I’m genuinely concerned about several friends of mine who are apparently becoming increasingly unhinged about whatever executive order or antic eminates from The White House. Some have taken to keeping an ongoing tally of the actions, reactions and overreactions that have once again become the fodder for social media engagement and distraction, perhaps not fully cognizant that those overwhelmingly long and increasingly frantic posts of their own are merely emulating the very same behavior that seems to drive them so batty.
One longtime friend in particular privately confessed that they are at a crossroads between the desire to be informed and the fragility of their mental health. I both sympathize and empathize with this person despite what may appear to many as a cavalier and almost enabling attitude I tend to adopt when I occasionally am motivated to publicly react. As I’ve iterated and reiterated more than a few times of late, like it or not a plurality of those of us who chose to get off our collective phatazzes to cast a vote last fall chose this morally bankrupt, borderline batsh-t crazy fat f*ck to make a triumphant return to the leadership of what’s left of the free world, taking even more toadies and lunatic fringers capable of puckering up to his bloated gas-infused butt along with him. If that last sentence doesn’t give you a hint of how I actually feel about the state of affairs we find ourselves in, I honestly don’t know what will.
But the other harsh reality is that with that endorsement, even if it’s far more razor-thin than the posse in charge has deluded themselves into thinking that is, they truly don’t give a flying f*ck what you or I think. None of us have anything resembling as significant a pulpit as their more prominent supporters do, and, frankly, they don’t strike me as the most rational debaters out there. So maybe it might make you feel cleansed and somehow act as a sedative for you to constantly chide and lament when he meets with a world leader who has been in the middle of a literal holy war for the past 15 months and somehow concludes the solution is to imagine the development possibilities of prime beachfront real estate.
I seem to recall a period where many of his fellow New Yorkers saw similar opportunity in the South Bronx–in fact, the presence of a Trump-branded golf course in that location would seem to indicate the degree to which he has had such an obsession for as long as he has— windmills be damned. Has anyone been to the South Bronx lately? Today, it’s merely a tad more livable than are some of the remaining residences in Gaza. So that strategem apparently doesn’t age well.
But again, I’m preaching to an increasingly drowned-out choir that’s a statistical minority. And as I suggested in a recent musing my conclusion is that we need to focus on amplifying stronger voices who have a track record of winning elections and standing up to his bully pulpit forcefully–and ideally ones that aren’t already known quantities. So far, I’ve seen suggestions from exactly two of my followers.
One came from a respected entertainment journalist who highlighted Minnesota senator Amy Klobuchar. Perhaps this person was motivated by a recent opinion piece from THE NEW YORK TIMES’Michelle Cottle which rattled off a few of her more significant CV notes of late:
Ms. Klobuchar, a Minnesota moderate, knows how to win in the heartland, including in rural territory not especially friendly to Democrats. In her re-election race last November, she outperformed her party’s presidential candidate by more than 11 points. Her secret, as she explained it, has something tangentially to do with … bedbugs.
(“)I won my race by — I don’t want to get the numbers wrong here — 16 points…And I think a lot of that was building trust. You can do that over time, but you can also do that just by the nature of the fact that you show up. So that’s the first thing I’d say. If we just go where it’s comfortable, and not where it’s uncomfortable, we will never win elections like we should on a national basis.
What I’m talking about here is, in my case, I visit all 87 counties every year. In some places, I think I know everyone in the county. One of my favorite visits, I went to an award-winning small business that was a truck, and the name of it was We Kill Bedbugs With Heat. They put mattresses in a truck and turn up the temperature over 150 degrees, and that’s what they did. And they had me go in the truck — but they didn’t turn up the heat! And so I tell that story because you go where it’s uncomfortable, not just where it’s comfortable(“).
And she’s been backing up her campaign rhetoric with forceful and pointed grilling of those fealters-in-waiting who have been parading through Washington like American Idol contestants, as MEDIAITE’s Philip Nieto recently chronicled:
Senator Amy Klobuchar (D-MN) got into a heated back and forth with FBI director nominee Kash Patel over his promise to shut down the agency’s headquarters in Washington, D.C.
When Patel asked Chairman Chuck Grassley (R-IA) if he had enough time to answer the question Klobuchar demanded Patel “just answer the question.”
PATEL: Chairman, Are we allowed to go in extra time?
GRASSLEY: Let’s see. You get a second round. Before I call on Senator Lee-
KLOBUCHAR: Could he just answer the question?! If he said that the FBI headquarters where they investigate cybercrime and terrorism to be shut down and open as a museum. Did he say that the headquarters should be shut down? I deserve an answer to that question? He is asking to be head of the FBI. And he said that their headquarters should be shut down.
