The Republican Agenda 2021 and Forward

SuperMatt said:
Maybe he should have changed his name to Eric.
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Yeah Trump has it all down to street theatre. Vote for Eric. [and the secretary of state will later certify Trump's own pick? Hah, so Trump could wish].

What's comical about Trump's self-serving ambiguity in endorsing "Eric" in that GOP primary is that it's a twist on the more usual stories about ambiguity on the actual ballot line... candidates trading on a celebrity name and hoping the voters will recognize and go for it. It actually happens on both sides of the aisle now and then.

www.keranews.org

Have you heard the one about the Texas political candidate with the same name as a celebrity?

You may have heard Rick Perry is running for Texas Governor. But it’s not that Rick Perry. You know, the one who used to be governor.
www.keranews.org www.keranews.org
 
SuperMatt said:
Maybe he should have changed his name to Eric.
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In the US Eric is the new Ceasar.




We should possibly point out that we aren't taking jabs at site creator Eric and are referencing Trump's recent endorsement of Eric in the same race of multiple Erics without providing the last name. That's actually pretty hilarious whether it was an oversite or if Trump is using it to wedge his bet.
 
The primaries are insane. John Gibbs from Michigan is a particular annoying republican specimen. Just a Trump bootlicker, a very seemingly-nice man, which is almost worse than the stereotypical Matt Gaetz and MGT assholes because at least with those creeps, you can see why Trump appeals to them. You look at a guy like John Gibbs and the only thing going through your mind is "How in the fuck can you take Trump seriously, at all?"

He's not the only, by far. But he also doesn't come across as an opportunist like JD Vance or whatever that neck bearded carpetbagger's name is.

I honestly try to be respectful of other's opinions. I can understand why people think abortion is wrong, in a generalized sense. I can understand why responsible gun owners feel a certain kind of way about the 2A. There's lots of room for opposing opinions and civility. But when you take a man like Donald fucking Trump seriously - in any way, at all - you've lost me. Perhaps that's my issue to deal with, and clearly a lot of people like him. But that just makes it all the more mysterious to me.
 
GermanSuplex said:
But when you take a man like Donald fucking Trump seriously - in any way, at all - you've lost me. Perhaps that's my issue to deal with, and clearly a lot of people like him. But that just makes it all the more mysterious to me.
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One of the sources it ties to is back a decade ago, the RWers were accusing the nonRWers of regarding Obama as their messiah, which made it ok for them to worship AgentOrange because the other guys did it first (and accusations are not subject to fact-based criticism or refutation).
 
Roller said:
And Alabama's two Senators, Richard "I'm wealthy and don't care "Shelby and Tommy "I'll do whatever I'm told" Tuberville, are also consistent with each other.
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Those guys must not keep up with constiutent data past whether folks wear MAGA hats. I mean Alabama has a military veterans population of over 9%, and only a handful of other US states have stats that high.

www.veteransnewsreport.com

U.S. Veterans Data: Populations by State – Veterans News Report

www.veteransnewsreport.com www.veteransnewsreport.com
 
A real conundrum for sane Republicans is I don't think they could win if they definitely condemned their extremists. They're a liability but also add to their overall numbers.

I don't think you can say the same of the Democrats. The Squad has pretty much been rendered toothless as far as extreme actions and I don't think a large percentage of their constituents are hung up on their identity as much as Trump insurrection supporters.
 
Chew Toy McCoy said:
A real conundrum for sane Republicans is I don't think they could win if they definitely condemned their extremists. They're a liability but also add to their overall numbers.

I don't think you can say the same of the Democrats. The Squad has pretty much been rendered toothless as far as extreme actions and I don't think a large percentage of their constituents are hung up on their identity as much as Trump insurrection supporters.
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The problem with the Trump-cult piece of the GOP's base is that they are not small-d democrats and appear to have zero interest in good faith negotiations across the aisle with Democrats.

The MAGA-hats' approach to steering the Republican Party has long since become a cartoonish acting out of "my way or the highway".

