Trump is out of mojo

He can't thread the needle on abortion anymore and we are pissed

Everybody’s mad and it’s a sign of things to come

I’ve been an observer of Donald Trump for a long time. It didn’t start with his descent down the escalator but it certainly accelerated on that sad day. Four years ago I became a professional at it when I joined the Lincoln Project as the Senior Advisor for Veterans Affairs tasked with rallying veterans and military families to oppose his re-election.

Anyone who has watched him closely can tell you that he is losing it. He is simply not the man he was just four years ago. Say what you will about how rotten or malignant his personality may be, he has always been a master of figuring out what his audience wants and dishing it up.

One of my former guests on the show, Jeff Sharlet, likened him to an old time Adirondacks comedian who mastered their art by going out night after night and seeing what jokes worked and what joked bombed. They were superior at reading their audiences and reflecting back what they wanted. That is Trump.

He’s spent an entire life marketing one product…Donald J. Trump.

Then he became President and discovered that you actually have to take positions on things and every word you utter is recorded. He started flailing then and he hasn’t stopped since.

Now we have abortion

Trump is in a bind. He has to pick a position and since Dobbs the Republicans have been flailing about. It’s been said before, but, this is truly the dog catching the car after 50 years of chasing it. It was easy to say you were against abortion in every way and be hard core…when the next sentence was “…but…you know Roe v. Wade.”

Then it wasn’t. Suddenly the reality of absolutely no abortion turned into women dying of sepsis. Doctors fleeing states where they could be jailed. IVF being essentially outlawed because a frozen zygot is a “person.”

Now we have Arizona’s Supreme Court deciding that a 2022 law that created a 15-week ban is illegal because the Republicans put in a a little poison pill that if Roe we struck down they would revert to an 1864 territorial law banning all abortion except for the supposed ‘life of the mother.’

Threading the needle in a 747

Trump thought he could do his usual ‘threading of the needle’ where he picks some vague position, contradicts it at the same time, and then says its up to someone else so it’s not his fault on this issue. He failed.

After all, even when you’re just ‘6’3” and 215 pounds’ it’s hard to fit through the eye of a needle. Here is why:

Yeah…he keeps saying he is proud to have ended Roe v. Wade by appointing the three Supreme Court Justices he was ordered to by the Federalist Society. You can’t say you are proud to have ended Roe then say that all of the chaos that follows isn’t on you.

I mean, you can try if you’re Donald Trump, but we aren’t required to buy his bullshit.

1864

Now the lunatics are coming out of the woodwork and they’re going after everything; IVF, morning after pills, contraceptives, and more. They were never going to stop at abortion.

His whole “nuanced” approach of flipping it to the states blew up in his face in less than 24-hours when Arizona decided to take themselves back to 1864. Republican’s expressed ‘outrage’ and even Kari Lake tried to spin her way out of her previous support of going back to the good old days of Sherman’s March to the Sea and this lady knitting her heart out.

1864 lady with same rights as women in Arizona today

I intend to make “1864!” a rallying cry. We have to stop pretending this isn’t truly what they want. Women as property at home making babies. Not able to work outside the house. Not allowed to have bank accounts. Not able to divorce. Get married as a child.

There are literally debates happening on these issues happening in red state legislatures. We are beyond Trump. This isn’t about him alone. This is about the entire Republican Party having given itself over to a Christian Nationalist movement.

We have to take this fight everywhere at every level. The extremists are on the march and only we can stop them.

Talking about it with an actual woman

Since I myself happen to be a dude and so many of the pundits discussing abortion and reproductive rights are also dudes, I decided to invite my friend Rachel Vindman on this week’s ‘On Democracy with FPWellman’ to discuss it. Rachel has been very public about her challenges getting pregnant from miscarriages to IVF and her experience paints the truer picture of “abortion” in 2024 than the regressive lies and myths being spread by the extremists.

I’ll summarize our conversation….we are pissed and you should be too.

The Show

Rachel Vindman

Rachel Vindman joins Fred on a special episode to discuss the outrageous abortion ruling in Arizona, Trump’s attempt to thread the needle, and Republicans panic after finally getting what they wanted on abortion. Women are pissed and so are we. Rachel is a wife, mom, podcast host, writer, and activist. She is a co-host of the Suburban Women Problem podcast, and an advisory board member for the Renew Democracy Initiative. She has found her voice as an activist and plain-spoken political commentator online where you can follow her as @RachelVindman on Threads and (@)natsechobbyist on X/Twitter. She has an excellent Substack you should subscribe to as well:

Rachel Vindman

. I highly recommend it!

A correction on the show

We record on Wednesday and since then I have studied it and found that there is a ballot initiative in progress in Arizona to establish the right to abortion in the Constitution. Here is a summary and the issue has been supercharged since the Supreme Court ruling along with an effort to remove two of the judges as well.

This ballot initiative would establish the fundamental right to abortion that the state of Arizona may not interfere with before the point of fetal viability (defined as the point of pregnancy when there is significant chance of the survival of the fetus outside of the uterus without the application of extraordinary medical measures) unless justified by a compelling state interest (defined as a law or regulation enacted for the limited purpose of improving or maintaining the health of the individual seeking abortion care that does not infringe on that individual's autonomous decision making) (BallotPedia)

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