 Welcome to American Issues Take One. I'm Tim Apachele, your host. And today's title is MAGA GOP, Set to Disrupt the Federal Government. Let's just go through some of the quick examples of what the MAGA GOP is up to. Number one, we all know that they're trying to impeach President Biden. It doesn't seem to be a lot of evidence to back that up, but there they go. Number two, they're blocking all military promotions. That's Senator Tuberville. And that's been going on for some time. That is not helping the military one bit by leaving this void of promotions in place. They decry the law agencies, the FBI, the Department of Justice. Formally, the GOP used to be very supportive of law enforcement, not anymore, not with the GOP that's run by the MAGA's. They're trying to shut down our current government right now in four days, trying to make sure that there's no passage of a continual budget. And that's, we'll see what happens by Saturday. Last but not least, remember when they tried to stop the federal debt, the federal government from paying its debt obligations, the federal ceiling, they tried to stop that. These are just a few examples of what the MAGA GOP is up to, the wrecking ball of the GOP, I call it. And with that, I have my co-host, Jay Fidel, and we're going to discuss this topic. Good morning, Jay. Morning, Tim. It's a topic that should scare all of us because when you draw the line between all those things you mentioned, I mean, some of them have a little hope, most of them have no hope. When you draw the line between them, you connect the dots between all those things. What you get is a group of people who are kidding around. It's a disaster. They're like teenagers, adolescents, pupessants. And what they're doing, if you connect the dots, is they're trying to disrupt and destroy the federal government. In some kind of bizarre, misguided attempt to advance some kind of ideology, although it's hard to say what that ideology is because a lot of the pieces you describe, they're inconsistent with each other. The thing is, the bottom line is it's destructive. And I'll tell you, when I think about that, I think that January 6th was not the last attempt by this bunch of clowns to turn over the election to destroy representative government and democracy in this country. And now what I see when I look at the Capitol building, as I see the same thing happening within the chambers by the people who are elected to develop public policy and run the country. And what they're doing, Tim, is they're having another insurrection. It's a different kind of insurrection, but it's actually more dangerous because they've stopped everything. They're standing in the road on all public policy, and they are not to be forgiven for that, but that's what they're doing. I guess you could say that they're also trying to bring down Biden in the same way that the insurrection tried to bring down Biden. So what we have, in my view, is a continuing insurrection. This is a little different, but it's the same idea. Well, I think that's a great point. And let's look at the driver of this clown car, since you referred to him as clowns, and you're not the only one who's done that lately. Let's look at the driver of the clown car and a willing participant in this, and that's the driver is also known as Speaker of the House, Kevin McCarthy. He's quoted to say this recently, this is a new concept of individuals that just want to burn the whole place down. Wow, pretty forceful comment, I think, very responsible to say something like that. Yet, today we know that the Senate has passed a continual resolution to keep the government open for the next few weeks to work out all these differences. And what does Kevin McCarthy, the driver of the clown car, do? He's telling people he swiftly rejects the Senate budget proposal, and he won't even allow it to hit the floor for discussion or debate. Now, I don't know. What's Kevin McCarthy are we dealing with here today? The one that says this is a bunch of individuals trying to shut the government down and imply that they're irresponsible, or for being the irresponsible clown car driver that says, let's shut down the government? Well, you look at the effect of what he's doing, and he's trying to shut the government down. Now, the reason I think for Kevin McCarthy may not be the same as the reason for some of the others. Kevin wants to hold on to his job as a speaker. And his group, the what do you call it? The Freedom Caucus, the really right wing ultra conservatives who are somehow running the house are telling him to do that or he loses his job as speaker. What I find interesting is his job is more important than the country. I guess he gets a lot of perks and benefits by being in that position. Maybe he enjoys the ostensible power. But in fact, he's only doing it for his own self interest. And so that's why you get this inconsistency between what he says and what he does. What's interesting? You have to look at Freedom Caucus and who's there. And what the mechanics are on the Freedom Caucus. You also have to look at the other Republicans in the House who form the majority in the House. They're letting those guys do it. They're going along as they have in the past. And so you have the crazy clowns running the clown car. And then you have all the other clowns sitting on the sidelines letting him do it. And that points a huge accusatory finger at the Republican Party at the GOP. It's not just the clowns. It's all. Well, you know, you mentioned