I mean after 60 judges threw 2020 election appeals out of court dozens of states, and given that many of those judges have impeccable conservative credentials and a history of appointment by Republicans... how is it even possible that so many MAGA fans (and now candidates for public office) still believe Trump's big lie that he won the 2020 presidential contest? They remind one of nothing so much as the proverbial lemmings-over-cliff method of deciding what to do next. They are not thinking this stuff through at all, and so appear to be in transmit or re-transmit mode only.​

The Democratic Party has called itself the party of the "big tent" because it does tolerate more diversity of ideas --and so almost always, also a WHOLE lot of squabbling, some of it pretty loud-- about how to advance the America of the constitution's ideals as interpreted along the way.

That never bothered me because I came from a big family with a lot of competing ideas on everything from what was for dinner to whose turn it was to mow the lawn.​
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Sure any of us could end up winner or loser in those arguments, but we didn't come to blows over it. NO FIGHTING didn't mean NO TALKING, so we ran arguments into the ground or quit while still ahead, i.e. someone was EVENTUALLY going to have to take the trash out and might as well get it done before it fricken rained. Hence the trades like I'll mow the lawn next week if you take out the garbage now.​
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Not that dissimilarly, the Dems still believe in dialogue and in compromise on their overall platforms, even if now really tired of feeling they're making "one step forward after two steps backward" when it comes to subsequent battles with Rs in general elections, and so over legislation meant to advance inclusivity in educational and economic opportunity.​

But see somewhere along the line, the fans of Trump have decided that there's no room for other than whatever they happen to think this afternoon... that is, whatever they think after after listening to Trump and his advocates spell out today's talking points and projections of their own failings onto the Dems.

What has seemed really strange is how the R honchos persist in the face of public opinion in the USA that puts the Rs' restrictive views increasingly at odds with their own prospective voters. Strange until we realize that's what's behind the conspiracy theories about election fraud. If they can't attract a voting base big enough to win, they do now hope to overturn election results and rule anyway. I used to think the Rs were nuts to pass some restrictive legislative concepts they were passing because what if the Dems won and then applied those same suddenly inconvenient laws? But the Rs don't mean to accept any electoral losses now.

So but whatever happened to losing an election and just running for office again next time out? If a party's platform is so out of touch with America that it has to do like the Rs have been doing lately --to abandon a policy platform in favor of just elevating its nominee to cult leader and scrambling to pass laws preventing loss of power-- then it becomes clear the party is in an irreversible decline in terms of utility to a democratic republic.

The bigger question is what now in the USA? We're not used to having one party trying to debate policy ideas and a dying party across the aisle that's trying to say F debate and F elections, here's how it's going to be when the dust settles. The dust doesn't settle on stuff like that, it enrages everyone on all sides.
 
Here’s an interesting theory I just heard. Liz Cheney or some other equal clout never Trumper from the right will run in 2024 as an Independent. That way they don’t have to win the Republican primary. They don’t expect to win the general election but they’ll be enough of a spoiler from the right that will assure Trump doesn’t win. This aligns with Cheney’s statement that even if she loses her Congressional seat in the midterms she’ll do everything she can to keep Trump out of the White House. :unsure:
 
Chew Toy McCoy said:
Here’s an interesting theory I just heard. Liz Cheney or some other equal clout never Trumper from the right will run in 2024 as an Independent. That way they don’t have to win the Republican primary. They don’t expect to win the general election but they’ll be enough of a spoiler from the right that will assure Trump doesn’t win. This aligns with Cheney’s statement that even if she loses her Congressional seat in the midterms she’ll do everything she can to keep Trump out of the White House. :unsure:
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A serious third party appeal from the never-Trump Republicans in 2024? Entirely possible. Less so if Trump is not pick of the GOP litter at that point, but if the frontrunning nominee apparent at that time looks to be a down-the-line Trump advocate, it's still a probable scenario.

It would be even more interesting if in 2024 a mantra that began like "anybody but Trump" --again-- turned out to be "anybody but Trump or Biden". The anti-Trump conservatives probably hope to be able to pull in some blue dog Democrats to improve chance of defeating a Trump or wannabe-Trump so they're not going to be running a hair-on-fire right winger. They'll be appealing to someone who in comparison at least looks far more mainstream.

An unexpsectedly appealing third party run is not without precedent, of course: in 1992, the pop vote swings weren't concentrated enough in electoral-vote geography when Ross Perot put an actual fear of voters back into both parties, racking up 19% of the popular vote, even while not taking the EV in any state. But it sure God woke up the honchos in both parties, particularly because Perot came in first in some counties in six or eight states, and in some of those areas garnered as much as 40% of the vote.

