 Folks, we need to have a conversation about the Democratic Party and their brilliant strategy to prop up GOP extremists and how that is already backfiring on them. It's already blowing up in their face, and it's been a month or so. Now I don't know if I did a full segment on this, but I certainly referenced this article multiple times, but if you missed it on June 16th, the New York Times published this article titled Democrats' Risky Bed. Aid GOP extremists in spring hoping to beat them in fall. As Democratic leaders warn loudly of right wing threats to democracy, their campaign arms are meddling in Republican primaries, betting they can help pick easier opponents in November. Now as many people pointed out, this was a terrible idea because they tried this strategy not too long ago and it was partially the reason why we got Donald Trump as our president. As Ben Norton of Salon wrote in 2016, how the Hillary Clinton campaign deliberately elevated Donald Trump with its Pied Piper strategy. Now it's not the first time that that strategy was utilized. Claire McCaskill actually successfully pulled that off in her race against Todd Akin. I was going to say Clay Akin, but I think that's a different person. Clay Akin is the American Idol guy, but it was against Todd Akin, who is making horrible comments about legitimate rapes and abortion. So you know, we won't rehash that. I won't rehash the 2002 American Idol race between Clay Akin and Ruben Stettered. Really happy that Ruben won. I don't know what I'm doing. Either way, you know, it was successful, but it hasn't been successful since and Democrats are still doing it. So rather than learn from their mistakes, they decided to run ads like this in support of GOP candidates. Take a look. Again, keep in mind, this is a Democratic paid for ad. Same label. So Republicans got to check the ingredients. David Valadeo claims he's Republican, yet David Valadeo voted to impeach President Trump. Yeah. Valadeo voted to impeach Trump and Republican Chris Matisse, a true conservative, 100% pro Trump and proud pro Trump Republican Chris Matisse, military veteran, local businessman or politician David Valadeo who voted to impeach Trump Republicans. It's time to decide how his majority pack is responsible for the content of this Again, I have to remind you, because it's so absurd, that was an ad paid for by the Democratic Party. Now that's not the candidate who we're going to talk about here, but one candidate in particular who they did fund, well, that individual who they thought they could easily beat is now surging. Yeah. So as Politico reports, Democrats boosted a mega long shot in the PA governor's race. Now he's got a real shot at winning. State Republicans are coalescing behind Doug Mastriano, despite his perceived shortcomings as a candidate in the pivotal swing state. Now we'll dive into the article. They'll get to some of these things, but just to give you a sense as to who the Democratic Party funded, Doug Mastriano is someone who is a forced birther to the extremist extent. He doesn't believe in any exceptions, even if it's the life of the mother, he wants to ban all abortions. When it comes to the election, not only is he a 2020 election truther, this individual said that he would send rogue electors to the electoral college. He would do that as governor to make sure that he could subvert the will of voters in Pennsylvania. So to say that he has shortcomings is a bit of an understatement, but nonetheless, this is who Democrats funded because they thought that they could more easily beat him. Now let's get to the article here. As Holly Otterbein explains, Attorney General Josh Shapiro, the Democratic nominee is a first-class fundraiser with the record of winning tough statewide races. He emerged unscathed from the Democratic primary after clearing the field. Mastriano, on the other hand, has a shoestring campaign regularly antagonizes members of his own party and is known for his far-right views on hot button issues. He chartered buses to the US Capitol on January 6th, where he appears to have been part of a crowd that crossed barricades. He believes in no exceptions for an abortion ban. He has said that the state legislature has the power to appoint presidential electors and as governor, he would have the power to decertify election machines. When Mastriano pulled out a win in the primary, many national Republicans kept their distance and privately assumed Shapiro would waltz to the governor's mansion. But as the political environment has worsened for Democrats across the country, the gubernatorial race in Pennsylvania has begun to look more competitive than either party expected. Republicans will show Mastriano behind Shapiro by only three to four percentage points, which is within the margin of error. So Democrats are fucking clowns. You thought