What happens to the Republican Party now? (2 Viewers)

[MT15]

This election nonsense by Trump may end up splitting up the Republican Party. I just don’t see how the one third (?) who are principled conservatives can stay in the same party with Trump sycophants who are willing to sign onto the TX Supreme Court case.

We also saw the alt right types chanting “destroy the GOP” in Washington today because they didn’t keep Trump in power. I think the Q types will also hold the same ill will toward the traditional Republican Party. In fact its quite possible that all the voters who are really in a Trump personality cult will also blame the GOP for his loss. It’s only a matter of time IMO before Trump himself gets around to blaming the GOP.

There is some discussion of this on Twitter. What do you all think?

 

[SamAndreas]

If

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Seems Steve is looking for some reaffirmation to continue support for DJT. Maybe he and others are beginning the process of opening a closed mind? The United States of America is facing a far greater issue than discussion regarding DJT, with the 2022 midterms having the real possibility of determining the very future of the USA. Hardly the time to cast one's vote with the exclamation that "that is how I have always voted or done it that way". Will the United States of America celebrate it's 250th birthday in 2026??

Welcome Thinker

I like how you're thinking. I wrote DJT off as soon as he lost because the GOP, as does the Democratic Party, writes off those who lose. But they don't always do it in less than a year, but they almost always do. Few comebacks, few exceptions in history.

I recognized your zip code. I had zip codes close to yours in several places years ago. I lived in your state for 12 years, mostly Missoula and Stevensville. I kept a sailboat all those years on Flathead lake. I had a job that kept me traveling.

 

[Optimus Prime]

Could have gone in a few threads


COLUMBUS, Ohio (AP) — Republican state lawmakers across the U.S. are trying to require schools to post all course materials online so parents can review them, part of a broader national push by the GOP for a sweeping parents bill of rights ahead of the midterm congressional elections.

At least one proposal would give parents with no expertise power over curriculum choices. Parents also could file complaints about certain lessons and in some cases sue school districts.

Teachers say parents already have easy access to what their children learn. They worry that the mandates would create an unnecessary burden and potentially threaten their professional independence — all while dragging them into a culture war.

The bill “insinuates there’s some hiding happening,” said Katie Peters, a high school English teacher in Toledo. “It makes me a little defensive, because I’m like — no, wait a minute, we’re not hiding anything. The transparency is always there, and the parents who have cared to look have always had access.”

The bills arose from last year’s debate over the teaching of race, diversity and sexuality. The GOP insists the changes are needed to give parents a measure of control over what their children see and hear in class……….

GOP pushes US schools to post all class materials online

Republican state lawmakers across the U.S. are trying to require schools to post all course materials online so parents can review them.

apnews.com

 

[Optimus Prime]

I hope they really come to regret "legitimate public discourse"
===========================================

Those of us who have repeatedly sounded the alarm about the Republican Party's threat to democracy and American society have often been told we were exaggerating or being ridiculous. We were hyperbolic, attention-seeking or just plain wrong — because, after all, the Republican Party's leaders and voters really do love America.

Last week the Republican National Committee dropped any remaining pretexts of patriotism or love of democracy with its now-infamous statement that those who attacked the U.S. Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021, were "ordinary citizens engaged in legitimate political discourse." Reports suggest that a draft version of that RNC statement was even bolder in its embrace of right-wing terrorism.

Last Friday's statement of support for fascism announced that the Republican Party has birthed a monster that will ultimately eat it alive. But looking beyond outrage and disgust, what does this tell us about America in this moment of existential crisis?

In terms of the mainstream news media and America's political class, it reveals how deep the capacity for denial goes. Many of the same voices who insisted that the Republicans were not fascists and did not pose an existential threat to democracy also downplayed or outright dismissed the obvious evidence that Donald Trump and his cabal were going to attempt a coup to nullify the 2020 presidential election.

Many of these same gatekeepers and boundary keepers then claimed that the Jan. 6 coup was a one-off, a disorganized and spontaneous "riot," and that the long-term existential dangers were exaggerated. Why? Because they were invested in the idea that "the institutions" had worked, and that Trump's coup was doomed to fail from the beginning, thanks to "democratic norms" and the "rule of law."

Now, more than a year after the attack on the Capitol, there is a mountain of evidence that confirms what was obvious at the time, and even before: Trump's coup attempt was a highly coordinated nationwide effort, whose ultimate goal was to overthrow multiracial democracy and install Trump as de facto dictator.