Not sure when the younger generations right now are going to pull the plug on the entrenched power structures in both major parties, but 2024 might be a remarkable on-ramp, the way things are going.

The gen Z are six years older and wiser than they were in 2016, and they were getting fired up already about what a messed-up set of circumstances the boomers and silent gen are leaving them and their slightly older compatriots to deal with.

"There is always one moment in childhood when a door opens and lets the future in."​
--Graham Greene​

The trick is for the Gen Z all to turn up at the polls and vote. The truth is that their American lives depend on their doing exactly that. Otherwise it might not matter how they would vote down the road, if the Trump-hijacked GOP eventually has its way with rigged courts supporting laws overturning unwanted election results.
 
lizkat said:
A serious third party appeal from the never-Trump Republicans in 2024? Entirely possible. Less so if Trump is not pick of the GOP litter at that point, but if the frontrunning nominee apparent at that time looks to be a down-the-line Trump advocate, it's still a probable scenario.

It would be even more interesting if in 2024 a mantra that began like "anybody but Trump" --again-- turned out to be "anybody but Trump or Biden". The anti-Trump conservatives probably hope to be able to pull in some blue dog Democrats to improve chance of defeating a Trump or wannabe-Trump so they're not going to be running a hair-on-fire right winger. They'll be appealing to someone who in comparison at least looks far more mainstream.

An unexpsectedly appealing third party run is not without precedent, of course: in 1992, the pop vote swings weren't concentrated enough in electoral-vote geography when Ross Perot put an actual fear of voters back into both parties, racking up 19% of the popular vote, even while not taking the EV in any state. But it sure God woke up the honchos in both parties, particularly because Perot came in first in some counties in six or eight states, and in some of those areas garnered as much as 40% of the vote.

Not sure when the younger generations right now are going to pull the plug on the entrenched power structures in both major parties, but 2024 might be a remarkable on-ramp, the way things are going.

The gen Z are six years older and wiser than they were in 2016, and they were getting fired up already about what a messed-up set of circumstances the boomers and silent gen are leaving them and their slightly older compatriots to deal with.

"There is always one moment in childhood when a door opens and lets the future in."​
--Graham Greene​

The trick is for the Gen Z all to turn up at the polls and vote. The truth is that their American lives depend on their doing exactly that. Otherwise it might not matter how they would vote down the road, if the Trump-hijacked GOP eventually has its way with rigged courts supporting laws overturning unwanted election results.
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If Cheney loses her Congressional seat it will be because of Trump. It would be karmic justice if she plays a big part in him losing a second term. Similarly, Garland denied a seat on the Supreme Court ends up being the one who locks Trump up as head of the DOJ. Although, that would also be a massive favor for McConnell.
 
The thing about republicans that Trump hasn’t figured out is that he’s as done as burnt Texas Toast once he’s no longer valuable to them. Ted Cruz, Lindsey Graham and McConnell will gladly badmouth Trump once kissing his ass is no longer beneficial to them and denouncing him is politically expedient. Trump is getting played by them as much as they are him. Yeah, republicans had a long time and many opportunities to do the right thing and throw him overboard over the past several years, but there hasn’t been someone who appeals to the base like Trump since Reagan. Not either Bush and certainly not Romney. They had Obama as a punching bag, but you can’t run against someone who isn’t in office - at least not if you want to win. Hillary lost, Obama won re-election by galvanizing his supporters and enough independents… but Trump is the first marketable candidate they’ve had in three or four decades. He also gave them the “benefit” of getting racism and replacement theory mainstreamed.

But there will come a time where the gains of having a fervent base become a liability and being sane becomes popular again, and when that happens and republicans lose power - and they will, because they are a shrinking party - Trump will be castigated by these same elected officials and influencers. I mean, Fox News spent 8 years telling us how great guys like Bush, Cheney, McCain, Bolton and other neocons were. They were solidly behind Romney in 2012 as he lurched to the right after being a moderate. Look at how they feel about those guys now. Trump isn’t immune from that same treatment. It’s a question of how worse do things get before we get to that point.
 
lizkat said:
Those guys must not keep up with constiutent data past whether folks wear MAGA hats. I mean Alabama has a military veterans population of over 9%, and only a handful of other US states have stats that high.
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You wouldn’t believe how many vets don’t mind shooting themselves in the foot and can’t stand the Dems. I’m always shocked.
 
