When is enough...enough?

"The beatings will continue until morale improves!"

I’ve Had It!

I’ve tried to be patient for the last two weeks as the relentless and unending attacks on President Biden from those on the left, and other members of the pro-democracy coalition, continued and only got louder. Day in and day out no matter what anyone said, they have to be right. They won’t take ‘no’ for an answer from us or even Biden when he says he isn’t going anywhere.

Then throw in the most disgusting part of politics and D.C. life…the whisper network. This has always been why I hate working in politics the most. The people who constantly play the “I’ve got a secret” game with reporters. When the going gets tough…the cowards whisper crap like ‘oh…I was always worried…it’s those guys that did this…’ or whatever it is that makes them feel important. Rarely do any of them think for a second the impact they will have outside of their own self importance.

This last two weeks has shown how it works…it’s reinforced how much I am glad I moved 1200 miles away.

Move the goalposts!!

Everyone has been breathlessly waiting for the post-NATO press conference. This was the big test. Did Biden have the stamina to stand their for over an hour and take random questions? Will he freeze up? Will he be incoherent? Everything rested on that moment. He came out…did what he ALWAYS has done and mixed up two names, and corrected himself immediately (fun fact…dementia patients don’t correct

themselves.)

Then he stood there and took question after question. He got a couple of pretty good zingers in on Trump like filling out his golf score card before hitting the course, and he showed a near encyclopedic understanding of foreign affairs. As he spoke, Trump was meeting with Victor Orban at Mar-a-Lago, just three days after Orban met with Putin.

Guess what all of the smart people are talking about today? The two gaffes. Not Trump meeting with an autocrat that he wants to emulate. Not the stakes of this race. Nope. Just straight up moving the goal posts yet again. Well…that wasn’t good enough.

I have a secret for you…it will never be good enough…which leads us to…

Never apologize. Always attack.

Here is the other challenge. A lot of the folks who are hitting this message the hardest are former Republican operatives and staffers. They cut their teeth in the rough and tumble world of hardcore GOP politics. Many of them fought some of the most questionable battles and leveled some of the most shocking political attacks, until Trump rode down that stupid escalator.

I know…I worked for them.

I only entered politics professionally four years ago. One of the first things I learned is that Republicans never apologize and always attack. I’m not kidding. I lived this during a very difficult time for an organization. I told my leadership in no uncertain terms that as a professional crisis communicator we could navigate this if we simply admitted we had made mistakes, apologize for any harm, and make real changes to ensure it never happens again.

1….2….3….easy peasy. Crisis Comms 101.

But that’s now how their minds work. They attack back. When they are wrong they blame the attacker. They are relentless. Never apologize. Never give up. You keep hitting back at your opponents until they surrender or move on. I will never forget the look on one guy’s face when I said we could simply admit our mistakes and move on…he was horrified, angry, and turned on me for even suggesting it.

NEVER APOLOGIZE!

So, if you’re looking for many of this new anti-Biden and anti-Trump crew to ever admit they are wrong, stop attacking, or…God forbid…apologize for this complete circular firing squad…don’t. It ain’t coming.

What you should expect is them to attack the people attacking them. Now it’s “Blue MAGA is as bad as the other one” or “Shut the fuck up isn’t the argument you think it is.” You see…now they’re the victims of vicious attacks. I get it. Some of the things folks on the progressive side have lobbed at these folks are insane. We often give in to our worse instincts too.

Playing the victim when attacked because you turned on the party that has nurtured you and welcomed you for the last four years or more…well…that’s a choice too. It appears to be the choice a lot of my colleagues have made.

It is not the one I am making. See, I’m an old soldier. I flew a helicopter into combat in 1991 that was originally designed and built in 1958. It didn’t have armor. It didn’t even have a cockpit designed for humans. But, it’s what we had and we defeated the fourth largest military in the world.

I’m not afraid to go fight with what I’ve got.

So…I’ve Had It!…podcast

I could think of no better time to have two of the smartest, funniest, most raw, and brilliant blue dots in a red state come talk with me about all of this insanity. Jennifer Welch and Angie “Pumps” Sullivan are the funny and no holds barred hosts of the ‘I’ve Had It Podcast’ that has taken the world by storm the last two years.

They are based in Oklahoma City and even had a show on Bravo about their lives called Sweet Home Oklahoma. My girlfriend, Heather, grabbed me last week and said I needed to get them on. I seriously thought there was no way two such smart, and famous, celebrities would join my little show. Boy, was I wrong. They jumped right on it and we had a blast chatting. This is one of my favorite conversations.

Also, sorry about the scratchy voice. I screamed my head off at the Odesza tour finale concert in Washington last weekend. I have no regrets.

The ladies

To get it all in perspective Fred turns to two lefties in the middle of the reddest of the red states with Oklahoma’s Jennifer Welch and Angie “Pumps” Sullivan the hosts of the now iconic and wildly popular “I’ve Had It” podcast. Longtime friends and former stars of Bravo’s ‘Sweet Home Oklahoma’ they regularly offer their thoughts on the news, humorous perspective, and raw honest takes on all of life’s difficulties and Republican politics from the eye of the storm in a deep red state. When Angie Sullivan told her eldest son about their plans to launch a podcast he gave a brutally direct perspective, “Just what the world needs, two middle-aged white women bitching.” It appears the world needed it and we are lucky to have them!

Catch them and their show at ‘I’ve Had It Podcast!

We are winning. We will win. Keep the faith and HOLD THE LINE!