Ultimately, the Republican Party's embrace of fascism as a now-indispensable part of its identity should not be a surprise. This devolution was years in the making. In a recent essay for the New Republic, Michael Tomasky summarizes this:

The conservative movement that started in Barry Goldwater's time was once an element within the GOP. Then along came Newt Gingrich, the key figure who intensified the culture war, and in time the conservative movement swallowed the party whole — and moved hard to the right while doing it.
And now, in the Trump era, it has become what it's been in process of becoming for some time: an extremist, pro-violence party. The Anti-Defamation League recently released a report finding that more than 100 Republican candidates on various ballots in 2022 have explicitly embraced extremism or violence — House candidates boasting about having the backing of white supremacist leaders, at least 45 candidates giving credence to QAnon conspiracy theories.
This is not some aberration that time will correct. It is a storm that will continue to gather strength, because it's where the action and the money are, and no one in the GOP is opposing it — except the two people who were just essentially read out of the party (Kinzinger is retiring after his current House term).
The Republican Party, like Michael Palin's parrot, has ceased to be. It has become an appendage of Trump dedicated to doing his will and smiting his enemies.

A week or so after the fact, the mainstream news media has already moved on from the Republican National Committee's embrace of fascism. If the American mainstream news media was truly the "guardian of democracy," it would explain how the Republican fascist movement is an indictment of the country's political culture.............

MSN

 

[H B Lowrey]

I hope they really come to regret "legitimate public discourse"
===========================================

Those of us who have repeatedly sounded the alarm about the Republican Party's threat to democracy and American society have often been told we were exaggerating or being ridiculous. We were hyperbolic, attention-seeking or just plain wrong — because, after all, the Republican Party's leaders and voters really do love America.

Last week the Republican National Committee dropped any remaining pretexts of patriotism or love of democracy with its now-infamous statement that those who attacked the U.S. Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021, were "ordinary citizens engaged in legitimate political discourse." Reports suggest that a draft version of that RNC statement was even bolder in its embrace of right-wing terrorism.

Last Friday's statement of support for fascism announced that the Republican Party has birthed a monster that will ultimately eat it alive. But looking beyond outrage and disgust, what does this tell us about America in this moment of existential crisis?

In terms of the mainstream news media and America's political class, it reveals how deep the capacity for denial goes. Many of the same voices who insisted that the Republicans were not fascists and did not pose an existential threat to democracy also downplayed or outright dismissed the obvious evidence that Donald Trump and his cabal were going to attempt a coup to nullify the 2020 presidential election.

Many of these same gatekeepers and boundary keepers then claimed that the Jan. 6 coup was a one-off, a disorganized and spontaneous "riot," and that the long-term existential dangers were exaggerated. Why? Because they were invested in the idea that "the institutions" had worked, and that Trump's coup was doomed to fail from the beginning, thanks to "democratic norms" and the "rule of law."

Now, more than a year after the attack on the Capitol, there is a mountain of evidence that confirms what was obvious at the time, and even before: Trump's coup attempt was a highly coordinated nationwide effort, whose ultimate goal was to overthrow multiracial democracy and install Trump as de facto dictator.

Ultimately, the Republican Party's embrace of fascism as a now-indispensable part of its identity should not be a surprise. This devolution was years in the making. In a recent essay for the New Republic, Michael Tomasky summarizes this:


A week or so after the fact, the mainstream news media has already moved on from the Republican National Committee's embrace of fascism. If the American mainstream news media was truly the "guardian of democracy," it would explain how the Republican fascist movement is an indictment of the country's political culture.............

MSN

Goldwater couldn't be a "conservative" today.

 

[MT15]

The gaslighting from Rs about this new Durham filing is incredibly irresponsible.

Durham has misrepresented the dates involved and it’s hard to imagine that it was unintentional. I think at this point Durham has shirt the bed. His indictment of Sussman may never go to trial because it’s so flimsy and sloppy. He has nothing with this new filing that makes any sense as to the beginnings of the Trump-Russia investigation, which is what he’s supposed to be looking at, since the data mining involving the WH happened during the Obama Administration. He has now been working longer than Mueller, with almost nothing to show for it. He has ruined his good reputation by performing this, at the very least sloppy and possibly intentionally partisan, hack job. It should be embarrassing, but the right wing media and the Trump apologists are completely misrepresenting his findings and Trump is, as usual, calling for people to be jailed for treason. Durham has refused to clarify his mess, so it’s hard to give him the benefit of the doubt here.

Marcy Wheeler is a journalist from MI that stays very much on top of these things and this is a good read to let you know just how bad Durham is.