the Freedom Caucus. And right now the Freedom Caucus consists of of about 20 members of the House. And there's about 200 non-mega GOP representatives in the House. So you have 20 holding 200 hostage, but not just the 200. You have 20. And of that 20, about five of them, Matt Gaetz, Marjorie Taylor-Green, Bopert, and Andy Biggs, you have a few of them that are holding the entire nation hostage. I'm not talking about but just Democrats or independents, but also other Republicans hostage by this insistence of shutting down the government. Not because they're not getting what they want is they just want to shut it down. They want, I think in my opinion, they just want to be the wrecking ball of Congress. And the more they can destroy, the better for it. And part of that will be, you know, Biden. That's part of the agenda. But I think it's democracy and the Republican stuff that they're aiming for. Your thoughts on that? Yeah, I find it adolescent. You know, they're going to tear the whole house down just to be able to stamp their feet and have a little fit. And looking for attention to them. They're looking for attention. And what does that remind you of? That reminds you of Trump. That reminds you that Trump is really the one who's giving him the signals. It's not even a dog whistle. He's telling him straight out what to do. And they're doing it. And they're all acolytes. They are completely proselytized. And they don't exercise any independent thought or any concern for the country or the Republican Party, for that matter. They're just following Trump's signals. But I blame Trump for having elevated these guys and having created freedom caucus and this kind of insanity. It reminds me of the inmates at the asylum of Sharon Dunn. The inmates are running the asylum here. How do they get into that position? Well, you know, Trump has some skills in putting them together and making them as powerful as they are somehow. But they're all nothing, all of them. All the ones you mentioned in the freedom caucus and the rest of them, they're all nothing. They have no idea what public policy is. They have no idea what they swore an oath to do. They have no idea about protecting the country. And when they stand there in front of all these American flags, claiming by implication to be patriotic, they're not in the least patriotic. They're adolescents stamping their feet and having a little fit. I find it amazing that the American democracy is running up against this brick wall. You know, I would agree that, you know, we could easily point a finger at the obvious. And that is these five knuckleheads that have no sense of an oath to office to the Constitution. Their oath is to Donald Trump, which is very similar to what people do for dictators. They file an allegiance to the individual and not to the principles behind the nation, the rule of law or the Constitution. So it's easy to point a finger at these guys. What about the enablers? I'm thinking of Lindsey Graham, Senator Lindsey Graham, who knows better, who knows the rule of law, who knows the Constitution inside and out. He used to be a jagged attorney, used to be, you know, right hand friend and advisor with John McCain, who would roll in his grave right now if you saw what was going on with the House and the GOP party and how it's turned into this mega Trump worship group. You know, he just said recently, putting our military at risk doesn't help anything. He's referring to Tuberville, Senator Tuberville and the withholding of promotions. So we have people like Lindsey Graham who come in and out of supporting the mega GOP, then criticizing the mega GOP on almost every issue. Yet when there's an outrageous comment or behavior that's reported in the news, he's silent. He's actually mum. He doesn't raise objections. He goes, well, I just don't want to comment on something like that. What do we do about these enablers? It's, you know, it's seven years into it now, six years into these enablers that have allowed the mega GOP to take the party over. What do we say about these enablers? You know, you remind me of an incident that happened years ago. I was sitting with a guy who was somewhat political in the Plaza Club, in the Pioneer Plaza, having lunch. And a sitting legislator in the State House, State Senate came over to us and said, you know, I haven't been able to garner any interest from the public, from the newspapers, the media and thus from my constituents in my district. Do you guys have any suggestions about how I could make a splash and garner some interest by my constituents and the media? I said, what kind of a stupid question is that? Make a splash? How about actually doing some constructive policy? How about addressing the issues that concern our community? But that's the distinction. They're not looking to address the issues that confront the country. They're looking to make a splash. And that's what I think in large part drives them. So, including, especially including Lindsey Graham, because you couldn't count on him for sticking with what he said yesterday till today and till tomorrow. I mean, he's a chameleon. He's a chameleon that changes colors while you watch instantaneously. He's not the only one, but he's a clear example of that. So what you have is people in Congress who want to stay in Congress. What you have is people who are making enough money, getting enough perks or maybe maybe some graft and corruption to who knows. And they want to continue that. And they're not there, you