This episode is a straight-line argument: Republicans claim a bunch of values (Lincoln, freedom, small government, fiscal responsibility, “pro-life,” constitutional absolutism)… and then betray every one of them the moment power is on the table. I walk through the receipts — from voter suppression and civil rights rollbacks, to budget blowouts, to selective “freedom,” to constitutional violations — and I use the arrest of Don Lemon as the latest proof point of an increasingly authoritarian posture toward dissent and the press.
Chapters:
00:00 – The core thesis: power is the only principle
03:00 – Small government + fiscal responsibility: the contradiction
06:30 – Don Lemon’s arrest and escalating hostility to the press
08:10 – Accountability, prosecution, and preventing repeat history
10:15 – Final warning: consolidation of power and “comply or die
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Music Credit: Good_B_Music
Mentioned in this episode:
Left in Exile Intro
Left in Exile Outro
Transcripts
Dr. Jim: [:
The arrest of Don Lemon. Proves that without a shadow of a doubt, but that's just not the first example. We have a long history of Republicans constantly betraying their stated principles in the pursuit of power.
So let's talk about some examples. Republicans often talk about how they're the party of Lincoln and they're the party that freed the slaves, but. What they often forget to mention is that after the passage of the Civil Rights Act and after the passage of the Voting Rights Act and after the party realignment, the Republican Party has consistently, every single year chipped away at the Voting Rights Act and the Civil Rights Act.
lican states and. Republican [:
Members of marginalized communities vote as possible. In fact, one of the architects of the Heritage Foundation, Paul Wyrick stated this when it comes to the Republican point of view and voting. Check this out and I'll be right back.
Paul Weyrich: They want everybody to vote. I don't want everybody to vote. Elections are not won by a majority of people. They never have been from the beginning of our country, and they are not. Now, as a matter of fact, our leverage in the elections quite candidly goes up as the voting populace goes down.
Dr. Jim: So what you heard from Wyrick in that clip is the Republican commitment to make sure that voting is suppressed as much as possible.
So. [:
The Republican Party loves to talk about how they're the party of liberty and freedom, and yet every single thing about their policy positions is all about taking freedoms away from everybody else except for white, straight white men.
And that is, a great example of the Republicans consistently betraying their values,
that's just one example of how Republicans betray their values on a consistent basis.
Republicans also love to push out the message that they are for small government and the reduction of federal spending.
But what happens every time Republicans are in office, every time Republicans are in office, they give tax cuts to the ultra wealthy and completely destroy the budget. Spending goes out of control, and Republicans have represented. Some of the biggest spending boondoggles while they've been in office.
So when it comes [:
Those are all areas that they are happy to cut funds. But when it comes to militarizing, police forces and foreign adventures and spending like crazy so that their billionaire friends can get another tracks break, that's not on the table, we can't afford to dial that back.
The whole fiscal responsibility narrative that the Republican party talks about is non-existent. It's an interesting slogan, but in practice, they are some of the worst perpetrators when it comes to spending like drunken sailors.
ife and they're the party of [:
But when it comes to supporting single women, when it comes to supporting families, when it comes to supporting the working class, when it comes to, universal childcare, universal healthcare, all the things that are supposed to create an environment for regular people to raise a family, they're nowhere to be found.
On top of that. They're the party that cuts school lunches. Any opportunity that they can get, they're the party that cuts education anytime that they can get. They're the party that creates all sorts of rules that are pro-business and anti-worker, again, creating headwinds for anybody to start a family.
have gone through the floor. [:
We can go down the list of every every stated value and how eager Republicans are, are to sell those out. We have recent examples of how ICE has been deployed across the country. Republicans as a group that state that they're constitutional absolutist. What have you seen with all sorts of different amendments? Certainly with the way ice is deployed across the country, the Fourth Amendment is gone. The Fifth Amendment is gone, the 10th Amendment is gone, and you have any number of other amendments that are also.
Being ignored as their militarized Nazi goon squad continues their door-to-door assault and attacks on black and brown people.
We saw another illustration of Republicans selling out their values in the pursuit of power. In the case of Alex Prety, what did they do with Alex Prety because he was armed.
[:
And if you do own a gun and you're at a protest with that gun, that's a death sentence. And massed, unidentified, armed goons are fully empowered in rendering that judgment, without any trial and without any charges. Another example of how Republicans. Are willing to sell out any and all principles to maintain power,
which brings us to Don Lemon.
chet up their attacks on the [:
Fake news.
This is a regime that is consistently thin skinned, and soft, and. You'd be hard pressed to find an administration that has spent more time crying about how they're treated unfairly. When all that is happening is a documentation of the multiple illegal acts that happen on a regular basis with this regime, with the arrest of Don Lemon, you're seeing an extension in an expansion of that animosity with the press.
And what's the crime that Don Lemon is charged with? Don Lemon is charged with documenting a protest that had happened in a church, and that church was being protested because one of their pastors was doing double duty as an ice goon, and Don Lemon was in the church documenting that protest. And for that he's been arrested.
what [:
and where are Republicans? As all of this is happening? They can't be bothered because. Fundamentally, all Republicans care about is power and consolidating and stealing as much wealth for themselves and ignoring the death toll as a result of their actions.
there are example after example, after example of how lacking in principle this party is and when this is over. Not only does the regime needs to be prosecuted to the fullest extent of the law, every single Republican enabler who looked the other way and or who co-signed on this needs to be prosecuted as well.
try, and there needs to be a [:
We are here today because the US made the mistake of not burning the South to a cinder after the Civil War. We are here today because the US made the mistake of allowing Nazis to repatriate into the US and into key positions in government instead of wiping them off the face of the earth. We are here today because both of those things. Have a straight line to the Republican party and are a straight line to the policies that the Republican party supports.
tween the Confederacy of the [:
It's all a straight line, and they're all related. That is why we cannot let. The Republican party and Republican voters and Republican supporters, enablers and collaborators escape scrutiny. When this is all said and done, there needs to be a decades long process of deification that happens here, similar to what happened in Germany in the post World War II era,
just because elections happen just because a midterm happens, just because the changing of the guard happens.
Doesn't mean that we're done with this. And as you can see, this regime is doing whatever they can to consolidate power in itself so that it can remain in power.
on ballots to re-litigate the:
And what that means for all of us is that we do not back down. As much as this regime, their collaborators, their enablers are pushing the message of comply or die, our response as a people, our response as a free people needs to be F you make me do not comply.