Donald Trump Suggested Michael Sussmann Should Be Killed because Rodney Joffe "Spied" on Barack Obama - emptywheel

John Durham's misleading claims in an unrelated motion led Donald Trump to suggest Michael Sussmann should be killed because Rodney Joffe "spied" (by monitoring networks for hacks) on Barack Obama.

www.emptywheel.net

 

[coldseat]

So in no time, we move from questionable claims to obviously false allegations to demands for legal retaliation against political opponents to whining about their own victimhood, with the enthusiastic participation of GOP officeholders, none of whom has the courage to say, “Hey guys, I hate Hillary as much as anyone, but it seems like we’re running out ahead of the facts here.”
That’s because every Republican relies on the propaganda machine. It helps their own campaigns. It keeps the base in a state of perpetual anger. And if you question it, you will become its enemy.

This is happening while there’s an entire trial going on in New York about a single inaccurate word in a New York Times editorial about Sarah Palin — an editorial that was quickly corrected. The Times is falling all over itself to explain how it got something wrong, and no one on the left is defending the paper. Meanwhile, Fox programming contains extraordinary amounts of factual errors, misleading assertions and outright lies, almost none of which ever get corrected.

So where does that leave us? The unfortunate answer is that when a propaganda apparatus such as this one is so deeply embedded within one of our parties, it becomes almost impossible to puncture. Fantasies are accepted as fact, lies become immune to refutation and anyone who displays even a modicum of honesty is denounced as a traitor.
There may be a solution out there, a strategy to pull our politics back to reality. But if there is, we haven’t found it yet.

https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/2022/02/15/propaganda-machine-high-gear/

Where does this leave us indeed? No where's good as far as I can tell. It seems many have either stopped caring or have given up on Democrats/Biden because we've been living with a pandemic for 2 years and every problem hasn't been solved. And many other's have gotten swept up in Covid conspiracies or going back to Republicans even though as a whole they are still detached from reality and only selling outrage propaganda.

After 4 years of Trump, a pandemic we still haven't recovered from, and Jan. 6th, as a nation we STILL haven't learned how utterly self-destructive and corrosive Republicans and the Right's propaganda media empire is to our country. Our end and demise into authoritarianism indeed seems nigh.

 

[MT15]

Over a year in and Rs are still pulling this kind of crap. They have zero agenda, all they want to do is take stuff away. They want to censor teachers, ban books and ban women from healthcare. They are turning into the Taliban.

 

[samiam5211]

It’s really going to suck if Jim Jordan is house Speaker in 2023.

The House will spend two years debating who laptopped better: Hunter or Anthony.

 

[insidejob]

Here's what happened to the GOP in a dumbed down video so anyone can understand it.

 

[The moose]

Here's what happened to the GOP in a dumbed down video so anyone can understand it.

Great video. It is truly exactly as he says. I don't think I am middle because I want real change but know the change we could get is far less than what I would want. The sad thing is I would be happy with much less like just the deferred maintenance on the infrastructure would have me dancing in the streets.

 

[H B Lowrey]

Great video. It is truly exactly as he says. I don't think I am middle because I want real change but know the change we could get is far less than what I would want. The sad thing is I would be happy with much less like just the deferred maintenance on the infrastructure would have me dancing in the streets.

Still too much!

 

[Optimus Prime]

Good article
===========

Over the past few weeks, President Joe Biden has repeatedly emphasized his friendship with Senate minority leader Mitch McConnell. At the National Prayer Breakfast in early February, for instance, he praised McConnell as “a man of your word. And you’re a man of honor. Thank you for being my friend.”

Biden’s publicly professed affinity is weirdly at odds with the political situation. Going back to the Obama era, McConnell has led the Republican Party in a strategy of near-total obstruction which he has pursued with ruthless cynicism.

It is true that he has, at times, signaled distance to Donald Trump and condemned the January 6 insurrection. But McConnell is also sabotaging any effort to counter the Republican party’s ongoing authoritarian assault on the political system.

The distinct asymmetry in the way the two sides treat each other extends well beyond Biden and McConnell. Republicans immediately deridedBiden’s pledge to nominate a Black woman to the Supreme Court – while Democratic leaders are hoping for bipartisan support; House Speaker Nancy Pelosi insists the nation needs a strong Republican party – meanwhile radicals like Marjorie Taylor Greene and Paul Gosar, who fantasize about committing acts of violence against Democrats, are embraced by fellow Republicans, proving they are not just a extremist fringe that has “hijacked” the Party, as Pelosi suggested.

And when Texas senator Ted Cruz recently intimated that Republicans would impeach Biden if they were to retake the House “whether it’s justified or not,” the White House responded by calling on Cruz to “work with us on getting something done.”

Republicans could not be clearer about the fact that they consider Democratic governance fundamentally illegitimate, yet some establishment Democrats act as if politics as usual is still an option and a return to “normalcy” imminent.