you could easily score this dub and now he's surging. And Republicans didn't really want to support him because of how extreme he was. And like imagine just for a second, Republicans are like, we can't support this candidate because they're a little bit too extreme even for us. And now that he's surging, state Republicans are looking at him and they're thinking, hmm, is he really that bad? And they're starting to coalesce around him. Democrats propped this individual up. What do you even say? I mean, even if this strategy were successful and they were able to beat Mastriano, you're still shifting the overton window to the far, far right. We're talking about candidates who are openly against democracy itself. He's saying we should be able to choose who we want as the president. He embraces independent state legislature theory. And Democrats are like, hmm, we could probably beat him though. So let's, let's roll the dice on that one. Let's roll the dice on democracy. I just, what do you even say? Now one consultant who was asked about this, the changing dynamic who supports Shapiro by the way, he's saying, oh, well, it's good that Mastriano is surging because then Democrats will be so afraid of Mastriano that they'll actually get out and vote for Shapiro and make sure that the strategy that we implemented is a success. Like he literally called Mastriano surging a blessing in disguise. Otterbein continues, Larry Seisler, a Pennsylvania based public affairs consultant who is backing Shapiro said the early polls are a blessing in disguise because they have made some Democrats realize Mastriano could win. Most people are in a little bubble where they talk to one another and say, boy, there's no way Doug Mastriano can beat Josh Shapiro. Well, you know what? Those people don't get off the turnpike, he said, referring to the interstate highway that crosses Pennsylvania. It wakes some people as to it's a real campaign. And yes, there really are people who are for Doug Mastriano. And this is not going to be a walk in the park. In other words, this consultant thinks that it's good that Democratic voters will be so terrified of Doug Mastriano that they will certainly come out to vote. This is gross. Have you ever wondered what's his name? Seisler, Larry Seisler, consultant guy. Have you ever wondered if maybe it'd be preferable that candidates weren't voting out of fear for their lives and instead we're voting for someone that inspired them really weighing the differences between two good candidates? Like, have you ever conceived of that scenario? Instead, you're saying, no, no, it's good that these voters are fucking frightened. We want them shitting in their pants as they go to the polls because that will guarantee a victory for our shitty milk toast corporate Democrat. I just it's it's hard to really describe how out of touch and stupid the Democratic Party establishment and their consultants are to fund the far right, shift the the Overton window and potentially lose to an extremist who poses a threat to democracy. Who was saying, I want to kill democracy. I don't believe in democracy. That's like a new low, even for Democrats. So here we are. It's not a foregone conclusion that Maish Triano will be Shapiro. But in the event he does win, I mean, there should be just universal condemnation of the Democratic Party. But we all know that the media will never condemn corporate Democrats because they are all knowing and they are benevolent. And it's not that the Democratic Party can fail voters. It's that voters, they fail the Democratic Party. So in the event Maish Triano ends up beating Shapiro after Democrats propped him up, the narrative will be, well, you see Democratic Party voters, they just didn't take this threat to our democracy seriously. And maybe next time they'll pay attention and they'll go to the polls, even if it's getting more difficult to vote in many red states where anti-democracy Republicans are restricting the right to vote. But it's always going to be the voter. The honest will always be on them and never on dumb ass Democrats who utilize dumb fucking strategies like this that are demonstrable failures as 2016 has taught us. But here we are. It's already blowing up in their face. And who knows how many far-right Republicans will defeat Democrats after the Democratic Party establishment has propped them up. I genuinely don't know. I hope none of them win. I don't want the Democrats to have this takeaway be that, oh, see, it works when we prop up extremists. But the extremists they're propping up are fucking insane. But that's why they do it because they know that Democrats will be so afraid to vote or to not vote really. So we're in this predicament where the Democratic Party is enabling the rise of fascism and supporting Republicans as they run to the far right. Unbelievable.