Steve Schmidt used to be a prominent Republican strategist. Then came Trump, and Schmidt became a never-Trumper.

In this post, he shares his hope that South Carolina will reject Lindsey Graham’s sister in the race for his Senate seat because she is unfit to be a senator.

I don’t share his optimism. Tommy Tuberville, Ron Johnson, and Marsha Blackburn are senators. Trump is President.

There is a considerable segment of the population that chooses Senators who are dumb, who are unworthy.

Will South Carolina be different?

The choice for South Carolinians: Darline Graham or Dr. Annie Andrews

Darlene Graham is an imbecile — a peerless puppet for the MAGA poltroons.

Here she is on national security:

Despite national security not being “her thing” she also said that Israel is “one of our strongest allies,” and vowed to “continue supporting Israel in any way.”

She is a United States senator.

Think about that.

For the record, here is the Constitutional oath she took — and doesn’t comprehend at any discernible level:

I do solemnly swear that I will support and defend the Constitution of the United States against all enemies, foreign and domestic; that I will bear true faith and allegiance to the same; that I take this obligation freely, without any mental reservation or purpose of evasion; and that I will well and faithfully discharge the duties of the office on which I am about to enter. So help me God.

It is beyond her grasp. 

Most things seem to be.…

I have a great friend by the name of Paul with whom I have travelled all over the world. I consider him to be one of the funniest people I have ever known. Everywhere we go, whether it be fishing, rafting, skydiving or anything else, he asks the guide the same question: what is the stupidest question you’ve ever been asked? His dream is to write a book with all of the answers, and trust me, it would be a bestseller.

At any rate, a Montana fishing guide told us about a woman he had taken on a float trip down the Madison River, which starts at point A and finishes at point B.

When this particular trip ended, the woman in question was astounded to see the same vehicle waiting at the end that had dropped her off at the beginning. She declared that she had no idea the river was a circle just like the lazy river at the amusement park.

Americans have long been raised to believe that there are no stupid questions, but that isn’t true. All one need do to understand the flimsiness of the theory is to turn on a Sunday morning show, or watch the White House press corps in action, minus Kaitlin Collins.

Elections are choices, and choices are always rooted in a question. 

Yes or no?

Right or left?

Up or down?

Dr. Annie Andrews or Darline Graham?

The last question is a perfect refutation to the idea there are no stupid questions because there are few choices that have ever been more clear, and maybe no two Senate candidates separated by a wider gulf.

While Annie Andrews was at medical school I imagine Darline Graham struggling to interpret the TV guide, and processing the fact that “Will and Grace” wasn’t evidence of sorcery.

Darline Graham doesn’t know anything about the military.

Nothing.

She doesn’t support the troops. They are invisible to her. They matter not in her service to Trump.

Think about the stunning reality that U.S. Army Chief of Staff General Randy George was cashiered by Pete Hegseth for refusing to interfere in the findings of a safety investigation concerning the awful judgement of two army helicopter pilots, who took their $20 million taxpayer-paid-for machine and weapons platform on a joy ride to Kid Rock’s house.

The man who is lining up to replace him is similar to the new CNO Admiral Daryl Caudle, who earned the job the MAGA way — with knee pads on, mouth open, facing Trump’s bruised hands laying gently above his knee, two feet above his engorged ankles.

Let’s just say it is unbecoming, to say the least.

Supporting the troops means appreciating their cause, which is our cause

It is America.

General Mark Milley’s portrait will one day hang in the currently disgraced Pentagon.

Here are the words he spoke that so enraged Trump and his drunken Fox News crackpot Pete Hegseth that led to it being taken down.

The blood we spill pays for our freedom of speech, our right to assemble, our due process, our freedom of press, our right to vote, and all the other rights and privileges that come with being an American.

It is the blood of our fallen, it is the blood of our wounded that sustains our freedom. We should always be inspired by them, we should never forget them, and we should always honor them. We, the American military, never turn our back on those that came before us. And we will never turn our back on the Constitution. That is who we are, and that is why we fight.

Supporting the troops is something Darline Graham will never be accused of doing, and neither will any fool who votes for her. When I say fool, I mean it.

Only a true fool would vote for an imbecile to decide matters of war and peace, life and death, right and wrong on their behalf.

I have another friend, not Paul, who doesn’t believe Lindsey Graham is really dead.

For the record, Paul believes both Mitch McConnell and Lindsey Graham are dead, and burning in hell — which he really doesn’t believe in — but believes those two are now there together, hot tubbing in a vat of sulphuric lava. 

Anyway, my other friend’s theory is that since he can’t recall ever having seen Lindsey and Darline together before Lindsey’s early check-out that, in fact, Lindsey has transitioned into Darline with Trump’s full permission and understanding they won’t play golf together again.

You see, at Mar-a-Lago the ladies can chase after golf carts, be assaulted in the locker rooms or on the massage tables, be buried on the first tee, and even tee off on Tuesday afternoons, but playing with the Führer, not so much. 

At any rate, as Pope Francis said, “Who am I to judge?”

Lest there be confusion I mean my friend — not Darline, whom I do judge.

She is a perfect puppet because she is a perfect know-nothing, a rubber stamp with no character.

She has no character, not because she is an imbecile, but rather because of her seeming joy in punching down:

Boys do not have any place in girls’ sports, certainly not in the locker room.

She is focused on transgender issues, while we are losing a war with Iran and starting trade wars with China, Canada, and most of our allies. 

Babies and toddlers are being abused in concentration camps named Dilley.

The American economy is en route to implosion as the AI bubble pops.

America has become corrupt, weak, mean and dangerous.

We have been disgraced by our own hand and our own choices as a free people. 

We have dishonored our ancestors and betrayed our descendants. We are the generation that succumbed to the demagogue whom the founders feared. 

We are the generation that elected Donald John Trump to the office first held by George Washington.

We are the generation that has lost the capacity to tell right from wrong, tell the difference between the lie and the truth, and understand the meaning of patriotism. 

Or have we?

This is why South Carolina matters.

The choice on the ballot is America or Trump.

The choice is loyalty or betrayal. 

The choice is Dr. Annie Andrews because she is exceptional, and Darline Graham is dumb, lazy, ignorant and mean.

The death of Dolly Parton of Locust Ridge, Tennessee, has reverberated around the world because she was a giant whose gospel was kindness and love, not cruelty. 

She said this of politics with a big ole’ American smile plastered on her face:

My father was a Republican, my mother was a Democrat, and I’m a hypocrite.

Some people say Dolly Parton stayed out of politics, but I think that misses the mark. Her statement above makes clear she understood the business and America better than almost anyone who holds elected office in it. She chose to be above politics by being a great American.

Darline Graham is an unaccomplished American who has achieved nothing, stood for nothing, fought for nothing, and understands next to nothing about anything that is happening around her.

Her campaign is vicious and small, perfectly molded for a vapid and idiotic electorate that MAGA believes is an impenetrable redoubt.

I’m not so sure.

My money is on better.

My faith is that Dr. Annie Andrews is going to the US Senate because, in the end, I think South Carolina is an American state, not a MAGA colony.