Progressive Thinking

Republicans can’t condemn political violence while excusing the January 6 insurrection, worshiping Trump, and pardoning insurrectionists. Hypocrisy this deep isn’t just ugly, it’s dangerous.

LAKE GENEVA, WI - Republicans love to climb on their high horse about political violence. They point fingers at liberals, scream about “radical leftists,” and pretend they’re the guardians of law and order. But here’s the problem: you can’t wag your finger at Democrats one day and then kiss the ring of a man who incited an insurrection against the United States and then pardoned the people convicted of that violence. Sorry, folks — you can’t have it both ways.

January 6: The Insurrection They Pretend Wasn’t

Let’s not rewrite history. Donald Trump told a crowd to “fight like hell” and then sat back and watched as his supporters smashed windows, beat police officers, and hunted down lawmakers like they were prey. They stormed the Capitol with Confederate flags, bear spray, and gallows. That wasn’t “tourism.” That wasn’t “legitimate political discourse.” It was a violent insurrection against democracy itself.

Five people died. Hundreds were injured. Thousands were traumatized. And what did Republicans do? They downplayed it, excused it, or flat-out lied about it. Trump went even further — he handed out pardons to convicted insurrectionists like candy at a campaign rally. The “party of law and order” wants to unleash the very people who tried to overthrow the Constitution.

The Hypocrisy Olympics

Fast forward to the assassination of Charlie Kirk. A horrific act, no question. Violence should never be tolerated. But Republicans wasted no time weaponizing Kirk’s death, pointing their fingers at liberals, as if an entire political ideology pulled the trigger. Suddenly, they’re preaching about the dangers of political violence — as though they hadn’t been defending, minimizing, and even celebrating violence when it served their own agenda.

So which is it, Republicans? Is political violence unacceptable across the board, or is it only unacceptable when it happens to someone you like? Because right now, your message is clear: when it’s Trump’s mob, it’s patriotism. When it’s anyone else, it’s terrorism.

The Dangerous Double Standard

This hypocrisy isn’t just disgusting — it’s dangerous. By excusing January 6 and pardoning insurrectionists, Republicans have signaled to their base that violence is a legitimate political tool. But by condemning Kirk’s assassination with self-righteous fury, they’re admitting they know violence is wrong. They just don’t care when it benefits them.

You can’t have it both ways. Either political violence is unacceptable, no matter whose side it’s on — or you’re just lying to everyone, including yourselves.

My Take

Republicans don’t get to claim moral high ground when they’ve been wallowing in the muck. They don’t get to condemn political violence while worshiping a man who incited an insurrection, pardoned its foot soldiers, and promises to unleash it again. And they sure as hell don’t get to point their bloody fingers at liberals while their own hands are still stained from January 6.

If you want to stop political violence, start by cleaning up your own mess. Until then, sit down, shut up, and spare us the lectures.

New on *Don’t Blink!*: *Republicans Can’t Have It Both Ways*. They excuse the January 6 insurrection, worship Trump, and pardon insurrectionists — yet point their fingers at liberals after Charlie Kirk’s assassination. Read my no-holds-barred takedown of Republican hypocrisy on political violence.

Trump has a long history of firing anyone who tells the truth—from health officials and intelligence experts to election workers and generals. Now he’s firing the Commissioner of Labor Statistics because the job numbers weren’t flattering enough.

LAKE GENEVA, WI - Donald Trump’s America has always had its own logic: deny, deflect, distract—and when all else fails, fire whoever told the truth.

Now he’s at it again. This time, it’s the Commissioner of Labor Statistics, booted because the most recent jobs report didn’t match Trump’s fantasyland version of the economy. The markets stumbled, the numbers disappointed, and Trump—true to form—shot the messenger.

Sound familiar? It should. Trump has been doing this since day one. If the truth doesn't serve him, then truth itselfbecomes the enemy.

