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Once again a new, highly successful right-wing politician is speaking a language only those on the right understand. And once again those on the left have fallen into the trap of holding this person up for public ridicule. It's the "basket of deplorables" 2.0.

Senator Katie Britt (left), and Scarlett Johansson portraying Ms. Britt on SNL (right). Ms. Johansson struggled to replicate Ms. Britt's "fundie baby voice," having never been formally trained.

Eight years ago, as the country got to know Donald Trump the candidate, Democrats were by turns disgusted, appalled, amused, and confused: how could he be vanquishing one serious Republican challenger after another? The spectacle seemed surreal to all but a few observers, most notably Michael Moore, who sounded a DEFCON 1 alert almost everyone ignored. "Wow, there's the bubble right there," said Moore, referring to insular, clueless left-wing pols and liberal media figures, who did not recognize Trump's appeal to the heartland until it was too late.

In Moore's view, the violent divisiveness of the last seven years sprang out of the decades-long failure of two American demographics to understand each other, mostly because they rarely experienced each other. Residents of large cities and their suburbs came to regard those in less populated regions of the country as regressive and irrelevant, while to those rural and small-town Americans, large cities were distant, dirty, lawless places dragging America downward into sin and bankruptcy.

In 2024, it's the same, but worse. Trump and his sycophants continue to whip up fear and resentment within their base, while Democrats reactively offer refuge to theirs. Both sides claw at an increasingly concerned independent middle underwhelmed by what they see in every direction they look.

Into this maelstrom dropped Senator Katie Britt (R-AL), broadcasting from her kitchen, speaking in a childlike whisper about Democrats bringing an end to civilization in the United States. The left greeted her as they had greeted Trump in 2016, with derision, mockery and a satirical turn on SNL. And a new albeit faint alarm could be heard, this time in the form of an article by Jess Piper, a former English teacher and "Dirt Road Democrat" candidate from Missouri:

I was about to head to bed after the State of the Union last night, when I heard a voice coming from my television that stopped me in my tracks. ... It was Senator Katie Britt using her well-practiced fundie baby voice (italics mine). ... It was engrained in every woman I knew from church and every time I speak about it, folks will point out that I sound that way myself. Yes, friends. That’s the point. Be sweet. Obey. Prove it by speaking in muted tones.

Piper's detailed account of what's really going on here is necessary reading in its entirety.

Updates:

Jess Piper has created a video on social media to accompany her article.

A comparison of Katie Britt's actual voice vs. that in the SOTU response. Note that she lies about the southern border in all cadences and intonations. Biden motivated the bipartisan negotiations which led to a border bill which passed the Senate; he is still trying to get Congress to pass it. The horrible incident of sex trafficking Britt described last Thursday occurred in Mexico during the George W. Bush administration, and did not involve someone seeking to cross into the United States.

To millions of American women and their husbands, there was nothing fringe or bizarre about the setting of Britt's speech, nor about her manner of speaking. She was making a targeted plea. You may not like Donald Trump. But he and his fellow Republicans will protect the cultural order to which you are accustomed against a mean-spirited liberal mob, which cannot resist ridiculing what you are.

While an abundant number of evangelicals may be counted among Trump's supporters, not all evangelicals are reflexive Trump voters. And millions more non-evangelical American women believe in the primacy of their role as mother, and fear an influx of "the other," those different from them, into their communities.

In an election with razor-thin margins, Democrats can scarcely afford to lose support from any voting bloc, nor to further energize the opposition. The left may someday learn to reign in its own smugness so as not to alienate significant chunks of the American public. Alas, today is not that day.

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Link: https://halwrightnewtown.info/blog/The-Danger-of-Turning-Katie-Britt-into-a-Punchline-36/

February 23, 2024
Mr. Fitzpatrick Goes To Ukraine
by Hal Wright

In which our performative Congressman attempts to paper over the foreign policy and security disaster created by his party's dysfunction.

After failing to produce any tangible results for our allies and our border security, Rep. Fitzpatrick spent our tax money to obtain a photo-op with Volodymyr Zelenskyy. Here's the sordid timeline.

October 24, 2023: Brian Fitzpatrick votes for election denier Mike Johnson, whom he describes as "spiritual and humble," as Speaker of the House.

February 5, 2024: In a demonstration of fealty to Donald Trump, Mike Johnson preemptively kills a Senate bipartisan bill which supported Ukraine, Israel, and southern border security, declaring it dead on arrival in the House.

February 6, 2024: House Republicans fail in an attempt to pass an Israel-only aid bill. Fitzpatrick votes in favor of the bill, throwing Ukraine under the bus.

February 11, 2024: Trump says he’d let Russia do "whatever the hell they want" to NATO countries that don’t pay enough.

February 13, 2024: The Senate passes the bipartisan bill 70-29, prompting President Biden to call for a vote in the House and to condemn Trump for his comments.

February 15, 2024: Congress recesses without approving any aid for Ukraine, Israel, and border security. President Biden asks, "What are they thinking?"

February 15, 2024: Brian Fitzpatrick touts a watered-down House bill to fund Ukraine, Israel, and the southern border, which faces a steep uphill path to becoming law in both the House and Senate.

February 22, 2024: Brian Fitzpatrick spends taxpayer money on a useless junket to Ukraine and Israel.

In the bizarre quantum mechanics of Fitzpatrick's Republican party, the situation at the southern border is both an existential crisis and so unimportant that addressing it can be delayed until after the November election, to prevent President Biden from claiming he did something about it.

Meantime, Ukraine faces a genuine existential crisis as it runs out of ammunition in its fight with Putin's Russia. Republicans shrug (at best) or oppose any support for Ukraine (at worst).

Fitzpatrick has built his political career in no small part by pledging support for Ukraine, Israel, and strong border security. Due to his party's dysfunction, distraction, and fealty to Donald Trump, he has been ineffective at delivering on these promises. A junket abroad will not clear the Republican logjam here at home, nor will Fitzpatrick's long record of supporting the most extreme elements in his party.

The remedy is a Democratic majority in both the House and Senate.