What happens to the Republican Party now? (3 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?

 

[V Chip]

The sign, posted on the window of the Appalachian Grill on East Church Street in Cartersville, Georgia, says "NOTICE!" with a long message that reads: "If you voted for Brandon's Build Back BS and don't have remorse or regrets I wish you would leave, I don't need your business.

"Your ignorant, naive decision has more than doubled our costs of goods and depleted our labor force by more than triple," the sign continued. "If this is what you consider to be building back better I don't care to look at or serve you, nor should any other restaurant!"

The use of "Brandon" in the wording refers to Biden and dates back to an October 2021 NASCAR race at the Talladega Speedway in Alabama. It has become a widely used phrase among conservatives, including on signs and in memes, meant to disparage the president and his supporters.

Tina said she was once in the establishment "years ago" but not any time recently. She said multiple individuals in her community have confirmed the establishment as the one that posted the sign, but it's allegedly not new.

"This is not the first sign that they've had up," Tina said. "Through COVID they've had several signs at different times that blame liberals for various things."……..

Restaurant Owner's Sign Tells 'Ignorant' Biden Voters to Eat Elsewhere

The message to patrons also mentions Build Back Better legislation, which to this day has not been approved by Congress.

www.newsweek.com

Yeah, that's where I currently live.

 

[Optimus Prime]

Maybe the silent majority should say something?
=====================
Ever since entering Congress, Marjorie Taylor Greene has been making headlines for her long history of peddling conspiracy theories, her blatant embrace of anti-Muslim bigotry and white Christian nationalism, and her aggression against political opponents.

The latest escalation came last week, when she smeared her Republican colleagues in the Senate, Lisa Murkowski, Susan Collins and Mitt Romney, as “pro-pedophile” after they voted to confirm Ketanji Brown Jackson to the US supreme court; Democrats, she added, “are the party of pedophiles.”

There is a calculating quality to Greene’s polemics. Last fall, for instance, she recorded a campaign videoin which she used a military-grade sniper rifle to blow up a car that had the word “socialism” written on it, promising to do the same to the “Democrats’ socialist agenda.”

It was over-exaggerated campaign nonsense. But Greene knew the unsubtle insinuation of using violence against a political opponent would demand attention.

The fact that Greene’s antics are so clearly designed to keep herself in the spotlight has prompted calls for the media and commentators to stop paying attention to her rather than be complicit in the amplification of far-right propaganda.

And if what’s on display here were just the extremist behavior of a fringe figure, it would indeed be best to simply ignore her. This, however, isn’t just Greene’s extremism – it is increasingly that of the Republican party itself.

Greene and the many provocateurs like her are not just rightwing trolls, but elected officials in good standing with their party. Ignoring them won’t work, nor will making fun of them: These people are in positions of influence, fully intent on using their power………

Extremists like Marjorie Taylor Greene are the future of the Republican party | Thomas Zimmer

It’s impossible to understand American politics without grappling in earnest with why Greene’s extremism is widely seen as justified on the right

www.theguardian.com

 

[Optimus Prime]

I’ll put this here even though the article is about the global far right
====================

…..These trends have sparked debates about how to halt or even reverse the rising public support for the radical right.

Party strategists and commentators have argued that mainstream parties of both left and right should engage in so-called accommodative strategies – in other words, adopting tougher policies on immigration and integration.

Had mainstream parties been less progressive on migration, the argument goes, the radical right would never have been able to gain a political foothold.

Turning even belatedly to more hardline policies on immigration should win voters back to the centre ground.

Indeed, mainstream parties in western Europe have, over recent decades, increasingly veered to the right on immigration and integration in response to the successes of the radical right. Many view the 2019 Danish general election as a prime example of this strategy’s promise. The Social Democrats co-opted the anti-immigration agenda and the far-right Danish People’s party suffered a severe electoral defeat.

