Jiu-Jitsu Red to Blue: Crushing MAGA Under The Weight of Their Own Arguments

IF I HAD A HAMMER… I’d strike a blow against political violence from anyone, anywhere, for any reason, says host Tish Durkin. But right now, a strike against political violence is most likely a strike against the current, Trumped-up GOP, which has come to be divided between those who promote the use of physical aggression and intimidation against their ideological opponents, and those who tolerate...

Of all the ways in which the G.O.P. loves to depict Democrats as weirdly out of touch with “real Americans,” semantic gender-baiting has become their absolute favorite: Democrats are such apologists for the transgender fringe; such prisoners of political correctness, goes the gleeful Republican party line, they can’t even say what a woman is! But in a post-Roe world, host Tish Durkin argues, it’s...

In last week’s explosive debate between candidates for the U.S. senate from Pennsylvania, giant, stroke-surviving Democrat John Fetterman struggled to articulate views that are widely shared by the public, while slim, trim Mehmet Oz had no difficulty whatsoever letting far-right fringe positions roll right off his TV-trained tongue – and Oz, by most accounts, came out the winner. In this week’s Mi...

A political party that ignores the clear and present dangers of climate change and covid is itself a clear and present danger to the American economy. Yet somehow, the GOP has managed to deny, distort and downplay the first two, while maintaining a reputation for mastery when it comes to the third. In the last of a three-part series, host Tish Durkin argues that “bad on climate change and covid, b...

If historical trends hold and the GOP wins back the House of Representatives, Americans will learn a whole new six-word phrase for “catastrophe”: “Speaker of the House Kevin McCarthy.” At every pivotal moment -- from his post-insurrection decision to revive a politically-flatlining Donald Trump to his recent wavering on Ukraine to his plan to pack Congressional committees with whatever extremists...

Many Americans dislike Republicans’ stances on such issues as insurrection, abortion, voting rights and climate change – but trust them on the most important issue of all: the economy. But the undertax-and-overspend party of runaway debt, budgetary roulette, and business-development boondoggles does NOT deserve to lay claim to superior economic stewardship. In number two of three episodes on this...

In 2000 and in 2016, Democratic presidential candidates Al Gore and Hillary Clinton both won the popular vote, both had legions of supporters who believed they had also rightly won the White House – and both accepted, for the good of the country, that they had lost. In 2020 and ever since, Donald Trump and his supporters have maintained that he won, up to and far past the point of violent insurrec...

Many Americans dislike Republicans’ stances on such issues as insurrection, abortion, voting rights and climate change – but trust them on the most important issue of all: the economy. Host Tish Durkin scours the past fifty years for a good reason why the undertax-and-overspend party of runaway debt, budgetary roulette, and business-development boondoggles should lay claim to superior economic ste...

In this week’s Monday Midterm Mini, host Tish Durkin laments the rise of polling as the decline of American politics. The more elections are treated as horse races, the more electorates are drawn in to playing the odds rather than weighing their options – and the more voting becomes nothing but a sucker’s bet.

Host Tish Durkin picks the formidable brain of Jim Kessler, executive vice president for policy at Third Way, one of the best-known and best-regarded think tanks in Washington, D.C.. Their topic: the GOP’s competence-free claim to the issues of crime, immigration and inflation – and Democrats’ urgent need to seize the initiative on all three.

Clearly, the GOP war on gender-neutral restrooms is meant to be a war on transgender people – and that would be bad enough. But all wars have collateral damage. Host /autism mom Tish Durkin knows first-hand who’s getting shot down in this one: the elderly, the handicapped, and those with special needs, who often find themselves out and about with a caregiver of the opposite gender. Trans people ar...

The current, Trumped-up GOP sells itself as the party of white grievance, leaving Democrats to cower as the party of white guilt. Meanwhile, it’s actually the Democrats who do white voters the most good, and Republicans who cause them a shockingly well-documented amount of harm. Searching past and present, host Tish Durkin asks: Why don’t Democrats get (or take) more credit for their job performan...

Relentlessly loud, clear and consistent, GOP messaging is often hailed as brilliant – especially by Democrats, who are reliably stunned and scared to death by it. In our first Midterm Monday Mini, host Tish Durkin asks whether GOP messaging IS brilliant – or is it merely brazen? Are they offering Americans a powerful narrative – or just a bunch of stories that they themselves can’t even keep strai...

The U.S. southern border is making big headlines, but the U.S. government is making little progress in alleviating the humanitarian, legal, and political crisis unfolding there. Red-state governors Abbott, DeSantis and Ducey are putting migrants on planes, on buses, and above all on camera, hoping to blame blue states and shame asylum seekers at the same time. But what do such Republicans really w...

Host Tish Durkin takes aim at the pro-gun extremism of the GOP. As rising gun violence leads to renewed calls for gun regulation, the question becomes: how much further can 2A absolutists go before they become a threat to the 2A?

Host Tish Durkin examines the GOP-drawn equivalence between the insurrection of January 6, 2021 and the riots that shook some American cities in connection with the Black Lives Matter protests of 2020.

Host Tish Durkin explores a major mystery of history: how the GOP has managed to market itself as the great defender of America’s founders, even as it works hard to destroy everything that those founders fought hardest for. Even mention the possibility of removing a marble image of a Washington, a Jefferson, a Franklin, and the GOP will declare war on the “woke” mob. Actively attack the best of su...

Making the most of COVID and the culture wars, the GOP is trying hard to make itself the party of keeping kids safe in school, and (some of) their parents dominant in school systems. Host Tish Durkin asks: what will really happen if the GOP succeeds?

It’s for you! Especially if you’re a nice, normal person who usually tunes out of politics and who pretty much thinks both parties have lost their minds. Host Tish Durkin totally understands why you feel that way, but will try to talk you out of it! Republicans and Independents are most welcome – provided you are open to hearing why your ’22 midterm vote should go to big-D Democrats as the one and...

Host Tish Durkin measures today’s Republican party by its own yardsticks. Largely leaving aside such hot topics as January 6, the 2020 “stop the steal” debacle, and Black Lives Matter, Jiujitsu Red to Blue challenges the way in which the GOP is widely and perennially trusted on other major issues. The GOP successfully touts itself as tough on crime; strong on the economy; laser-focused on common-s...

Host Tish Durkin digs into the facts and figures to ask whether Republicans have earned their reputation for doing whatever it takes to keep our streets safe from the bad guys and the Democrats who coddle them. Spoiler alert: They haven’t.

Short answer: Tish Durkin, a recovering political journalist, relapsing political junkie and rookie political podcaster. Loooong answer: tune in and hear how Harriet Tubman, Australian aboriginals, the de-Baathification of Iraq and the long-haul exhaustion of special-needs parenthood led one woman to a life of pontification from her house in New Jersey.

In Jiu-Jitsu Red to Blue, recovering political journalist Tish Durkin flips the current, Trumped-up GOP right back on its boasts about itself, evaluating one Republican claim to fame per episode. As the all-important, democracy-determining midterm elections approach, two facts are widely accepted by the U.S. political class: one, most Americans will vote on crime and the economy; and two, this is...