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?

 

[MT15]

Yes, Stefanik is horrible.

Youngkin - willing to give him some time, but the early actions have NOT been good. First of all, when it was disclosed that his 17 yo son had tried to vote not once but twice and been turned away, he got really snippy instead of acknowledging that his son should have known better. In fact, he seemed to blame everyone but his son for the attempted illegal voting.

Next, even though he had campaigned on leaving school mask mandates up to each locale, he turned around and banned mask mandates statewide by executive order. then seemed to take it back when asked why he went back on his campaign promise, then his administration threatened to withhold funding from schools that wanted to keep the masks a while longer. 7 or 8 school districts ended up suing the state over that mess.

And he famously signed an executive order banning CRT and any other “divisive concepts”. Since CRT isn’t taught in VA schools, people are assuming that it will mean that teaching actual black history will be curtailed as “divisive”, since if you don’t cover some divisive concepts you probably aren’t really teaching actual black history.

He also refused to outright condemn Trump for spreading lies about election integrity, and has in fact promised to make ID requirements more stringent to vote in VA, even though he does acknowledge that no significant voter fraud occurred. So, why make it harder to vote?

 

[barbar]

Yes, Stefanik is horrible.

Youngkin - willing to give him some time, but the early actions have NOT been good. First of all, when it was disclosed that his 17 yo son had tried to vote not once but twice and been turned away, he got really snippy instead of acknowledging that his son should have known better. In fact, he seemed to blame everyone but his son for the attempted illegal voting.

Next, even though he had campaigned on leaving school mask mandates up to each locale, he turned around and banned mask mandates statewide by executive order. then seemed to take it back when asked why he went back on his campaign promise, then his administration threatened to withhold funding from schools that wanted to keep the masks a while longer. 7 or 8 school districts ended up suing the state over that mess.

And he famously signed an executive order banning CRT and any other “divisive concepts”. Since CRT isn’t taught in VA schools, people are assuming that it will mean that teaching actual black history will be curtailed as “divisive”, since if you don’t cover some divisive concepts you probably aren’t really teaching actual black history.

He also refused to outright condemn Trump for spreading lies about election integrity, and has in fact promised to make ID requirements more stringent to vote in VA, even though he does acknowledge that no significant voter fraud occurred. So, why make it harder to vote?

I believe it was Trump who said something like "if everyone could vote a republican would never win an election in this country again."


So you can probably figure out from there why they want to restrict voting.

 

[MT15]

Yes, Trump has broken the Republican Party. He has made the unthinkable not only acceptable, but required. And politicIans like DeSantis and Youngkin are refining the strategy, polishing it, so to speak. Making it more effective, because Trump is certainly not an effective politician.

“The greatest damage Donald Trump did may not be in the actions he took, but in the influence he had.

Donald Trump isn’t the brightest bulb. He’s tremendously talented as a room-reader and as a reflector of emotion, but he is no brilliant tactician, no wise sage, no erudite intellectual.
He runs on spectacle and fury. There is no grand vision or grand plan. His quest is to win the moment. His focus is too narrow to even consider the larger struggle.

But he did something, unleashed something, that is so much bigger than he is now or ever will be: He pushed the limits of acceptability, hostility, aggression and legality beyond where other politicians dared push them. And for the most part, he has not only survived it, but been rewarded for it.”

Opinion | DeSantis Is Trump 2.0 (Published 2022)

Ron DeSantis is trying not only to imitate Trump but also to one-up him.

www.nytimes.com

 

[MT15]

So now, Rs don’t hesitate to use the most foul language about their political opponents. Calling them “soulless” or even “demonic” no longer makes anyone bat an eye. Saying they are communists or socialists, when these words have actual meanings and are clearly being misused. Painting their causes as the causes of God himself, rather than policy differences.

It’s dangerous rhetoric. It plays to the most unhinged among us. It’s the language of Trump, someone who has zero morals, who doesn’t care what he has to say or do to win the moment. Who has one way to measure a person’s worth, and that is how many nice things the person says about him.

Every politician who isn’t actively calling out Trump, who isn’t clearly articulating the dangers in his immoral and unethical behavior, is a person who has put party before country. Clearly and without any ambiguity. They must all be voted out of office, for they have shown they are unfit to lead.