However, there are several reasons why simply adopting more hardline policies will not convince voters to switch back to supporting mainstream parties. It can, as some experts warn, legitimise far right parties’ views and their political agenda. To borrow from Jean-Marie Le Pen, why would voters choose the copy when they can have the original?

There are examples that suggest that fighting the far right by adopting its policies is not as promising as many assume.

In Germany in 2018, the Bavarian mainstream-right CSU echoed many of the hardline immigration policies promoted by the far-right AfD. In the subsequent state elections, the CSU suffered massive vote losses while the AfD surged and secured 10.2% of the vote.

In Spain, the embrace of more anti-immigration policies by mainstream-right parties Partido Popular and Ciudadanos has not stopped the ascent of Vox.

And in France, despite centre-right parties’ discourse being preoccupied for decades with issues relating to national identity and migration, Marine Le Pen is now the most significant electoral force on the right……..

Copying the far right doesn’t help mainstream parties. But it can boost the far right | Werner Krause, Denis Cohen and Tarik Abou-Chadi

Does fighting on the radical right’s turf help to steal its voters? Our research suggests it doesn’t, say Werner Krause, Denis Cohen and Tarik Abou-Chadi

www.theguardian.com

 

[BullSheetBuddha]

Possibly to them it is just not worth the aggravation. THEY (different than some of you) possibly feel like I do....that Trump is not a threat. He's not gonna win the nomination. As I said, the silent majority do not want him. Those on here who are obsessing about him are wasting their time. Wasting my time too. He's not gonna win anything. I don't have to let the Trump obsessors waste my time. I have a choice. I can not log in. That's what I'll do.
Sometimes posting on here is just aggravation.
I'm not gutless...BUT I AM bored of seeing the same stuff again and again.

Steve, he controls the GOP, of course people are going to talk about him.

 

[MT15]

Case in point: (this is the Republican Party in this county not some internet troll)

 

[Optimus Prime]

Well, this seems normal
===============

Garrett Soldano released a pretty strange campaign ad last fall. The only words spoken in it came from a voice aggressively asking, “WHO?” and a chorus twice chanting “WE THE PEOPLE!” in response. The rest of the ad was 45 seconds of footage of Soldano firing various weapons at a gun range, set to a heavy, looping guitar riff.

Soldano is not running for sheriff, or even for a seat in the state House. He’s a Republican running to become the next governor of Michigan.

Soldano’s ad may have been absurd, but it wasn’t atypical. Republican candidates are turning to guns, guns, guns in a very big way ahead of the midterms, serving their potential constituents with a torrent of campaign ads, Instagram posts, and even Christmas cards of themselves toting and firing deadly weapons.

Conservatives using guns in campaign ads is nothing new, of course, but the way in which they’re being used in the wake of Trump’s term in office — and particularly in the wake the violent attack on the Capitol that ended it — portends a dark future for the party, and if it regains control of Washington, D.C., for the nation.

Ron Filipkowski, a researcher who tracks right-wing activity online and has highlighted several examples of Republicans going gun crazy in their campaign ads, says the use of guns in ads has “absolutely” ratcheted up this primary cycle compared to 2020 and 2018.

“I started noticing it and was like, ‘What’s going on?'” he says. “I think it’s almost like the [Lauren] Boebert-, [Marjorie Taylor] Greene-ization of the whole America First movement that’s driving the Republican Party now. It’s those candidates who are the ones that are doing it. I feel like the establishment candidates kind of feel like they have to do it too, now.”

Boebert built her successful 2020 campaign largely around guns, and last year released an ad promising to carry a Glock on Capitol Hill. Greene in an ad for her 2020 campaign cocked an assault rifle as she warned “antifa terrorists” to stay out of her district, and last fall blew up a Prius with a 50-caliber rifle.

Establishment Republicans like Lindsey Graham, who last year released a video of himself at a shooting range in khakis, are struggling to keep up, but the point is that they feel like they need to try. This is what the party is now.............