Alli said:
You wouldn’t believe how many vets don’t mind shooting themselves in the foot and can’t stand the Dems. I’m always shocked.
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Truth be told I know a few of those myself, thanks to having got to know some local friends of my late youngest brother. Some of their significant others might not feel the same way -- just my sense from some church hall kitchen chats over pots and pans-- but they're women and don't generally volunteer political opinions in public, so elected officials don't get their feedback. I have no idea if they vote the way their husbands talk.
 
She’s not vile enough to suit our Christian values
nypost.com

Wyoming GOP won’t recognize Liz Cheney as member over anti-Trump stance

The party’s central committee voted 31-29 over the weekend to take the step against Cheney, the daughter of former Vice President Dick Cheney.
nypost.com nypost.com

Liz Cheney, I’ve never been a fan of Darth Cheney’s daughter, but she is becoming a poster girl for what happens in the Republican Party if you hold anyone accountable for their misdeeds, their vile corruptness, their attempted Coup, the destruction of American Democracy, or lord help you, you become an apostate in the Cult of Trump and cross His Mighty Putridness.

NPR sent some reporters to Wyoming where most are Republicans, and the reasons being given for abandoning Cheney in the current Election, she no longer represents the views of the people of Wyoming, ie…OH HOW HEINOUS. She acted like an adult, she is holding The Head POS accountable along with his Jan 6 Insurrectionist suckers.

No I don’t want you to manufacture 10000 votes, I want you to “find” them.
Let’s March to the Capitol and fight like hell!

This is how The Oozing Pestilence functions, as stupid as it is about a great many things, it is smart enough to mostly never directly incriminate itself, it never says it where it can be heard or recorded, it makes suggestions that leave legal grounds for deniability, and to those assimilated, if they end up on his jury, they know their marching orders.

Trump is a Putin wannabe, his minion, he idolizes strong dictators, but he does not yet hold Putin’s grip on power. Where at a casual glance Putin might have been confused for just a murdering autocrat, now the cloak is off and the world realizes he has turned Russia into the World’s most dangerous (by virtue of nukes) mass murdering, country destroying, world threat we face. In regards to Ukraine, he has made apocalyptic threats directed at anyone who interferes.

A message to Republicans, Trump is no different if he is allowed infect the Federal Government. By eliminating Liz Cheney and replacing her with another Trump Stooge who pulls the shades down over your eyes, pedaling THE BIG LIE, you will be held morally accountable for the destruction of the Untied States of America if and when our Republic falls. :cry:
 
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National Public Radio is a gem. They profiled the new book:

www.penguinrandomhouse.com

The Destructionists by Dana Milbank: 9780593466391 | PenguinRandomHouse.com: Books

NEW YORK TIMES BEST SELLER • A scalding history of twenty-five years of Republican attempts to hold on to political power by any means necessary, by a hugely popular Washington Post political...
www.penguinrandomhouse.com www.penguinrandomhouse.com

A mix of what this book is about and my perspective:
  • It started with Slimey Newt who decided that truth was a liability and Lies are much more productive.
  • A direct attack on the basics of Democracy that has been going for 25 years.
  • The Republican base believes lies, no facts, no proof required.
  • Racism- Propelled by the fear of the White loss of influence.
  • How and why we started The Iraq War.
  • Vince Foster murdered by Hillary Clinton.
  • Obama born in Kenya.
  • Global Warming is a hoax.
  • Trump is under attack, they’ll be coming for you next!!
  • Hey, we need to throw out our Espionage Law to protect Lord and Master.
You might ask are liberals just as bad as the Republican base? I’d hope that the liberals would expect proof of any such accusations. With the GOP you just have to say it and the base cheers, the bar is set low , your good to go.

I can imagine the GOP leadership sits around and discuss lying like you would talk about campaign strategies. :unsure:
Be very clear, today’s GOP is a direct and dire threat to the United States of America. :oops:
 
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This cartoon is from the wayback of Trump era but nothing about its premises seems to have changed. Precious few in the GOP leadership have toned down their adulation of Trump just because his base nature is more exposed than ever.

Naked Emperor Imagines He's Covered.jpg
 
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