 

[MT15]

Here is an interesting story about a Republican with ethics and morals. If Steve is correct, and I‘m not at all sure he is even though I hope he is, this guy will gain some traction.

The Revenge of the Normal Republicans

Will Hurd thinks there are enough normal voters to deliver him the 2024 Republican presidential nomination. But is he right?

www.theatlantic.com

“Some of my friends, some of my former colleagues, they are desperate,” Hurd tells me. “They are so desperate to hold on to their positions, to hold on to their power, that they make really bad decisions.”

Those bad decisions are evident when it comes to big, history-forming events, such as the party’s enabling of Donald Trump’s assault on American democracy. But the bad decisions are also made subtly, in response to smaller episodes every single day, often to accommodate the party’s ugliest impulses. (The third chapter of Hurd’s book, written as an open letter to the Republican Party, is titled “Don’t Be an butt crevasse, Racist, Misogynist, or Homophobe.”)

The desperation—lawmakers catering to the loudest voices in the party base—is not healthy, Hurd says. It’s the by-product of safely partisan districts that provide more incentive to light fires than put them out. It’s the consequence of the public’s collapsing faith in the core institutions of civic society, which invites national politicians to weaponize disputes that should be addressed at the local level. It’s the expression of a country in decline—a country convinced that its existential concerns are not Chinese sabotage and Russian disinformation, but face masks in public and vaccines for a virus.”

 

[SFIDC3]

Glenn Youngkin is a rising star who is NOT Trump-like.
Here a a 1 minute and 30 second video that is very recent.

Only to misinformed idiots is Youngkin "not very Trumplike".....he has done some incredibly dumb and unnecessary things to ensure teachers lives (which are already challenging) are going to get a whole lot harder for no sane reason....

Here is an interesting story about a Republican with ethics and morals. If Steve is correct, and I‘m not at all sure he is even though I hope he is, this guy will gain some traction.

The Revenge of the Normal Republicans

Will Hurd thinks there are enough normal voters to deliver him the 2024 Republican presidential nomination. But is he right?

www.theatlantic.com

“Some of my friends, some of my former colleagues, they are desperate,” Hurd tells me. “They are so desperate to hold on to their positions, to hold on to their power, that they make really bad decisions.”

Those bad decisions are evident when it comes to big, history-forming events, such as the party’s enabling of Donald Trump’s assault on American democracy. But the bad decisions are also made subtly, in response to smaller episodes every single day, often to accommodate the party’s ugliest impulses. (The third chapter of Hurd’s book, written as an open letter to the Republican Party, is titled “Don’t Be an butt crevasse, Racist, Misogynist, or Homophobe.”)

The desperation—lawmakers catering to the loudest voices in the party base—is not healthy, Hurd says. It’s the by-product of safely partisan districts that provide more incentive to light fires than put them out. It’s the consequence of the public’s collapsing faith in the core institutions of civic society, which invites national politicians to weaponize disputes that should be addressed at the local level. It’s the expression of a country in decline—a country convinced that its existential concerns are not Chinese sabotage and Russian disinformation, but face masks in public and vaccines for a virus.”

Bravo, another Repub I hope gets the nomination is our governor in MD....Larry Hogan....I don't agree with a lot of his policies but 1) he has them and 2) he articulates them well....

 

[Optimus Prime]

We really should open back up the Daily Trump Tracker thread exactly for gems like this

The most amazing thing about this?

He actually admits that someone else is better than he is at something, their eyesight, but even then it's only slightly, and of course that only allows them to be first to bear witness to his awesome talent
===================================================

It’s 8 p.m. on a Monday and there is no reason for me to be sitting at my desk writing about a statement released by a former president that’s completely detached from anything of any significance happening in the world — detached even from any insignificant thing happening in the world.

And yet here I am because, after nearly seven years in the public eye, Donald Trump has somehow managed to out-Donald-Trump himself.....

By now, most observers of the former president are familiar with his rhythm, the way he talks, the things he says.

You can probably tell a good Trump impression from a bad one because you know Trump intuitively, know it’s about style and attitude more than appearance or even effect. It’s an essence, a type of existence that is regularly copied but rarely matched.

