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Hard but necessary truth - Liberal satirist "Jonathan Pie" rips Trump & his Democratic enablers [1]
['This Content Is Not Subject To Review Daily Kos Staff Prior To Publication.']
Date: 2025-01-21
Distance can bring perspective. So let’s listen to a British political satirist (in a style akin to Jon Stewart) give his unfiltered opinions about Trump’s return to the presidency and the political malpractice that enabled it.
“ J onathan Pie ” is the pissed-off liberal alter ego of British comedian Tom Walker. The character is a fictional reporter who interrupts his fake scripted newscasts to reveal his unscripted feelings about the state of politics in the English-speaking world. In a ‘broadcast’ on Monday, he weighed in on the calamity of Trump 2.0. And the incompetence of the clueless Democratic Party, which paved the road to oligarchy and the re-rise of the far-right.
Let’s consider what he has to say (the full video is at the bottom). Pie (Walker) starts with a sober BBC-style intro to Trump’s return:
“Four years ago, he left Washington in disgrace, but looking at the reception he’s received today he has returned a conquering hero. Let’s take a look at some of the days highlights.”
Then instead of the screen switching to those highlights, the camera stays on Pie as he expresses his frustration at the news and whoever wrote that boilerplate intro:
“Who wrote that? ´A conquering hero?’ Fucking hell! [he turns to his cameraman] What’s that? Snowflake? [pointing to himself] Me? Oh yeah, cuz four years ago, when Biden won fair and square, all the MAGAs were all going, ‘Oh, I’m so sad. Oh! I know. Let’s go and hang Mike Pence. Who were the snowflakes then? Yeah?
Pie explains he once believed Trump would be a temporary stain.
“I once believed that Trump was a blip — skidmark of history.”
Then he points out that the insufferable gadfly, Piers Morgan, has suggested Trump should now be awarded the Nobel Peace Prize. Pie says Morgan “might be right”, because he points out, (the sarcasm dripping):
“This administration, it’s going to go for the big boys. Yeah. That famous Axis of Evil: Panama, Canada, the UK, and Greenland. He’s considering taking the Panama Canal and Greenland by military force. And annexing Canada. Which is no different to how China talks about Taiwan or Putin about Ukraine. Pure despotism. Bullying its own allies by either threatening invasion or crippling tariffs. ‘Step in line — or we will destroy you.’ With Musk mooting that America could liberate the Brits from their tyrannical government.”
Note: American readers may not be aware that Musk has decided he must bring down the UK’s overwhelmingly and fairly elected Labour government. He has made the absurd suggestion that King Charles mount a coup d’état . And he has thrown his support behind Tommy Robinson — a notorious British white supremacist, serial felon, fraud, tax-dodger, and all-around miserable human being. Robinson is currently serving an 18-month sentence for contempt of court. He´s Elon’s kind of guy.
Pie continues by listing the far-right European leaders and political parties Trump, Musk, and the MAGAs love — Meloni (Italy), Orban (Hungary), and the AfD (Germany). The last of which he says:
“is as near to actual Nazis as the Germans have gone since, well, the Nazis.”
Then comes the part that the Democratic Party and its apologists must pay attention to. It will hurt, but they need to take the medicine. Pie explains why the right is ascendant.
“What happened? We lost. That’s what happened. The left have lost. We’ve lost the argument. We´ve lost our relevance. We’ve lost the plot. The left have forgotten what being left wing is to the point where … that the left … we’re not even on the left anymore. We’ve handed our natural territory to right-wing populists.”
Pie then outlines the arc of the left wing from relevance to wherever they are now.
“When I was growing up, being left-wing was all about freedom of speech and free expression and bridging the gap between rich and poor. But then the rich liberal elite decided, en masse, to abandon the class struggle and instead alleviated the guilt it felt every time it avoided eye contact with yet another homeless person by petitioning the local art center for gender-neutral toilets.”
You can tell Pie is a Brit by his vocabulary. But he turns his attention specifically to the American left.
“The Democratic Party [is] amazed that by abandoning the working classes, the working classes abandoned them.”
