It took a stinging election defeat for the truth to sink in with Joe Scarborough. And this morning, he was forced to yield to reality.

For all his endless--and we do mean endless-wailing about "fascism," and Mika's fearmongering on abortion rights, on today's Morning Joe Scarborough admitted that voters cared less about that, and more about the price of gasoline and groceries.  Scarborough wondered out loud to John Avlon:

"I talked a lot over two years about fascist rhetoric . . . There were threats of retribution, there was the issue of women's reproductive choices and health, rubbing up against, pounding up against, the price of groceries, the price of gasoline. How do you balance that when, obviously, what voters said was, we care more about the price of gas and we care more about the price of groceries?"

Avlon's response was a statement that, while obvious, has been beyond the comprehension of most Democrats and liberal media types like Scarborough: so long as people are worried about the cost of living and their personal safety, everything else is secondary.

Here's a tip for Scarborough: if you want your message to penetrate beyond the boundaries of the liberal cocoon, speak plainly.  On Mika's pet issue, Scarborough employed four different euphemisms: "Women's reproductive rights. Women's reproductive healthcare. Freedom for women to decide what they do with their bodies. Women's reproductive choices and health." Spit it out, Joe: abortion.

It was a surprise to see Avlon on the set. He had been a CNN commentator until leaving to run for Congress from a Long Island, New York district. Scarborough praised Avlon for running a virtually "pitch-perfect race," but, claimed Joe, he lost because he ran into "headwinds."

Avlon outspent his Republican opponent by over $8 million--and still lost by over 11 points! That wasn't a "headwind," Joe. It was the voters telling Avlon "nope"— at Cat 4 hurricane strength!

Here's the transcript.

MSNBC
Morning Joe
11/22/24
6:38 am ET

JOE SCARBOROUGH: Let's get specific here. I want to get specific. So we -- we -- I, I'll just talk about myself. I talked a lot over two years about fascist rhetoric. Threats of retribution. Mika talked a lot about women's reproductive rights. Women's reproductive healthcare. Freedom for women to decide what they do with their bodies. 

And we talked about that a lot. And after the election, 75 million voters or so said, well, okay, we're focused on the price of gas, the price of groceries, whatever.

I'm asking, so -- so how do you run a campaign where when you hear rhetoric, you don't want to call it fascist, let's just say authoritarian. Right? Whatever you want to call it!

JOHN AVLON: Righ. I got you.

SCARBOROUGH: However you want to define that, the definitions don't matter. There were threats of retribution, there was the issue of women's reproductive choices and health, rubbing up against, pounding up against, the price of groceries, the price of gasoline.

How do you balance that when, obviously, what voters said was, we care more about the price of gas and we care more about the price of groceries? How do you do that?

AVLON: At that moment. Look, I think life is a struggle between the urgent and the important, right? And I think for a lot of people, the urgent issues they face are about affordability, right? And here's what Democrats -- and about personal safety. Here's where Democrats gotta get the big things right. If people don't feel safe. If they don't feel economically secure. Everything else is secondary.