Remember when he fired FBI Director James Comey for investigating Russian interference in the 2016 election? Or when he fired Lieutenant Colonel Alexander Vindman, a decorated war hero, for testifying truthfully during Trump’s first impeachment? How about Dr. Rick Bright, who was removed for criticizing the government’s COVID-19 response? Or Christopher Krebs, the top cybersecurity official, who was axed for stating that the 2020 election was not rigged?

Hell, he even turned on Dr. Anthony Fauci, mocking and sidelining him after decades of public service, simply because Fauci wouldn’t lie to make Trump’s botched pandemic response look better.

And let’s not forget the time he tried to pressure the Georgia Secretary of State to “find” just enough votes to overturn the election—and when that failed, he turned his rage on state officials who had the audacity to count votes honestly.

This is a man who thinks government employees exist to protect him, not the people. That the job of a statistician, doctor, judge, or general is to make him look good, even if it means rewriting reality.

Now he’s tossing out the nation’s top labor data expert for doing his job. What’s next? Fire the National Weather Service if it rains on his golf course? Fire the IRS if he owes back taxes? Fire gravity if he trips?

In Trump’s world, if a fact hurts his image, it’s fake. If an expert disagrees, they’re disloyal. If a result isn’t flattering, it’s sabotage. That’s not governance. That’s narcissistic delusion with authoritarian tendencies.

The firing of the Commissioner of Labor Statistics is dangerous not just because it's petty and absurd, but because it undermines the entire purpose of objective, independent government institutions. What’s the point of having experts if they’re punished for telling us the truth?

This isn’t about bad job numbers. It’s about Trump’s lifelong war against facts, accountability, and reality itself. He’s not just unfit—he’s actively corroding the foundation of American democracy by treating every fact he doesn’t like as a personal betrayal.

Imagine firing your doctor for giving you a diagnosis you didn’t want. Or demanding your mechanic lie and tell you your car is fine—just before the brakes go out. That’s where we’re headed.

Trump doesn’t want truth-tellers. He wants spineless sycophants. He doesn’t want public servants. He wants servants. Period.

And if we don’t collectively stand up and say enough, we’re telling every honest person in government that the price of integrity is unemployment.

Progressive Laura Kiefert comments on the latest Trump garbage dragging Barack Obama into his deranged circus with talk of treason and prison? Hell no. That’s not politics — that’s delusion with a bullhorn.

LAKE GENEVA, WI - I’ve sat through a lot of crap over the years. I’ve watched Donald Trump lie, rant, threaten, and throw around schoolyard nicknames like a drunk uncle on Facebook. I didn’t like it — but I stomached it. I rolled my eyes through “Sleepy Joe,” grit my teeth through “rigged election,” and let the “Hunter’s laptop” noise roll off my back like static.

But now Trump wants to haul Barack freaking Obama in front of a court and slap him with treason charges?

Get real. Get a grip. Get a clue.

You want to talk about delusional? This isn’t just political theater — this is a full-blown cult meltdown. Obama didn’t commit treason. He committed the unforgivable sin of being a brilliant, calm, compassionate, Black man who ran the country with grace — and made it look easy. And Trump has never gotten over it.

Let’s call this what it is: a pathetic attempt to rewrite history and distract from Trump’s own avalanche of crimes, lawsuits, and disgrace. The man’s got more indictments than most people have pairs of socks. He’s a convicted felon, a pathological liar, and a walking violation of decency. But sure, let’s toss Obama in prison for… what exactly? Hurting Trump’s feelings?

This isn’t about justice. It’s about vengeance. It’s about weaponizing the legal system to punish anyone who dared outshine the orange messiah. First Hillary. Then Biden. Now Obama. Next — what? Rachel Maddow? Mr. Rogers?

And let’s not forget, this all comes from the same lunatic who pushed birther conspiracies for years because Obama had the audacity to be born with a name like Barack Hussein Obama. Trump built his entire political identity on undermining Obama’s legitimacy — and now he wants to seal that hatred with a prison sentence?

Give me a break. Hell, give me a damn whiskey.

