What happens to the Republican Party now? (1 Viewer)

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    MT15

    MT15

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    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?



     
    DaveXA said:
    I can't stand Cruz, but I'm not seeing the point here.
    Click to expand...
    The tweet was supposed to have a reply where he was described as boiled cheese in human form and that cracked me up lol...
     
    I've heard a few variations on this before
    ==============================

    For a brief, shining moment after Donald Trump incited an insurrection on the Capitol on January 6, it seemed that the forces of rising authoritarianism in America might be curtailed, shamed by the violence that had been unleashed by their lies and bitterness over losing the election. But nope, Republicans have quickly reverted back.

    After all, the fundamental problem facing the Republican party and the larger American right hasn't been resolved. They still know full well that their ideology is unpopular, their arguments are indefensible, and that the only way they can hold onto power is by gutting the ability of the voters to throw them out. And so, as the past month has shown, conservatives are not only becoming more fascistic in the aftermath of the riot but more shameless about their intentions.

    The GOP war on voting has become the number one priority, with a bevy of conservative groups reorienting their organizing around keeping Americans away from ballots. Republicans are leaning into the racist signaling around the voter suppression efforts, and when confronted with it, they barely bother to defend themselves, mainly because there is no moral defense possible. There's lip-smacking from the right about "voter fraud" — which they continue to fail to show is a problem, much less one that voter suppression efforts will fix — but these excuses are pro forma, and you can tell their hearts aren't in it.

    Instead of trying to sell their behavior as good and righteous, instead, conservatives are coalescing around a different excuse: The liberals are making them do it! They don't want to be fascists, you see, but gosh darn it, they have no choice!............

    The more "intellectual" version of this argument was rolled out by Glenn Ellmers at the American Mind blog of the Claremont Institute, a fairly prestigious conservative think tank that is oriented around the task of putting an intellectualized gloss on the reactionary impulses of the right. In the piece, Ellmers argues openly that "most people living in the United States today" — by which he clearly and explicitly means Democratic voters — "are not Americans in any meaningful sense of the term."

    Defining most Americans as non-American, of course, is about justifying an all-out assault on their rights and freedoms. As progressive writer John Ganz wrote in his lengthy rebuttal to Ellmers, this is a "radically anti-democratic conceit of delegitimizing the citizenship of the majority of the country." But Ellmers, like Kelly, pretends to say this more in sorrow than anger, claiming that the left has forced this turn towards fascism (though he pretends it isn't fascism) because the liberal majority does "not believe in, live by, or even like the principles, traditions, and ideals that until recently defined America as a nation and as a people.".

    In this argument, of course, only the right gets to decide what counts as a legitimate American value. It's closed-loop logic: You are technically free, but only if you live your life in a way prescribed by the religious right. You're allowed to vote, but only if you vote for Republicans. But can freedom really be freedom if it's stripped away from you the second you actually use your freedom? Of course not. This kind of illogic allows authoritarians to claim to be "pro-freedom" while refusing people real freedom..............

    Republicans have become more fascist since Jan. 6 — and they blame liberals for it | Salon.com
     
    Ted Cruz lives in a glass house

    he isn't throwing stones, he's using a catapult

    He has some nerve criticizing any politician about not being where they should be
    ============================================================

    Texas Republican Senator Ted Cruz mocked Vice President Kamala Harris on Wednesday for visiting a bakery during a trip to Chicago before going to the southern border to address immigration.

    Cruz tweeted the word priorities above an article that describes White House press secretary Jen Psaki defending Harris' Chicago visit during a press briefing.

    On Tuesday, Harris made a stop at a Black-owned bakery in Chicago called Brown Sugar Bakery while on her way to visit a COVID-19 vaccination site and discussed issues related to the pandemic..........

    Ted Cruz Mocks Kamala Harris for Going to a Bakery and Not the Border (msn.com)
     
    Optimus Prime said:
    Ted Cruz lives in a glass house

    he isn't throwing stones, he's using a catapult

    He has some nerve criticizing any politician about not being where they should be
    ============================================================

    Texas Republican Senator Ted Cruz mocked Vice President Kamala Harris on Wednesday for visiting a bakery during a trip to Chicago before going to the southern border to address immigration.

    Cruz tweeted the word priorities above an article that describes White House press secretary Jen Psaki defending Harris' Chicago visit during a press briefing.

    On Tuesday, Harris made a stop at a Black-owned bakery in Chicago called Brown Sugar Bakery while on her way to visit a COVID-19 vaccination site and discussed issues related to the pandemic..........

    Ted Cruz Mocks Kamala Harris for Going to a Bakery and Not the Border (msn.com)
    Click to expand...

    Straight from the "Accuse Others of What You're Doing" playbook....
     
    I think John Boehner has a good point. I saw an interview with him where he said that basically, after 2010, you started to see individuals who were using politics to become what amounts to a social media influencer.

    They were more interested in marketing their own brand than any specific ideas, and the party lost control of it's members. The same thing is happening on the left. People like AOC and the squad are better at getting attention for themselves than they are at getting legislation passed.

    I'm no fan of political parties, but i would prefer two parties dominating the system than a bunch of individuals competing to lead personality cults.
     
    samiam5211 said:
    I think John Boehner has a good point. I saw an interview with him where he said that basically, after 2010, you started to see individuals who were using politics to become what amounts to a social media influencer.

    They were more interested in marketing their own brand than any specific ideas, and the party lost control of it's members. The same thing is happening on the left. People like AOC and the squad are better at getting attention for themselves than they are at getting legislation passed.

    I'm no fan of political parties, but i would prefer two parties dominating the system than a bunch of individuals competing to lead personality cults.
    Click to expand...