know, to serve the country or to perform the obligations of their oath. I don't know what to say about that, Tim. I would say that they're misguided, misinformed, miseducated, and they have no idea what they're doing. And somehow the machinery in this country has allowed them to get elected. And part of that is this strange connection between money and votes. You know, in the old days when Mr. Smith went to Washington, it wasn't about money. It was about saying the right thing, doing the right thing, being a person of character and consistency. But we don't care about that anymore. You can take the side of a cow and elect them to Congress and nobody would know the difference. One more story and I'll stop. When I got into high school, okay, they had the student organization elections. And all the girls on the cheerleading squad were dancing for him. His name was Chester Bruce. He was by far the most popular candidate for president of the student organization. And there were, you know, mimeograph sheets all over the walls and everywhere in the high school, you know, extolling his virtues. And everybody was so convinced this guy was so popular and so talented, they had a vote for him. He never actually asked a question of what he stood for or whether they had ever met him. But they voted for him. And he won in a sweeping landslide. And at the end of that election, when the dean of the school went around looking for him, looking for Chester Bruceke, does that name make you a little suspicious? Since I like to drink Bruceke's now and then, yes. No, that was the point. They couldn't find him. There was no Chester Bruceke. The machinery in the high school elected him, even though he did not exist. And I think you could elect the side of a cow in Congress, and he would be completely unqualified, completely incompetent and completely inappropriate. For that matter, he doesn't have to exist. We just package him. And we get all those consultants and media experts and all that. We elect him, even if he is the side of a cow. And I think Congress is filled with the side of a cow. Well, or Chester Bruceke's. There you go. A gaggle of him. You know, Jay, I want to bring up a name here because... Look at George DeSantos, huh? Okay. Definitely at Chester Bruceke. He could be lying his way into office, you know. Yeah, I haven't heard about him much lately, but I've been gone. Let me throw out a name here that announced that he was leaving the Senate. A voice for the last six years of what I would call the old GOP of politics, a voice of ethics, a voice of trying to work with the other side to get things done, to put in policies that are for the betterment of the American public. And that would be Mitt Romney. On his swan song interview, and I think it was in his office, he didn't have a lot of good things to say about the Republican party anymore. He didn't have anything certainly good to say about Donald Trump. And he basically, in his five to 10 minute interview, said Donald Trump is the source of all problems for the GOP and the acolytes, which you refer to, the lackeys of the GOP, the mega GOP. Any thoughts about Mitt Romney leaving the Senate? He still has a year left before he exits. Do you think he can do anything in his one short year of tenure? Well, first, I don't think that much of him. Because he was trying to suck up to Trump for a long time. He thought that was his way to power. And so he's a man who is not consistent. He may have moments of clarity. And maybe this soundbite was a positive statement. He's one of one who voted for his impeachment. Yeah. Okay. All right. But I don't think Romney has done what we needed. I don't think Romney ever did really have the ability to leave this country, even though he had hoped to a couple times. That's one thing. But the other thing is, you know, you see him dropping out. And you say, why? This guy has an appetite for political power. Why is he dropping out? And it's, you know, it's because he can't get anywhere. Because he thinks he's going to be attacked by the Trump faction for having attacked them. It's that same thing that, you know, Ann Applebaum wrote in the Atlantic, and that really important article when she made a parallel between the Trump mechanisms and the mechanisms of the Communists, including Vladimir Putin, in post-war Eastern Europe, where they were afraid to leave. And they had these incredible rationalizations. If I stay around, maybe I can do something. Or if I leave, I will lose my power and my perks. And in the case of Romney, I mean, I don't know exactly why he's leaving. But I'm suspicious that it's for self-interest rather than benefit of the country. If he cared for the country, he would stay around and do stuff and be a voice for rationality. But he's not doing that. He's leaving it open. And maybe it's because the, you know, the Trump faction told him he has to get out now. And they want to elect someone else or appoint someone else instead. I don't know what it is. And it's time, his time is up. And so somebody is bossing him around. That's a possibility. Suffice to say that I don't think it's a great loss because I think he's been inconsistent. And he has not demonstrated the badges of leadership that he might have. You know, at the beginning of the show, I mentioned some specific things that look like wrecking ball activity against the federal government and or things that are just out of the norm to impeach somebody out of the midair without any evidence. By the way, today is a