Obama led with class. He didn’t whine, he didn’t grift, and he didn’t throw tantrums on Twitter. He passed the ACA. He killed bin Laden. He never once called for his political enemies to be locked up. And now we’re supposed to believe he is the traitor?

No. Just no.

I’ve got plenty of bones to pick with politicians, left and right. I can argue policy all day long. But if you think it’s okay to send a former president — especially one as admired and scandal-free as Obama — to prison over paranoid fiction, you’re not just wrong. You’re part of the problem. You’re lighting matches under the very foundation of democracy.

So go ahead and chant “lock him up” if it makes you feel powerful. But know this: when you start throwing treason charges at Obama, you’re not draining the swamp. You’re drowning in it.

Government is about moving the money around and right depends on whose side you're on.

LAKE GENEVA, WI - I used to be politically indifferent. My political resume was limited to high school Student Council and what I absorbed from Schoolhouse Rock. I figured politics was just for loud guys in ties arguing on TV. That changed the day I married a man who devoted his life to public service—and showed me what government is actually supposed to do.

He explained something I’d never really thought about: the government doesn’t make money. It takes in taxes—and then decides how to spend them. That’s it. That’s the whole game. And those choices reveal everything. Who do we tax? Who do we help? Who gets a lifeline and who gets left to drown?

Well, here we are, under Trump’s second term, and the answers couldn’t be clearer. Republicans are choosing billionaires over veterans. Wall Street over working families. Private jets over school lunches. And they’re calling it patriotism.

Today, they’re voting on Trump’s latest monstrosity—the so-called “Big Beautiful Bill.” It’s a $3.3 trillion wrecking ball dressed up like a gift. A grenade lobbed directly at the people struggling the most. And somehow, they’re cheering.

I wasn’t always this political. But watching what’s being done to everyday Americans—what’s being justified in the name of “freedom”—woke me up. And if it hasn’t done the same to you, I hate to say it, but you might be asleep at the wheel.

My husband once told me that government’s real job is reallocating resources. Taxes don’t shift all that much overall—but who’s in charge determines who benefits. Under compassionate leadership, those dollars go toward helping people: healthcare, education, food, housing. You know, the basics for a decent life.

But under Trump and the GOP? It’s a firehose aimed straight at the top. Billionaires are cashing in while safety nets are being set on fire. Medicaid? Slashed. SNAP? Gutted. Housing aid, energy assistance, preventative healthcare? Axed. This bill doesn’t just chip away at the social contract—it feeds it into a woodchipper.

And what do we get instead? Billions more for border militarization, detention centers, and mass deportation quotas. Cuts to green energy, handouts to oil companies, and yet another round of corporate tax loopholes big enough to steer a yacht through—assuming you can afford one. It even risks speeding up the insolvency of Medicare and Social Security—because, apparently, fiscal responsibility only applies when someone’s poor.

Let’s stop pretending this is about conservative principles. It’s not. Republicans aren’t conserving anything—they’re dismantling. They don’t want smaller government. They want a brutal one. One that punishes the vulnerable and rewards the wealthy. This isn’t reform. It’s a hostile takeover by people who believe suffering is a moral failure—unless you’re rich, in which case it’s a tax deduction.

Look at the difference when Democrats are in charge. People get help. Children eat. Students get relief. Families catch a break. But when Republicans take the wheel? It’s slash-and-burn time. They strip healthcare, cut school meals, and then smile while forgiving millions in PPP loans for their country club buddies. With this bill, they’ve made their priorities crystal clear: feed the rich, starve the rest.

I watched my husband dedicate his life to service. Real service—not stock photos and flag pins. He believed government should work for everyone—not just CEOs, lobbyists, and the donor class. But everything he stood for is being bulldozed. They say we can’t afford insulin or affordable housing, but we’ve got billions for oil subsidies and border walls. If that’s not a collapse of values, I don’t know what is.

And here’s the really ugly truth: This isn’t a policy disagreement. It’s class warfare. We’ve normalized cruelty. Kids go hungry and we blame their parents. Veterans sleep in the cold and we call them lazy. Immigrants beg for safety and we scream “invasion.” Meanwhile, billionaires build rocket ships and buy football teams. And Republicans? They grin, they vote yes, and they pop champagne.