Pie expands his theme.
“When you concentrate on diversity quotas rather than crippling economic inequality and tokenistic socially progressive sticking plasters [band-aids] while completely ignoring the poverty-stricken, look what happens.”
And he points out the law of unintended consequences.
“American companies abandoning diversity, equity, and inclusion wholesale because now we see that the right have won the culture war because the left have done nothing but try and win the culture war for well over a decade.” Although Trump dancing with the Village People has probably done more for the gay community than any diversity quota ever could. Let’s be honest,”
Pie then gets serious.
“But when the left ignore people’s genuine concerns over immigration for seeming a bit racist, you get nasty opportunistic populists enacting mass deportations.”
His point is that when the voter is faced with the perceived choice of either doing zero about immigration or going over the top, they will pick the side they think is addressing the issue, no matter how extreme.
Pie argues the same dichotomy exists over free speech. The left has painted themselves into a corner where not a single negative thing can be said about anybody. While the right celebrates lies and propaganda as free speech. Facing a choice of extremes, the middle-of-the-road voter picks ‘unfettered speech’ over the ‘dare not speak for fear of offending someone’ position.
Pie does not take his foot off the gas.
“When the left offer no solutions, people will begin to believe the lies of the right.”
Which. he says (accurately) leads to a shit President with a crap cabinet
“And so what we get is a capricious, bloated, ill-educated, oppressive authoritarian in charge of the world’s supposed greatest democracy. With a drunk Fox News host running the military. A World Wrestling mogul running education. And the guy that hundreds of health experts say will be a danger to the nation’s health in charge of the nation’s health.
Next, Pie takes on DOGE.
“And that’s before we have even got to the head of the all-new Department of Government Efficiency — or ‘Dodge’ as it's known. Which is there to slash government spending — mainly on Medicare and Social Security.”
And its Nazi-saluting leader — Elon Musk. Who, as Pie points out, was done paying into Social Security 15 minutes into the new tax year because of the income cap on Social Security taxes.
“But Musk believes the only reason the American economy is fucked is because of overspending on public services, whilst receiving billions in subsidies. Not so much ‘dodge’ as ‘tax dodge’. When you’re that rich, the world is your fucking chessboard. And the three people at the very top of the government have more wealth than the bottom half of America.”
Pie then identifies the nature of America’s political system and the oligarchs in control.
“America is as of midday today [Monday] a fully-fledged tech-bro oligarchy. A dangerous plutocracy of unaccountable and untouchable real-life Bond villain billionaires who between them could solve almost all of the world’s problems. But instead, they have decided to have a race to see who can get to Mars the quickest — whilst paying as little tax as possible. A new set of world leaders who have more money and power than any company that has ever existed.”
He predicts the future.
“A new world order. A reemergence of serfdom. A society where a select few own all the robots, and all the money. And everyone else just rots because there aren’t any jobs left because the robots have got them. And so the gap between the super-rich and the super-poor becomes so vast that it is almost like there are two species of human. And a select few will own more money, more power, more data than the rest of the entire world. And at this point nation-states, and the role of government, and democracy itself becomes obsolete. Which sounds terrifying to a snowflake like me.”
Pie points out the political incompetence of a feeble Democratic party and its role in depositing America on the doorstep of dystopia.
“And all because the left have offered no alternative. The Democrats have had a decade to work out how to defeat Trump and the far-right populism — and half of that time they were in power and they didn’t even come close.”
Finally, he resumes the personality of the sober reporter back on camera after the end of the video he cut away to.
“Well, a chilly day here to say the least. But that doesn’t seem to have dampened spirits for the many people who have traveled across the country … [fade out]”
All I have to add is “what he said.” I suspect some readers will agree with much of what he says. While others will take exception. That’s fine. The best ideas are forged in the heat of passionate debate. However, whether you agree with his analysis or not, he’s right that the left has to change.
It’s not enough to hope that Trump is hoist by his own petard. Democrats have to be a party the majority of Americans want to vote for. Or the Republicans will simply find a different asshole to bring them back to the promised land.
[END]
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