U.S. President Donald Trump gestures as he addresses House Republicans at their annual issues conference retreat, at the Kennedy Center (REUTERS)
Former MAGA congressman Joe Walsh spun abruptly from President Donald Trump and his MAGA crew years ago after seeing Trump’s damage, and now he is surprised the rest of the nation hasn’t managed to catch on and throw out the Trump poison. Walsh expressed even more surprise at the nation’s failure to wise up after 10 years of Trump’s toxin, particularly after former president Obama’seloquent speech in Chicago at the opening of his presidential library and community learning center.
“People have been telling me, ‘Oh my god, Joe, how the heck did we get from there to here,’” Walsh said on his “Social Contract” podcast with guest host former Chicago City councilman Edwin Eisendrath. “And I want to tell my lovable liberal elitist friends we're all there are a lot of reasons for that it's not just because Trump and half the country are bats—— crazy.”
“I said, ‘Obama helped,’” said Walsh. “Sure, I helped, too, and the Tea Party helped, but Edwin, you know this because when you were active politically, you were a reformer. You were a reform minded outsider. … And Obama was part of a political establishment class that did not understand the anger that middle working-class people in this country had. And there was an elite. It's not just Obama. I mean, Hillary, they all were like this, and a lot of Republicans. And that kind of dismissiveness of the elites Led to the demagogue that Trump is.”
“What a contrast, right?” Walsh complained. “And I guess before everybody hates me altogether, what I'm trying to say is … Donald Trump is in my starting five for the absolute worst human beings who's ever lived. Now, how did that guy get in the White House? And if we as a people can't honestly really reflect upon that, I mean, how did this good, great, decent country elect one of the worst human beings who's ever lived? That's a complicated answer.”
Walsh admitted Obama is an intelligent man who causes longing for a president who does not speak like a demented toddler, but he said some of the Democratic Party's lagging ideals ultimately got the nation where it is.
"How nice is it to listen to a president speak in complete sentences and all the rest, and I get it,” said Walsh. “I appreciate that, but I don't want all these good folks to go down that same f—— elitist road and not understand why this madman's in the White House. I don't want my new party … to go down this road where we think the answer, again, is to nominate some elite establishment f——. That's not what the Democratic Party needs Because most Americans, Edwin, as you know right now, cannot stand either party.”
Eisendrath pointed out that the Democratic Party is in place of transitioning, at least, and the new blood is outpacing the establishment old guard in primaries.
“The Republicans are almost finished with their transformation to become simply the party of Trump. The Democrats are involved in a double transformation,” Eisendrath said. “There is the ‘let's make a deal party’ that worked for a long time versus the ‘get s—— done party.’ And the ‘get s—— done party’ is beating the ‘make a deal party in primaries.’
“And there's a generational change, too,” Eisendrath added. “And the younger guys are not interested in what are the limits on the power. We have to get things done. They're going to be tougher than that.”