So when I checked my inbox a short while ago and saw a new statement released from Trump’s post-presidential office, I had a vague-if-unarticulated sense of what I might expect.

I did not expect what it said.

I expected the intro: the bespoke logo touting that it came from “The Office of Donald J. Trump” with a simplified version of the presidential seal in the middle.

And I expected the title, since it’s always the same title: “Statement by Donald J. Trump, 45th President of the United States of America.”

And then poetry.

“Many people are asking, so I’ll give it to you now, it is 100% true,” the message began. “While playing with the legendary golfer, Ernie Els, winner of four Majors and approximately 72 other tournaments throughout the world, Gene Sauers, winner of the Senior U.S. Open, Ken Duke, and Mike Goodes, both excellent tour players, I made a hole-in-one.”

That’s what the message is about. Trump’s hole-in-one............

He continued.

“It took place at Trump International Golf Club in West Palm Beach, Florida, on the 7th hole, which was playing 181-yards into a slight wind,” Trump said — before quickly upgrading the wind he faced.

“I hit a 5-iron, which sailed magnificently into a rather strong wind, with approximately 5 feet of cut, whereupon it bounced twice and then went clank, into the hole. These great tour players noticed it before I did because their eyes are slightly better, but on that one hole only, their swings weren’t.”.......

MSN

www.msn.com

 

[Bigdaddysaints]

The fact that he had a press relase on this is sad.. I don't have the words... I guess he didn't like not being mentioned because Will Smith was taking all his attention..

 

[DJ1BigTymer]

We really should open back up the Daily Trump Tracker thread exactly for gems like this

The most amazing thing about this?

He actually admits that someone else is better than he is at something, their eyesight, but even then it's only slightly, and of course that only allows them to be first to bear witness to his awesome talent
===================================================

It’s 8 p.m. on a Monday and there is no reason for me to be sitting at my desk writing about a statement released by a former president that’s completely detached from anything of any significance happening in the world — detached even from any insignificant thing happening in the world. And yet here I am because, after nearly seven years in the public eye, Donald Trump has somehow managed to out-Donald-Trump himself.....

By now, most observers of the former president are familiar with his rhythm, the way he talks, the things he says. You can probably tell a good Trump impression from a bad one because you know Trump intuitively, know it’s about style and attitude more than appearance or even effect. It’s an essence, a type of existence that is regularly copied but rarely matched.

So when I checked my inbox a short while ago and saw a new statement released from Trump’s post-presidential office, I had a vague-if-unarticulated sense of what I might expect.

I did not expect what it said.

I expected the intro: the bespoke logo touting that it came from “The Office of Donald J. Trump” with a simplified version of the presidential seal in the middle. And I expected the title, since it’s always the same title: “Statement by Donald J. Trump, 45th President of the United States of America.”

And then poetry.

“Many people are asking, so I’ll give it to you now, it is 100% true,” the message began. “While playing with the legendary golfer, Ernie Els, winner of four Majors and approximately 72 other tournaments throughout the world, Gene Sauers, winner of the Senior U.S. Open, Ken Duke, and Mike Goodes, both excellent tour players, I made a hole-in-one.”

That’s what the message is about. Trump’s hole-in-one............

He continued.

“It took place at Trump International Golf Club in West Palm Beach, Florida, on the 7th hole, which was playing 181-yards into a slight wind,” Trump said — before quickly upgrading the wind he faced. “I hit a 5-iron, which sailed magnificently into a rather strong wind, with approximately 5 feet of cut, whereupon it bounced twice and then went clank, into the hole. These great tour players noticed it before I did because their eyes are slightly better, but on that one hole only, their swings weren’t.”.......

MSN

www.msn.com

Kim Jong Il is rolling in his grave!

Kim shot 38 under, including 11 holes-in-one, at the 7,700-yard championship course at Pyongyang in the VERY FIRST golf round of his life, according to North Korean state media. This was in 1994, when Kim was 52 years old.