trial, I think, for the first impeachment hearing. And those who are appearing are not connected at any point of testimony for evidence. That's kind of odd. So let me ask you this question, Jay. What is the overreaching goal of the MAGA GOP at this point? Is it to destroy the democracy as we know it? Or is it just to make Biden look bad so that he doesn't become president? Or is it a combination of multiple things that we haven't mentioned yet in this program? It's those two things. It's a combination of what you mentioned, you know, pull the rug out from under Biden on everything, attack him on everything. It's also to destroy the government as we know it. I mean, as I said, that you connect the dots, that's what you get. But the third thing, which you didn't mention, is to get Trump back in office no matter what. And they're responding to Trump. You know, it's interesting that he's part of the formula for the phenomenon that she described. And that without him, if he was off the stage for any reason, query whether that formula would continue to exist, whether they would continue to do these bizarre and disruptive things. But I think it's all three, Tim. It's destroying the democracy because they don't know or care about that. They figured their prospects are better if there is no democracy. It's attacking Biden so he doesn't get votes. And it's elevating Trump to another term, those three things. It has nothing to do with serving the country. Well, let's take the temperature of the GOP here on an example I want to bring out. You know, we have Senator Menendez, who has some very serious criminal charges. He's now indicted. And you have seen a chorus of Democrats in the Senate outside the Senate call for his immediate resignation saying that this is not good for the party and it's not good for the country with these type of allegations. We just had a New York judge tell Trump that you are nothing but a fraud. And you are guilty of fraud. I mean, we'll have the formal trial on Monday, but since it's a bench decision from one judge in no jury trial, it's just a matter of how much he's going to have to pay the state of New York. And yet we hear crickets from every member of the GOP about this judge's decision that he is guilty of fraud, financial fraud and fraud against the state of New York. Does that illustrate it any better of where we are between the Democrats and the Republicans as far as taking responsibility for their own? Well, I think you make a good point. Menendez has to go and the Democrats are being honest and fair and square and he hasn't been tried and I suppose he could get off like he did the last time. But there seems to be plenty of evidence in that indictment to suggest that he did it, just as he did the last time with a hung jury. So I think that's to the credit of the Democratic Party that they're honest and they're living in another time, a time when character and honesty were more important to members of Congress. But the Republicans are always going to deny. They're going to deny the truth. This is what we should. That's not the old Republicans. I mean, I remember Republicans standing up and saying enough's enough. I remember when all the pages were being molested by both Democrat and Republican senators and representatives, both parties spoke up and said, this is an outrage. Get out. And they did. They were successful of rooting out these bad politicians who were praying on high school in early college, you know, interns. You know, it's changed. The Republican Party is not what you remember it to be and what I remember it to be. It's not a kind of mirror image of the side of the aisle identity as Democrat. They retain this historical quality that they have and demonstrate in the case of the Nindas. But the Republicans are all together. The wagons are circled. They're all lined up and they're all going to tell lies and deny the truth and enable those who tell lies and deny the truth. Not every single one of them. But frankly, if I was a Republican, I'd find a way to get off that approach. I'd switch or I'd get out or I'd speak up. I'd say these people are out of their minds. What about their oath of office? They deny the truth. And that's what made it possible to knock off the first impeachment and the second impeachment. That's what made it possible for Trump to do all his bizarre things and gutting the government and all the machinations in the Oval Office. And, you know, denying the election, the insurrection, it's the enablers that let him do that. And the enablers primarily, if not exclusively, GOP. So over the past few years, the GOP has been gutted. It has changed completely. It's like when they stand in front of the 27 American flags. It doesn't mean they're patriotic. It doesn't mean that they stand for the principles of the Republican Party as we used to know it. They're a different lot now. And they're masquerading as Republicans. You know, moving forward into the election season of 2024, do we see what you just said as a primary communication piece or slogan about the oath of office and care to the Republic and care to the Constitution? Does that become a major issue of this election coming up? Or is it pushed in the background and something else takes the day like the economy or to what degree will your loyalty to the oath of office and preservation of the Republic be a major issue of this 2024 campaign? It is for you and me. And to a lot of Democrats, but it's one hand clapping. Republicans aren't going to