There is certainly an element of political strategy in all of this. Democrats are eager to present themselves as a force of moderation and unity. But Biden’s longing for understanding across party lines seems sincere.

He has been reluctant to make the fight against the Republican party’s assault on democracy the center piece of his agenda; Democratic leadership has proved mostly unwilling to focus the public’s attention on the Republican party’s authoritarian turn…….

The Republican party is abandoning democracy. There can be no ‘politics as usual’ | Thomas Zimmer

Republicans could not be clearer about their cynicism, yet some establishment Democrats act as if politics as usual is still an option

www.theguardian.com

 

[Optimus Prime]

After a long hiatus we have GOP platform
===================
Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) might be ruthless, cynical and power-hungry, but he is not dumb. There is a reason he declared late last year that the GOP would not put out an agenda for the midterms.

When most voters learn what the party stands for (e.g., curtailing education on race, rolling back environmental laws, criminalizing abortion), they don’t like it.


Well, Sen. Rick Scott (R-Fla.), chair of the National Republican Senatorial Committee, had other plans. He put out his own agenda on Tuesday — and it’s a doozy.


Let’s start with what is not in there: any proposal to bring down inflation (which Republicans have been hollering about for months); to increase wages or reduce income inequality; to prepare workers for the 21st-century economy; to provide relief from tariffs (which are essentially taxes); and to increase school performance on basic subjects.


What it does include is embarrassing. Start with this: “We will secure our border, finish building the wall, and name it after President Donald Trump.” Republicans had their chance to do this when the defeated former president was still in office and failed. Moreover, such a project would be so expensive that it has lost support in deep-red Texas. It’s also irrelevant to real border protection — so much so that it has become a punchline.

Scott’s agenda also includes draconian cuts to government that Republicans did not even favor when they were in the majority. The proposed 25 percent cut in the federal workforce will not be popular with anyone who visits national parks, relies on federal law enforcement, has an issue with Social Security, needs a tax refund or thinks we need a strong national defense.

Some items serve solely as an attack on minority groups. Consider this slam on transgender Americans: “Men are men, women are women, and unborn babies are babies. We believe in science.”

This has nothing to do with any conceivable federal policy. It’s pure culture wars fodder for right-wing media.


Then there are the massive tax hikes: “All Americans should pay some income tax to have skin in the game, even if a small amount. Currently over half of Americans pay no income tax.”

That would affect tens of millions of Americans, including many working-class Americans and seniors. Interestingly, many corporations pay no federal income taxes, but the plan is silent on that. It might be the most regressive tax plan Republicans have ever come up with…….

https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/2022/02/22/rick-scott-republican-agenda-does-gop-no-favors/

 

[SamAndreas]

Mitch McConnell's a snapping turtle, keep any fingers you want to keep out of his reach.

 

[SamAndreas]

In what happen to the Republican Party after Trump, here's the face of their future party.

Here she is camping out at Fox News:

Tulsi Gabbard calls Kamala Harris' Russia marks 'embarrassing': This is not rocket science

Former Hawaii Congresswoman Tulsi Gabbard criticized Kamala Harris' ability to lead the U.S. on the world stage Monday on "Hannity."

www.foxnews.com

She says she's a Democrat but that's just because she's from Hawaii. What she really is, is a member of the Republican Party. In Hawaii they run as Democrats because if they want to have a chance of winning an election they have to be pretenders.

 

[SteveSBrickNJ]

Sadly, the pathetic Democrats will cede power forever this November.
Welcome to one-party rule, tovarisch.

Here is what Michael Bloomberg thinks...

Bloomberg: Democrats headed for 'wipeout' in November without immediate course correction

Michael Bloomberg writes in a new op-ed that he is "deeply concerned" the Democratic Party is "headed for a wipeout in November, up and down the ballot." The former New York City mayor and Democratic presidential candidate points to the recent recall of three school board members in San...

www.yahoo.com

 

[SamAndreas]

Here is what Michael Bloomberg thinks...

Bloomberg: Democrats headed for 'wipeout' in November without immediate course correction

Michael Bloomberg writes in a new op-ed that he is "deeply concerned" the Democratic Party is "headed for a wipeout in November, up and down the ballot." The former New York City mayor and Democratic presidential candidate points to the recent recall of three school board members in San...

www.yahoo.com

Another Republican who pretends to be a Democrat telling us what we ought to do.

BTW it;s good to see you Steve.

 

[Taurus]

Another Republican who pretends to be a Democrat telling us what we ought to do.

BTW it;s good to see you Steve.

Sounds like good advice to me. Drop the culture war BS and get something done regarding dinner-table issues.

Get woke, go broke.