ones I never want them denied…Congress needs more girl dads who understand what’s at stake. Will you join me and become a founding donor? We’re building this campaign from the ground up starting today, and every single dollar helps us reach more voters, knock on more doors, and share this message across the district. Let’s show Washington that rural Virginia is ready for new leadership—leadership that puts hardworking families first and fights for the futures of our children and grandchildren…With gratitude and determination…Ken Mitchell Democrat for VA-06 Proud Girl Dad & Granddad.” You want further corroboration? 