Kim Jong-Il -- North Korea dictator left behind laughable golf legacy - Page 2 - ESPN

Humor, columns, commentary, lists and analysis from Page 2 and ESPN.

www.espn.com

 

[MT15]

 

[Taurus]

We really should open back up the Daily Trump Tracker thread exactly for gems like this

The most amazing thing about this?

He actually admits that someone else is better than he is at something, their eyesight, but even then it's only slightly, and of course that only allows them to be first to bear witness to his awesome talent
===================================================

It’s 8 p.m. on a Monday and there is no reason for me to be sitting at my desk writing about a statement released by a former president that’s completely detached from anything of any significance happening in the world — detached even from any insignificant thing happening in the world.

And yet here I am because, after nearly seven years in the public eye, Donald Trump has somehow managed to out-Donald-Trump himself.....

By now, most observers of the former president are familiar with his rhythm, the way he talks, the things he says.

You can probably tell a good Trump impression from a bad one because you know Trump intuitively, know it’s about style and attitude more than appearance or even effect. It’s an essence, a type of existence that is regularly copied but rarely matched.

So when I checked my inbox a short while ago and saw a new statement released from Trump’s post-presidential office, I had a vague-if-unarticulated sense of what I might expect.

I did not expect what it said.

I expected the intro: the bespoke logo touting that it came from “The Office of Donald J. Trump” with a simplified version of the presidential seal in the middle.

And I expected the title, since it’s always the same title: “Statement by Donald J. Trump, 45th President of the United States of America.”

And then poetry.

“Many people are asking, so I’ll give it to you now, it is 100% true,” the message began. “While playing with the legendary golfer, Ernie Els, winner of four Majors and approximately 72 other tournaments throughout the world, Gene Sauers, winner of the Senior U.S. Open, Ken Duke, and Mike Goodes, both excellent tour players, I made a hole-in-one.”

That’s what the message is about. Trump’s hole-in-one............

He continued.

“It took place at Trump International Golf Club in West Palm Beach, Florida, on the 7th hole, which was playing 181-yards into a slight wind,” Trump said — before quickly upgrading the wind he faced.

“I hit a 5-iron, which sailed magnificently into a rather strong wind, with approximately 5 feet of cut, whereupon it bounced twice and then went clank, into the hole. These great tour players noticed it before I did because their eyes are slightly better, but on that one hole only, their swings weren’t.”.......

MSN

www.msn.com

We need a word that combines petty, craven and obsequious. English just doesn't have a term for someone who's both pathologically spiteful and desperate for approval.

 

[SteveSBrickNJ]

So many of you are Trump obsessed.
You view your lives....everything you experience in life you seem to filter it thru your Trump hatred. That's sad.....bordering on pathetic.
I am content to be anti Trump and yet not obsessed.

 

[MT15]

Steve, you might have some validity to your criticism if Trump and his lackeys were not still tearing this nation apart. They are out there every week holding rallies, going on line and on “news” stations telling gullible people that our elections are not free and accurate. Telling lies about election fraud that doesn’t exist. The last time I looked, polls indicate a majority of R voters believe the election was stolen. It will tear this country apart. It will destroy us.

Also, Trump is trying to install people in state election posts who will be willing to throw out votes for him next time. Who will be willing to “just find me the votes I need” next time. Just in Arizona alone they have a Trump cult member running for Secretary of State and Attorney General.

The danger that Trump poses isn’t over. Not by a long shot. Regular Republicans, if they exist, need to speak up loudly and clearly over this. And they’re not, with a very few exceptions. If they would speak up, I would shut up about it, for sure. I would also sleep better at night. But they’re keeping their heads down and hoping this passes. Looking the other way, it’s disheartening.

 

[DaveXA]

Only to misinformed idiots is Youngkin "not very Trumplike".....he has done some incredibly dumb and unnecessary things to ensure teachers lives (which are already challenging) are going to get a whole lot harder for no sane reason....


Bravo, another Repub I hope gets the nomination is our governor in MD....Larry Hogan....I don't agree with a lot of his policies but 1) he has them and 2) he articulates them well....

I sure wish Hogan was governor here in VA.

 

[DaveXA]

So many of you are Trump obsessed.
You view your lives....everything you experience in life you seem to filter it thru your Trump hatred. That's sad.....bordering on pathetic.
I am content to be anti Trump and yet not obsessed.

