A Republic, If You Can Keep It

Donald Trump appears to have done what Jeff predicted on this podcast months ago: locked up the nomination for his third attempt to win the national popular vote. But in the process, some new, large chinks in his Mar-A-Lago armor are showing up as some Haley supporters join the never-Trump movement. Trump has already started his annual “the election is stolen” mantra, apparently in anticipation of...

Self-described “stable genius” D. J. Trump cleverly labels Iowa’s #1 cash crop as “non-liquid gold.” This week, on A Republic, If You Can Keep It:   17% of Republicans in the corn-rich state of Iowa have spoken. Their message: Trump really won in 2020, but half of them don’t want Trump in 2024. Trump doubles-down on his contention that a President has a license to kil...

Trump. Donald Trump. A License to Kill ? Donald Trump’s lawyer contends a President has the right to break the law without facing criminal prosecution, even if that means ordering a political assassination. That was just the beginning in an especially active week of lying and sedition by the Orange Menace as he: Resurrected an oldie-but-goodie lie. In 2015 it was Barack Obama who wasn’t a real Ame...

Election law … and the courts … dominate politics as we begin 2024: Michigan’s redistricting re-do – what, why, and how! The Supreme Court’s challenge from conflicting decisions on Trump’s ballot access A separate Supreme Court challenge on whether the President is above the law … or, as Nixon famously told David Frost decades ago “but when the President does it, that means...

Festivus, the holiday created by the folks on the Seinfeld TV show, is this Saturday: the TV-official day for the airing of grievances. For Donald Trump, every day is a day for the airing of grievances — and this week he had plenty of opportunity: Colorado’s Supreme Court threw him off that state’s ballot … for now Nearly a quarter of Trump voters say he shouldn’t be the nominee if he’s convicted...

As their Lord and Master Donald Trump has commanded, Republicans in the U.S. House have officially launched a fishing expedition in hopes of finding something — anything! — they can use as an excuse to impeach Joe Biden. It was a straight party-line vote: something that may haunt Republicans next November. Just to give Democrats even more electoral ammunition: The economic numbers cont...

Trump finally says it out loud: he’s open to being a dictator, but only admits to wanting to be our fuhrer for Day One. This comes as Atlantic magazine devotes an entire issue to the potential end of democracy under a return of Trump, and Liz Cheney warns that if he’s reelected he’ll never leave. Elsewhere in the political ecoshere: There’s another Republican wannabe in the race for U.S. Sen...

Carpal Tunnel Syndrome. Governor Whitmer may have just that by now as she signs dozens of bills passed in the closing days of the legislative session. Jeff and Mark offer their take on how the successes … and delayed initiatives … of 2023 could impact 2024. They also update the nationally significant congressional race in Michigan’s 8th district in the aftermath of Dan Kildee’s retirement announce...

The latest polling in Michigan is bad news for Joe Biden … and adding to his woes, word that left-wing third-party candidate Cornell West is targeting Michigan . To make things even worse, he had another birthday! This Thanksgiving weekend also brings bad news for embattled Michigan Republican Party chair Kristina Karamo – her days with that title may be numbered. And Peter Meijer’s top campaign o...

The big Michigan political story this week: the stunning decision by Flint Congressman Dan Kildee to retire from Congress. We’re joined by Pulitzer Prize winning journalist Stephen Henderson to discuss the end of a mini-political dynasty and what it means for 2024 in Michigan. The heat keeps building in Republican politics: Trump refers to Americans who disagree with him as Communists, Fasci...

Christmas comes early for the now-departed Michigan Legislature, but only after an unprecedented year of major legislation. Ho ho ho! The Legislature is taking an early (and extended) holiday break. With two House members set to resign after being elected Mayors of their hometowns, Democrats and Republicans have a 54-54 split in the state House, meaning an end (for now) of Democrats’ state g...

“I know nothing, I see nothing, I hear nothing!” We Know Nothing sums up the testimony so far from Don Junior and Eric Trump in the New York civil trial over business fraud … a trial that could put the Trump Organization out of business. In coming days we’ll likely hear more pleas of ignorance from one-time White House aide Ivanka Trump and her Daddy, as the former President testifies...

This episode is sponsored in part by EPIC•MRA Public Opinion Research Nick Pigeon leads the non-partisan Michigan Campaign Finance Network – Lansing’s “follow the money” non-profit. In Georgia, three of Donald Trump’s attorneys have flipped – pleading guilty, getting no jail time, but agreeing to testify against the 15 remaining defendantsin the state’s RICO conspirac...