We don’t have a budget crisis in America—we have a moral one. Republicans are fighting tooth and nail for billionaires, corporations, oil tycoons, ICE, private prisons, and defense contractors. And they’re more than willing to throw the rest of us—seniors, students, the sick, the poor, immigrants, teachers, working families—under the damn bus.

And the worst part? They’re not even ashamed. They’re proud. They call it “beautiful.” But it’s not.

It’s brutal. It’s deliberate. And it’s damn well time we stop sugarcoating it.

“Freedom” in America has become little more than a slogan. Other countries provide healthcare, education, and dignity without bragging about it. Meanwhile, the U.S. drowns in debt and calls it patriotism. We’re not the freest. We’re just the loudest.

LAKE GENEVA, WI - I want to be a proud American. I want to feel good about this country. But that gets harder every day—not because I’ve stopped loving what this place could be, but because the people running it, especially under Trump and the current GOP machine, have poisoned the well. They’ve turned the word “freedom” into a marketing gimmick—a smokescreen to distract from greed, cruelty, and decay.

We say we’re the “freest country in the world,” but what does that even mean anymore? We love to chant it, print it on shirts, and use it to justify every disaster we let unfold. But it sure doesn’t feel like freedom when your medical bill is larger than your mortgage. It doesn’t feel like freedom when your job offers no sick leave, your rent eats your paycheck, and your retirement plan is “don’t get old.”

Here’s the part that really burns: while we scream about how free we are, people in other countries are just… living. They’re not waving flags every five minutes. They don’t need to. Their governments treat them like citizens, not burdens. They don’t have to earn basic rights through bootstraps and bankruptcy courts.

Take Finland: their education system is ranked among the best in the world. No tuition. No standardized test mania. Teachers are respected, paid well, and given autonomy. Meanwhile, we’re giving teachers “DonorsChoose” accounts and asking them to crowdfund pencils.

In Germany, college is free even for foreigners. In America, you can graduate with $120,000 in student debt and a degree that gets you a job asking, “Do you want fries with that?”

In Australia, you can call an ambulance without panicking. You won’t get a $4,000 bill just for being unconscious. In the UK, you don’t pay a dime at the ER. Here? You get a financial death sentence for a broken leg or a trip to the ICU.

Norway guarantees parental leave—paid parental leave—for both parents. In America? You’re lucky if your employer lets you use two weeks of vacation, unpaid, while you try to survive on microwave dinners and three hours of sleep.

France gives you a month of vacation by law, and workers will literally shut the country down if their rights are threatened. Here, we clap for people working 70-hour weeks with no healthcare like they’re heroes—not victims.

And yet we still act like we're the best. We still equate "America" with "freedom," like the rest of the world is just waiting for us to rescue them from their scary socialist nightmare. Meanwhile, they’re sipping wine on paid leave, seeing doctors without bills, and not worrying that a random Tuesday at school might be their last.

And then there's Trump—because how could we forget? Under his reign, "freedom" became the right to be selfish. The right to ignore public health. The right to call immigrants animals. The right to keep a boot on the neck of anyone who's not white, straight, rich, and born within our borders.

It wasn’t about expanding freedom—it was about weaponizing it. Under Trump, freedom meant cruelty for everyone else and total impunity for the powerful. If you're rich, you were free to loot the system. If you're poor? You were free to suffer quietly—or get arrested trying to survive.

So yeah, I want to be a proud American. But it's hard when you live in a country that refuses to take care of its own, that mocks compassion as weakness, and that clings to this absurd myth that we’re number one just because we say so. We’re not. And unless we stop lying to ourselves, we never will be.

I don’t want a country that tells me I’m lucky to be here. I want a country that proves it. Because if this is what freedom looks like—crippling debt, mass shootings, poverty wages, zero safety nets—then what exactly are we so proud of?