Nice going, Amy. But the more cynical partisans out there might chime in that after a relatively fast start in the 2020 primaries where she placed a competitive third in both Iowa and New Hampshire she faded fast, especially after the pivotal South Carolina primary where Joe Biden surged to the forefront with the help of James Clyburn and the concessions to his agenda that ultimately vaulted an even less popular female competitor to number two–and eventually number one–on what turned out to be a losing ticket. And it sure seems like despite her pointed questioning Patel, along with his fellow bootlickers, will still wind up in positions of power. Maybe time and a whole lot of Monday morning quarterbacking will reignite her potential, but she’s got a bit of catching up to do.
A more original suggestion came from a former head of social media strategy for several studios and networks who introduced me to this even more unknown quantity. Here’s the first sentences of his Wikipedia entry:
Jeffrey Neale Jackson (born September 12, 1982) is an American politician, attorney, and military officer who has served as the 52nd attorney general of North Carolina since 2025.[1] A member of the Democratic Party, he previously served as the U.S. representative for North Carolina’s 14th congressional district from 2023 to 2024 and represented the 37th district in the North Carolina Senate from 2014 to 2022. After graduating from law school, Jackson worked as an assistant district attorney in Gaston County. He was counsel at Womble Bond Dickinson. In 2002, Jackson commissioned in the United States Army Reserve and served in the Kandahar Province during the War in Afghanistan. He now serves in the Judge Advocate General’s Corps with the Army National Guard.[2] In October 2023, he announced his candidacy for North Carolina attorney general after the North Carolina Legislature redrew the state’s congressional districts.[3] He was elected as the attorney general of North Carolina in November 2024.
A former state senator and congressman who won an election in the same state and cycle where the likes of Mark Robinson was making noise. Not a small accomplishment. In several ways, a similar trajectory that an Illinois state senator took at the turn of the century before he was elected to a more significant position by his entire state. And no, I’m not suggesting that Jeff Jackson might be the second coming of Barack Obama. After all, the latter checked off a few more DEI boxes than does Jackson, and in the late oughts those qualifications mattered more. But if anything encouraging is eminating out of Washington these days it seems to be that there’s been a renewed focus on meritocracy as a virtue, even if the current crop of appointees aren’t stellar examples of it.
Jackson’s profile on the North Carolina DOJ page reflects some of his early policy statements and focuses. If nothing else, he sure seems like a person of integrity and worthy of learning more about. Frankly, I’d love to see him as a guest on both political and entertainment platforms still capable of elevating those kinds of qualities. Bill Maher, Stephen Colbert, Margaret Brennan? Are you or your staffers paying as much attention as my well-meaning friend has?
My circle of friends spans many more states, generations and constituencies than just these two examples do. Please, those of you who still reside in the congressional district where I grew up. don’t throw out AOC. And sorry, those of you who adore Bernie Sanders, he’s even older than Joe Biden, albeit far healthier, and we know damn well how that factor plays out in the long run.
So come on, folks. There’s gotta be some other politicians currently as unknown as Jeff Jackson to crow about. Or even some celebrities with huevos who might have some grander aspirations. Stephen A. Smith’s recent dressing down of the Democratic party on Maher’s REAL TIME was forceful and brilliant–in many ways eclipsing even what Cottle prefaced her support piece of Klobuchar with:
The American people, meanwhile, remain in a surly mood with the blue team. A new Quinnipiac University poll shows the Democratic Party with its highest unfavorability rating (57 percent), and the Republican Party with its highest favorability rating (43 percent), since the organization began asking the question in 2008.
As THE DAILY BEAST’s Bill Neal reported last week, Smith captured that mindset with the same sort of in-your-face Noo Yawk Baller ‘tude he exhibits when he’s singing the praises of Karl-Anthony Towns and Jalen Brunson:
What voter can look at the Democrat Party and say, ‘There’s a voice for us, somebody who speaks for us, that goes up on Capitol Hill and fights the fights that we want them fighting on our behalf’?” said Smith. He added, “They didn’t do that, that’s why their behinds are home, and that man is back in the White House.”
And we KNOW he can do well in a debate. Arguably, even better than that Bay Area prosecutor did.
So there’s my new log on the fire, joining Arizona’s Ruben Gallego as someone who’s not part of a Squad. That’s two from me. I’m still waiting for at least one from the rest of y’all.
Until next time…