This episode is sponsored in part by EPIC•MRA Public Opinion Research Rep. “Gym” Jordan – the latest to fall in the U.S. House “Who Wants to Be Speaker” Reality Show Jim Jordan keeps going downhill in his quest to win the worst job in government. He’s now lost 3 votes and 1 closed-meeting secret ballot with more Republicans opposing him each time. Jeff and Mark do a d...

This episode is sponsored in part by EPIC•MRA Public Opinion Research The ultra-right-wingers in the U.S. House tried to shut down the federal government and failed … but they have managed to shut down the House of Representatives. As we record this podcast, nobody can muster up the votes to take what’s the worst job in government: Speaker of the House of Representatives. Also this week: A new cou...

This episode is sponsored in part by EPIC-MRA Public Opinion Research 7th District Congressional Candidate Curtis Hertel Jr. talks about GOP Chaos in D.C. and his campaign in what could be the most expensive congressional race in the U.S. Thanks to Bidenomics, there are help wanted signs everywhere, and now, there’s even a help-wanted sign at the House of Representatives to fill a sudden vacancy f...

This podcast is sponsored in part by EPIC-MRA Opinion Research This week’s guest: Rep. Dan Kildee (D-Flint) on the mess that is the House GOP An alternate title for this week: the “We All Feel a Little Dumber” edition of A Republic, If You Can Keep It. We are dumber for having listened to 2 hours of 7 people auditioning for 2nd place in the Republican presidential rankings – a race that look...

This podcast is sponsored in part by EPIC-MRA Opinion Research This week: Economist Dr. Charles Ballard on twin challenges – the UAW Strike and pending U.S. government shutdown Michigan’s economy is staring down the business end of a double-barrelled shotgun: the UAW strike which is causing huge losses for the state’s signature industry, and a looming shutdown of the federal government. We take a...

A foundation of our democratic system is that we elect the people who run our governments. But there’s an ominous trend developing in Republican-run states: elections only count when they win. We be focus on examples of this growing menace to the world’s oldest democratic government. The worst example (out of so many): Wisconsin. The highly gerrymandered GOP majority has: Stripped Governor Evers a...

This podcast is sponsored in part by EPIC-MRA Opinion Research The bargaining between the prosecutors and various Trump-related defendants is ratcheting up, even as Trump’s numbers in the GOP nomination race also are moving up. But will Donald Trump even appear on the ballot if there’s a Republican presidential primary in Michigan? That question is up in the air with a potential lawsuit challengin...

This week’s podcast is underwritten in part by EPIC-MRA While assorted Republicans are getting booked, arraigned, found liable for slander and generally spending millions on defense attorneys, Joe Biden and Gretchen Whitmer are talking about “what’s next.” For Biden – what’s next is a battle with pharmaceutical companies over prices; for Whitmer – an ambitious agenda for a fall l...

The battle for 2nd place in the Republican presidential campaign gets launched … with nobody winning. While the GOP’s Wannabe Eight gathered in Milwaukee, the Defendant in Chief appeared in two new prime time specials, “Live at the Fulton County Booking” and “Conversations with a Fired Talk Show Host on a Failing Website.” Representative Julie Brixie (D-Meridian Township) Also this wee...

In December 2020, Rudy Giuliani brought his Big Lie circus to the Michigan House Oversight Committee in a session that was quickly mocked on Saturday Night Live . That appearance and what he said is part of the 19-defendant criminal racketeering indictment issued in Georgia, part of a major Michigan presence in the latest criminal proceeding against Donald Trump. With 19 defendants and 30 unindict...

Bridge Michigan state capitol reporter Jonathan Oosting Not guilty, not guilty, not guilty, not guilty: it’s being said so much by Republicans these days, it might have to be included in the platform of the onetime “law and order” party. We update the status of various investigations and pre-trial activities of the once Grand Old Party.with Bridge Michigan reporter Jonathan Oosting who has been lo...

This has been a very very very very very bad week for Donald Trump … and Matt DePerno … and former Representative Daire Rendon … and the Michigan Republican Party.  Spoiler alert: it’s another week of our true-crime podcast. But for six state House Democrats who were targeted for recall It was a pretty good week with the state Board of Canvassers rejecting the proposed recall petitions (all...