Joe Scarborough Told He Needs Medication After Going on Unhinged Anti-Trump Rant
Former President Donald Trump elicits strong reactions from Democrats, sure — but if you really want to see people who are hyperbolic about what Trump represents, go to the professional former Republican.
You know who I’m talking about: The former elected official or conservative pundit who held high office or wide prominence but now makes short appearances on CNN or MSNBC to say that he or she is Not That Kind of Republican™ and the rest of them are insane.
On the electoral side, former Ohio Gov. John Kasich does this pretty reliably. Retiring Utah Sen. Mitt Romney will also fit the bill ably. And former House Speaker Kevin McCarthy also looks like a candidate to fill this position ably in the future. Then, on the media side, you have folks like Max Boot, David Brooks and Jennifer Rubin all peddling the same wares, just without the electoral provenance.
But none of them can fit the role quite so ably as former Rep. Joe Scarborough, best known for his MSNBC wake-up show and/or jeremiad about the death of democracy Trump hath brought upon us.
However, that didn’t prepare many for his Tuesday rant, one which had people on social media to question just how sane Scarborough is at this point.
The former Florida representative’s final exit into la-la land may have come as he discussed a New York Times Op-Ed which implied Trump was using the tactics of fascism — which, you know, stop the presses, those which remain. Someone at the Times thinks Trump is a fascist.
The evidence? Stuff like this: “During a Veterans Day speech, Mr. Trump used language that echoed authoritarian leaders who rose to power in Germany and Italy in the 1930s, degrading his political adversaries as ‘vermin’ who needed to be ‘rooted out.’”
“This turn inward has sounded new alarms among experts on autocracy who have long worried about Mr. Trump’s praise for foreign dictators and disdain for democratic ideals,” the piece added.
“They said the former president’s increasingly intensive focus on perceived internal enemies was a hallmark of dangerous totalitarian leaders.”
I don’t know whether Joe Scarborough qualifies as one of those “experts on autocracy,” but boy, is he sounding alarms.
“It’s time that fascism is called fascism and Americans know exactly what they’re voting for,” Scarborough said during the segment.
“You know, I’ve heard people poo-poo this and go, ‘Oh, people on the far left.’ No. I’m a conservative, I’m on the right. There’s a difference between conservatism, radicalism and fascism. This is fascism.”
“It’s time that fascism is called fascism and Americans know exactly what they’re voting for.” —@joenbc discussing NYT reporting on Trump’s authoritarian bent pic.twitter.com/ItDfOreds6
— Morning Joe (@Morning_Joe) November 21, 2023
He then went through the “boilerplate” elements of fascism as explained by one of the Times’ “experts.”
“Fascism is generally understood as an authoritarian far-right system of government in which hypernationalism is a central component. Check,” Scarborough said.
“It also features a cult of personality around a strongman leader. Check. The justification of violence or retribution against opponents. Check. And the repeated denigration of the rule of law. Check,” he added.
Scarborough added that “fascist leaders appeal to a sense of victimhood to justify their actions. Check. We’re entitled because we’ve been robbed, we’ve been victimized, we’ve been cheated and robbed. Check, check, check,” and went on to say that his supporters use “snowflakery” and “victimization to justify violence against their opponents.”
If you are desperate and dense enough, you can tar and feather any political opponent with these points. But then, your opinions should be confined to social media where they can be safely ignored as crankery.
This, instead, wasn’t just broadcast on MSNBC but retweeted by the show’s official account; in other words, they were proud of this.
Social media’s verdict was quite different, as you might imagine:
Primary reason that your ratings are so low, is that what you preach are lies and propaganda rhetoric.
— MR. SPITALNICK🇺🇸✡️☮️ (@spitalnick) November 21, 2023
is it facist to try and get political opponents removed from the ballot?
— joefis (@joefis) November 21, 2023
All the left has is fear.
— Based Social Work (@BasedSocialWerk) November 21, 2023
Joe needs to get on some meds. Wow https://t.co/yTdgFuKUwz
— Alex Bruesewitz 🇺🇸 (@alexbruesewitz) November 21, 2023
The thing is, if psychotherapeutic meds were actually the way that this was going to be solved, it’s worth noting that they should have been administered eons ago, at least in media cycle time. Here are a few other instances of Scarborough hyperventilating over Trump and those in his orbit:
Joe Scarborough sounds like he’s going to cry lol.
Joe & all these journos are shocked by the crowd’s positive reaction to Trump last night because they have never showed any interest in understanding the American People. pic.twitter.com/9xRPvyLa0r
— The Columbia Bugle 🇺🇸 (@ColumbiaBugle) May 11, 2023
Jesus, forgive me for ever being a Republican.
— Joe Scarborough (@JoeNBC) July 24, 2019
That last post was in response to special counsel Robert Mueller’s testimony before Congress, in which the man charged with pinning the criminal tail on Trump told Congress he couldn’t pin anything on Trump. And that made Scarborough ask God for forgiveness for being a Republican. Whatever.
As it stands, Scarborough should probably be asking the almighty for some help in the opportunism, not former party membership, department.
There are tons of professional former Republicans, but few play the role as well as Joe Scarborough. The man goes over the top in a way that, I’m sure, makes crooked televangelists and pro wrestling villains a little jealous.
Sadly, some people believe those crooked televangelists are on the up-and-up and that pro wrestling is still real. (The latter cohort tend to be under the age of 12.)
A wider swath of Democrats actually believes the piffle that “Morning Joe” is peddling. It’s dangerous and deliberate — and if it wasn’t so blatantly unscrupulous in how calculating it was, it would be the ramblings of a crazy person.
I’m not sure if meds can help with that, but rest assured that even if they did, MSNBC executives wouldn’t want him taking them. After all, better to be talked about for being crazy than not talked about at all — right?
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