But there’s something more insidious behind the sudden rash of pro-gun ads than protecting the Second Amendment. It’s a visual reminder that the party believes Jan. 6 was a good thing, that the attack on the Capitol was a valiant effort, and that Republicans deserve candidates who is willing to implicitly or explicitly condone the use of violence to reclaim a bygone version of the United States they’ve seen slip through their fingers under Democratic leadership — to make America great again.

“It’s an extremist movement,” says Mike Madrid, a Republican strategist and co-founder of The Lincoln Project. “The GOP base, at least a wide swath of it, has been radicalized. There are very few things you can do to demonstrate you’re more extreme and intense on tribal issues than to insinuate, tacitly or overtly, violence, that you are willing to fight for the cause. That’s what it is. It’s not a Second Amendment issue. It’s saying, ‘I’m this intense. I’m this extreme. I’m willing to go to these measures to fight for our tribe.’ That’s what it’s all about.”..........

“The Second Amendment has always been a defensive posture,” Madrid continues. “It’s always been don’t take my guns. What we are moving into now is something foundationally different. It’s now advocating that gun ownership and bearing arms is a virtue. It’s not a right. It’s almost an obligation. … There’s a desire to see a society that is centralized on this type of weaponry. There’s a lot of paranoia involved here, but it’s also demonstrative of a society that a lot of these members feel is out of their control. They feel quote unquote America is gone. It’s behind them. It’s already been taken, and the only way to defend themselves from whatever that boogeyman is, is to have a stockpile of gold bullion, canned goods, and a ton of weaponry.”

Madrid, like Filipkowski, acknowledges that the use of guns in political ads is “growing,” and that by 2024 Republicans are going to be blowing stuff up. “Brandishing weapons and leaning into gun culture is viewed as revolutionary, and by revolutionary I mean, in their minds, the most virtuous sense, as defenders of quote unquote America,” he says. “There’s the 1776 rhetoric and there’s the patriot rhetoric, and there’s the American flag that’s always waved. It’s this absurd definition of what American is, and it’s getting more and more extreme in the Republican Party every election cycle.”.............

MSN

www.msn.com

 

[MT15]

So, regular republicans no longer feel the need to correct constituents who spew Russian talking points? edit: he seems to be trying, but he is totally ineffectual in shutting the disinfo down.

 

[BullSheetBuddha]

Well, this seems normal
===============

BMW, Walther PPK/S in.22 with a silencer. Man of the people.

 

[DJ1BigTymer]

So, regular republicans no longer feel the need to correct constituents who spew Russian talking points? edit: he seems to be trying, but he is totally ineffectual in shutting the disinfo down.

That's the product of the Republican's campaign to enlighten their voters that has been going on for decades.

 

[DaveXA]

So, regular republicans no longer feel the need to correct constituents who spew Russian talking points? edit: he seems to be trying, but he is totally ineffectual in shutting the disinfo down.

And this is why Trump has such a hold on the party. Party leadership has zero backbone or scruples. Disappointing.

 

[MT15]

I didn’t realize until I just read this column that the RNC was heavily promoting Trump’s Truth Social app. Has this ever happened before? Does a national party solicit business for a former president? And fundraise from it? Seems very odd to me.

“What do you want your username to be on Trump’s new app? Hurry!”

This urgent missive was one of dozens upon dozens of fundraising emails and texts I received from the Republican National Committee and other official Republican political organizations over the past few months providing pro-bono promotion for TRUTH Social.

In this instance the RNC was requesting that I tell them my TRUTH username (N.B. It’s @FredDidNotLoveYou). The committee then asked me to pitch in a few bucks to show that I STAND WITH TRUMP, conveniently pre-checking a box that would make said donation recurring and warning that if I unchecked I would not be doing my part to SECURE TRUMP’S LEGACY.

I declined to reply.