take that position. They'll distract and deny and, you know, they'll avoid the issue. And they'll be talking about how Hunter Biden is a bad person and Joe Biden didn't get anything done. They'll be talking about all the issues that try to make him look bad. They will not be talking about preserving the Republic. They will not. I promise you that. I'll bet you money that. You won't hear a word from them about that because they don't care about that. They care about knocking Biden off out of office. Does it become a main talking point for the Democrats? Yeah, but the Democrats are frankly weak. They're not well organized. They don't know how to present their views. While you were traveling, we talked about the platforms of the various parties and the Democratic platform gives you eye strain and it's not really persuasive to the average person uncommitted in this very, very long national Democratic platform. There's not enough discussion about that very issue about saving the country. There's no discussion about the fact that we are in a Democratic five alarm fire. The word Ukraine is mentioned like once. Even the word Trump, they should be out there telling us what's really going on here and they're not. They're not well led. Sorry. And that could cost them the election because Biden is so passive on so many things. He's not able to light a fire among the American electorate. You mentioned in a couple of sentences the Democratic Party in a pretty good summarization that's weak, disorganized, and dispassionate leadership. To what degree do we see the Calvary riding over the hill called the Lincoln Project? They were very influential in the 2020 midterm elections. They were quite effective in that election. Do they come back up as a shining star for the Democrats and actually make some inroads as far as how people are thinking about the country, the Constitution, and the rule of law? Very subjective, Tim. And this guy, I think his name is Schmidt. He's very good on the Lincoln Project. And I see him once in a while, not necessarily as a representative of the Lincoln Project, but as someone who is a really good speaker and who can tell it like it is. But the Lincoln Project itself has lost its mocho where before, for the last, the midterms, I guess, you saw a lot of that. And for the 2020 election, you saw a lot of that, a lot of Lincoln Project. And it was impressive to see Republicans get up there and tell the truth. And I enjoyed that just for the fact that there were some Republicans who felt that way. But I don't see them anymore. Seems like they run out of gas or money or both. So I'm not sure they're going to make a difference in 2024. Sorry. Okay. Last question, I think we're out of time. How much more mayhem, other than the things we've talked about and I've listed in the first part of the show, how much mayhem and against our government does the mega GOP get away with? And what future attempts do you see on their horizon? Once in a while, you see an article written, usually it's an opinion piece, a thought piece about what happens if Trump or the like win. And Representative Government is undone, which we're in the process now of having that happen around us. And I don't think, I don't understand why, but I don't think that people understand what it means to lose democracy. They don't understand what life is like in terms of their own civil rights, their own opportunities, their ability to get information about what the government is doing or not doing. And therefore what the government is doing to help and save and protect them. I guess, I don't know if law school helps, but certainly history helps to see what happened in Eastern Europe back after the war, to see what's happening now in Putin's Russia. The fact is that if we lose this, our lives on this planet are going to be very different, and we won't like it. I think the most scary aspect of it is the children. Just as Putin has kidnapped thousands of children into Russia, what do you think he does with them? He puts them in little Russian uniforms and in a classroom with a teacher who teaches them, this is on the record, who teaches them how to hate Ukraine and thus how to hate their parents and thus how to hate the culture they came from. That's what Hitler did. He recreated the generations. And I think the scariest thing that we face is not only the loss of the media, the loss of free expression, the loss of civil rights as preserved in the Constitution or as articulated in the Constitution, not necessarily preserved. What I worry about is when the kid goes to school and the teacher says, you know, if your parents are talking down the Freedom Caucus, you have to tell us. You have to come report them. And if your colleagues and your bosses are talking down the GOP and the Magus and Trump, you have to come and tell us. And then what happens is the government is used as a weapon focused on anybody who is reported. And that's the scariest part of all if you lose freedom of speech, democracy, representative government. And I think people don't realize it, but I think that's where we're headed. All right, we'll leave it right there, Jay, because those are wise words to end with and certainly food for thought. And I hope everyone listening to this show actually considers your words and thinks hard on them. So with that, I'd like to thank you, Jay Fidel, for being my co-host on this show. Join us next week for American Issues Take One, and I'm Kim Abachele, your host. And until then, aloha.