Eh, I'd argue the Trump hatred is completely justified. Until he's dead or in jail, he's a walking, talking travesty.

 

[SaulGoodmanEsq]

So many of you are Trump obsessed.
You view your lives....everything you experience in life you seem to filter it thru your Trump hatred. That's sad.....bordering on pathetic.
I am content to be anti Trump and yet not obsessed.

I can't say I can articulate the difference. But I'd argue if someone isn't concerned about a second Trump presidency given his actions at the tail end of his first term then they simply don't care about living in a Democratic Republic.

 

[Optimus Prime]

Not necessarily GOP only thing (or even politician only thing) but certainly dominate at the moment

And it talks about something I’ve posted here and on EE before

Do these people really believe what they’re saying or just cynically and hypocritically saying it for financial and/or career ambition reasons?
=====================

The Ginni Thomas text messages revive a question that has been nagging me since the dawn of the Trump era: What makes smart people say truly stupid things?


Thomas, wife of the longest-serving current Supreme Court justice, is no dope. She has a law degree, worked for House Majority Leader Dick Armey, served as the Heritage Foundation’s liaison to the George W. Bush White House and became an entrepreneur in right-wing advocacy.

Yet in text messages to the White House chief of staff, she told him to “release the Kraken,” echoed a bonkers QAnon canard about ballot watermarks, and asserted the lunacy that “Biden crime family & ballot fraud co-conspirators” were being arrested “& will be living in barges off GITMO to face military tribunals for sedition.”


Surely a well-informed, well-educated person such as Thomas couldn’t actually believe the nutty ideas her thumbs texted?

But here’s the truly crazy thing: She probably does.

Recent advances in cognitive science suggest that highly intelligent people are more susceptible to “identity-protective cognition,” an unconscious process in which they use their intellect to justify rejecting facts inconsistent with their partisan identity.

“The really upsetting finding is that the better you are at particular types of cognitive tests … the better you are at manipulating the facts to reflect your prior beliefs, the more able you are to cognitively shape the world so it fits with your values,” says David Hoffman, a University of Pennsylvania law professor who studies cultural cognition.

“You are able to take whatever unambiguous facts that exist in the world and run them through your own sausage-making mill to make it fit what you want.”

We all slip into such “motivated reasoning” to some degree, but it has been a particular problem on the right in recent years, where a combination of the Fox News effect and the weaponization of disinformation by Republican leaders has left a large chunk of the population disbelieving the effectiveness of coronavirus vaccines and the reality of climate change but thinking that former president Barack Obama was born in Kenya and the 2020 election was stolen.


I had long assumed that Republican elites were opportunistically supporting beliefs they knew to be false because it furthered their personal ambitions or partisan advantage.

I assumed Patrick Philbin, whom I knew as a member of the center-right “Tory Party” at Yale in the 1980s, didn’t really believe his cockamamie defenses of Trump during his first impeachment.

I assumed Princeton’s Ted Cruz, whom I met as a nakedly ambitious staffer on the Bush campaign in 2000, became an extremist out of political expediency, not heartfelt belief.


But another conservative I knew at Yale, Jonathan Adler, now a Case Western law professor, pointed me to a more disturbing explanation.

“I know a distressing number of people whom I used to consider ideological allies who have convinced themselves to burrow deeper and deeper into conspiratorial rabbit holes or have found ways to rationalize the abandonment of conservative principles,” says Adler, who hasn’t joined them in the fever swamps.


They aren’t just deceiving others; they’re deceiving themselves……..

https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/2022/03/28/ginni-thomas-republicans-psychology-conspiracy-theories/

 

[nj73]

The democratic party are going to implode i guess. When all the dirty stuff gets out.
From the injections that lead to a weaker immune system to this war manipulation.

It is becoming obvious that some in this administration wanted the war in Ukraine.

"Washington Helped Trigger the Ukraine War. The magnitude of the aggressive moves taken by the Pentagon and CIA are just now becoming apparent."

Washington Helped Trigger the Ukraine War

The magnitude of the aggressive moves taken by the Pentagon and CIA to bolster Ukraine are just now becoming apparent.

www.theamericanconservative.com