My demurral did not please Ronna “Don’t Call Me Romney” McDaniel. Just eight hours later I received another stalkerish email from her committee with the subject line: “We’ve been trying to reach you”

This time they wanted me to “PLEDGE” that I will register for TRUTH Social—which is a bit culty if you ask me. Is this an app or a religious sect? The RNC was “counting on me to take the pledge before it’s too late.””

The Republican Party Is Trump Steaks

Truth Social, the president’s latest private sector scam to flop was promoted relentlessly by official GOP accounts.

www.thebulwark.com

 

[bird]

Don’t worry about Truth Social.

Musk wants to buy Twitter.

Elon Musk offers to buy Twitter for $43 billion, so it can be 'transformed as private company'

Elon Musk offered to buy Twitter for $54.20 a share, saying the social media company needs to be transformed privately.

www.cnbc.com

What could possibly go wrong with that?

 

[DJ1BigTymer]

And this is why I find the Republican party so abhorrent:

DeSantis proposes new Florida congressional map that could wipe out Democratic redistricting gains | CNN Politics

Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis on Wednesday proposed an aggressively partisan redrawing of the state’s congressional boundaries that could help his party pick up four seats in the US House of Representatives this November.

www.cnn.com

What Redistricting Looks Like In Every State - Florida - Plan P000C0109

An updating tracker of proposed congressional maps — and whether they might benefit Democrats or Republicans in the 2022 midterm elections and beyond

projects.fivethirtyeight.com

RNC unanimously votes to withdraw from commission that sponsors presidential debates | CNN Politics

The Republican National Committee voted unanimously on Thursday to withdraw from its participation in the Commission on Presidential Debates, the organization that has long governed general-election presidential debates.

www.cnn.com

Their only goal is to consolidate power and take away the rights of "others" in an effort to rewind the clock to the 1950's.

 

[MT15]

I was just reading about the RNC decision to withdraw from the presidential debates, after 30 years. They are going on the assumption that Trump will be the nominee, IMO. Otherwise how do you explain this? Wouldn’t they jump at the chance to debate Joe Biden, who they claim is incompetent? Well, you only wouldn’t debate if your presumptive candidate is even worse, so out of touch that he thinks he won an election that he clearly lost.

 

[BullSheetBuddha]

RNC votes to withdraw from Commission on Presidential Debates events

The Republican National Committee threatened this year to pull out of commission-sanctioned debates and accused the group of bias.

www.nbcnews.com

 

[MT15]

This increasingly is looking like conspiracy to overturn a valid election. I cannot believe these people actually thought that there was widespread voter fraud. They knew that the election was lost, they were looking for a way to overturn it anyway. Mike Lee says he needs something he can persuasively defend, and something to make it legitimate.

 

[MT15]

CNN had a bunch of the texts up in an article. Reading all of them is fascinating. It appears Senator Lee thought Sidney “Kracken” Powell was a “straight shooter” and urged Trump to let her take the reins on the lawsuits at one point. Ten days later he texted Meadows telling him to have Trump distance himself from her due to legal exposure from her wild accusations, lol.

Even so, knowing that they couldn’t come up with any solid evidence of fraud, he was all for twisting arms of state legislators to appoint alternate slates of electors. Which is shameful and he should have to answer for it. He did break with the WH before the 6th though, and told them their path was dangerous to our Republic. So he gets a half a cookie for belatedly realizing he was aiding and abetting the insurrection. Too little and too late.

 

[SteveSBrickNJ]

Here is an article showing that even though you liberals are in the majority on this thread...your point of view will not prevail this November...

Biden and Democrats Should Be Absolutely Terrified by New Poll Numbers

Mario Tama/GettyIn Ernest Hemingway’s The Sun Also Rises, a character is asked how he went bankrupt. “Gradually, then suddenly” is the reply.This formulation might also help explain how it feels to lose an election. President Joe Biden’s collapse of popular support has been so long coming that a...

www.yahoo.com