    What got my attention from Boehner is his shift to marijuana legalization. He was opposed previously, so I take that as a good thing. It's time Republicans completely scrap their position on the war on drugs. That would definitely be a net positive, not just for them, but for everyone else.
     
    DaveXA said:
    What got my attention from Boehner is his shift to marijuana legalization. He was opposed previously, so I take that as a good thing. It's time Republicans completely scrap their position on the war on drugs. That would definitely be a net positive, not just for them, but for everyone else.
    Click to expand...
    A paid board position for a MJ company will shift opinions just like a campaign donation.
     
    superchuck500 said:
    Billy is right.


    www.theadvocate.com

    Billy Nungesser delivers fiery speech slamming 'disgusting' GOP tactics, confirms FBI probe

    Louisiana Lt. Gov. Billy Nungesser delivered a fiery speech to the state GOP Saturday in which he slammed some of the state’s top Republicans for “crucifying” fellow party members and
    www.theadvocate.com www.theadvocate.com
    Click to expand...
    Nungesser seems pretty confident about our AG being behind the FBI probe into him, if I'm reading between the lines correctly. That's probably a safe bet.

    I wasn't aware of the debate about open vs. closed primaries in LA, and I agree with Nungesser about a closed system facilitating extreme candidates. I think it's inevitable the next governor is a Republican; we can only hope it's a moderate one and not some clown like the Rispone or Vitter-quality people Rs have gotten behind (only for both to get trounced by JBE).
     
    It really seemed for a minute that after Jan 6th theGOP would step back from Trumpism but just keep doubling down

    I do like the moon landing retort. I'll have to use that
    ====================

    That was a very telling comment that Sen. John Cornyn (R-Tex.) posted on Twitter last week. He noted that tweets from President Biden’s account “are limited and, when they come, unimaginably conventional” and that his “public comments are largely scripted.”

    In Cornyn’s mind, this “invites the question: is he really in charge?”
On one level, this shows a senior Republican senator — someone who is seen as a staid establishmentarian — trying to spread smarmy insinuations that the president has lost his marbles and is being manipulated by shadowy leftists.

    That’s an article of faith on the conspiratorial far right that has now migrated to the mainstream despite the total lack of any substantiating evidence.

    When called out by Chris Wallace on Fox News, Cornyn retreated to the usual, despicable defense of conspiracy theorists: “I simply asked a question.”

    I didn’t say the moon landing was faked — I was only asking if it was!


    But what is even more disturbing about Cornyn’s tweet is the upside-down assumption that it’s normal for a president to spew deranged, ungrammatical, abusive tweets — and that there is something wrong with a president who refuses to do so.

    Most people thought that President Donald Trump’s tweets were bonkers — but for a large portion of the GOP, they have now become the standard by which his successors will be judged.

    Republicans have gone down the rabbit hole where sanity and sobriety are inexplicable and indeed suspicious.
This is a sign of how the Republican Party is adjusting to post-Trump life. It has embraced Trumpism without Trump.

    This is not really a set of policy preferences; the GOP in 2020 passed on a platform beyond allegiance to the Orange Emperor’s whims.

    It is more of a mindless, obnoxious attitude — it’s all about “owning the libs,” spreading conspiracy theories, and waging culture wars as a way to rile up the rabid base and keep the cash register ringing...........

     
    Last edited:
    This could have gone in the covid thread too
    ================================

    In recent years, conservatives have convinced themselves that liberals are a bunch of “snowflakes,” so tender and fragile that they’re ready to collapse at a moment’s criticism. But again and again, we’ve seen how conservatives are the ones pouting about how people aren’t paying enough attention to their delicate feelings.

    And right now, the entire country is about to be held hostage by those feelings, with consequences that literally involve life and death........

    To be clear, there are at least some people in every demographic group who are reluctant to take the vaccine. But as polls have repeatedly shown, it’s Republicans, especially Republican men, who are the biggest problem.....

    But reluctant Republicans seem to want to force the rest of us into contortions as we tiptoe around them, begging them to just think of someone other than themselves for a change. And then there’s the fact that some focus group participants were more concerned about the possible need to take more shots going forward:

    “I feel like this is not going to end. I mean, we’re just going to be shot up and shot up and shot up,” said a man identified as Erzen from New York. “We can’t live like this. This is not sustainable.”
    Click to expand...

    That’s what’s “not sustainable?” Not the life we’ve been living since last spring, with a thousand Americans dying every day and schools closed and businesses bankrupted and social isolation and a wave of depression, but having to get a booster shot once a year? After all we’ve been through and how close we are to putting this nightmare behind us, that’s just too much for you?

    This all feels too familiar.

    After the 2016 election, we in the media became obsessively curious about the feelings of the voters who put Donald Trump in the White House. Which buttons of rage and resentment did Trump push so effectively? What had Democrats failed to understand? The result was a string of safaris to Midwestern diners, producing endless “In Trump Country, Trump Supporters Support Trump” stories.

    All along it was clear that the heart of Trump’s appeal lay in the permission he gave Republicans to not just stop caring about other people’s feelings, but to celebrate giving offense. It was a political style and a philosophy of life, to the point where “owning the libs” became for many their most important goal. Yet the rest of us were supposed to constantly cater to their feelings, lest they rise up again and do even more damage.

    And after being told “This is how you got Trump” a thousand times — that Republicans put such a corrupt and morally repugnant human being in the White House because their feelings were hurt by liberals — Democrats took it to heart in 2020. They nominated the candidate they thought would be least offensive to Republicans, a reassuring avuncular white man who wouldn’t activate prejudices and induce the rage that comes from status anxiety..................

     

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