The Republican Party Has Flat Out Lost Its Mind

[LFC]

Apr 21, 2021 21:36:00 GMT jackd said:

It wasn't all Trump. There was this guy, McConnell, who ran the Senate.

Who followed in the footsteps of this other guy named Gingrich who ran the House.

[jackd]

Looks like the party, not the individual, doesn't it?

[LFC]

Apr 21, 2021 23:45:16 GMT jackd said:

Looks like the party, not the individual, doesn't it?

Yessir but Trump did two things. First he made the regular assholes more comfortable in their assholiness. Second he pulled the deplorables from out of the shadows and empowered them. As the quote I've posted before goes:

He did, however, also horrify man people as well which made them more aware of the insanity engulfing the right.

[jackd]

Many observers have commented that Trump didn't just motivate his supremicist backers; he also motivated the rest of us, and while he did get a huge number of votes, our side got significantly more. That is likely to continue.

[Bact PhD]

Apr 22, 2021 0:33:32 GMT jackd said:

Many observers have commented that Trump didn't just motivate his supremicist backers; he also motivated the rest of us, and while he did get a huge number of votes, our side got significantly more. That is likely to continue.

I sincerely hope your analysis of things going forward is correct for at least the near-term future.

[Deleted]

Apr 22, 2021 0:33:32 GMT jackd said:

Many observers have commented that Trump didn't just motivate his supremicist backers; he also motivated the rest of us, and while he did get a huge number of votes, our side got significantly more. That is likely to continue.

Hence, the Republicans are scrambling to pass bills to eliminate the increased participation. In Nov '22 we will know which side succeeded.

[andydp]

Apr 22, 2021 15:20:14 GMT @probabilistic3 said:

Apr 22, 2021 0:33:32 GMT jackd said:

Many observers have commented that Trump didn't just motivate his supremicist backers; he also motivated the rest of us, and while he did get a huge number of votes, our side got significantly more. That is likely to continue.

Hence, the Republicans are scrambling to pass bills to eliminate the increased participation. In Nov '22 we will know which side succeeded.

The way to counteract this is to have some major GOTV efforts aimed at making sure all voter registration applications are perfect, and find a work around restrictions about taking people to vote.  

[LFC]

Georgia's AG just resigned his position with a group that helped promote The Big Lie and the rally that turned into the Jan 6 Republican Insurrection. I guess treason is a step too far for him. Obviously e doesn't have a future in the GOP with that kind of attitude.

Georgia Attorney General Chris Carr (R) resigned from his position as chair of the Republican Attorneys General Association, the Atlanta-Journal Constitution reported Thursday, as the organization has faced scrutiny for promoting the Jan. 6 rally that led to the insurrection on the U.S. Capitol.

Carr, in an April 16 resignation letter obtained by AJC, cited a “significant difference of opinion” among the organization’s leadership, with the “fundamental” difference beginning after Jan. 6 and the “opposite views” about the “significance” of the events of that day. He also referenced “resistance by some” to the decision of the group’s executive director Adam Piper to resign in the fallout from the controversy over RAGA’s connection to the riot.

The day before the Jan. 6 mob, RAGA’s fundraising arm, the Rule of Law Defense Fund, sent robocalls urging recipients to “march to the Capitol building and call on Congress to stop the steal.”

In the aftermath of the violent ransacking on the Capitol, the Republican attorneys general belonging to the umbrella group distanced themself from the robocalls hyping the march. Piper, who also headed up the defense fund, has claimed that “No Republican AG authorized the staff’s decision to amplify a colleague speaking at the rally.”

[LFC]

Did you know cities around the country were in flames and overrun with rioters? Apparently that's now the Republican take on "reality" as they try to screech over the actual substantive problems brought up by BLM.

If you watch Fox News or other conservative media, you might think America’s cities are engulfed in flame right now. They are not.

We’ve seen it before. In the wake of the insurrection, conservative media and Republicans alike attempted to distract from conversations about who and what might have incited the attempted-coup by handwringing over the amorphous “antifa” and falsely equating the violent storming of the U.S. Capitol to Black Lives Matter protests over the summer.

Now, on the heels of the guilty verdict that a jury in George Floyd’s cases announced Tuesday for former Minneapolis police officer Derek Chauvin, conservatives are employing a similar tactic — pushing the idea of an America up-in-flames likely to avoid engaging seriously on another issue; this time the issue of police brutality as a symptom of systemic racism.

While President Biden pledges to use “the power of his presidency” to put pressure on Congress to move the George Floyd Justice in Policing Act forward with bipartisan support, Republican lawmakers and Fox News primetime hosts demonize the Black Lives Matter movement and propel a false narrative that America’s cities have been overrun with rioters or that fear of unrest influenced the jury’s decision.

Hours after Chauvin’s verdict was announced Tuesday evening, Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene (R-GA) falsely suggested that Washington, D.C. was “completely dead” out of “fear of riots” and argued that the Black Lives Matter movement poses a “terrorist threat.”

The congresswoman was duly roasted on Twitter for her claim that the city was “dead.”

And the fear-mongering about violence is rich coming from Greene. As a Trump loyalist who egged on the then-president’s efforts to challenge Joe Biden’s electoral victory on Jan. 6, which ultimately led to the deadly Capitol insurrection, Greene was also stripped of her committee assignments after social media posts surfaced of her spouting dangerous far-right conspiracy theory and musing about violence against her Democratic colleagues.

The outrage-over-rioters narrative has been woven outside of the walls of Congress, too.

Faux News was up to it's ears in this cesspool of lies as well because of course they were.

[LFC]

Two more entries from TPM's member's only series of posts written by subscribers called Making Sense of the Post-Trump Era.

You asked, “What Sense Are You Making of the Post-Trump Era?”

Well, there is simply a mixture of relief and apprehension.

The relief is for the obvious things: The relatively smooth deployments of the Covid vaccines, a steady hand at the helm of state, government doing what the federal government should do, no more intentional twitter eruptions and all of that. Considering where we were on January 20th, it is immensely comforting to be where we are right now.

One thing that I have been pleasantly surprised is how it seems most Democrats, particularly the Biden administration, understand that the Republicans are not just bad faith actors, but are authoritarian in temperament. This is something I understood about the Republican party after observing them during the Clinton administration, being led by guys like Gingrich and Delay. I just think this puts them in a stronger negotiating position than how the Obama administration handled them.

But there is this gnawing sense that all this good feeling I have is just an illusion. Nightmare scenarios pop into my head where things turn bad very quickly. A frequent one is a Senate seat, from just the right state, will suddenly open up and then we’re back with Majority Leader McConnell. After that, the the Breyer SCOTUS seat opens up and McConnell refuses to fill it until the next Republican President.

Mostly, the apprehension I have relates to 2022. The Republican voter suppression bills making it not just difficult but maybe impossible for Democrats to ever win state and certain local elections, particularly in Texas where I live. The extreme Republican gerrymandering will ensure control of the House will flip.

Interestingly after writing this out, all of these concerns I’ve expressed have little to do with Trump. Despite the fact Republicans lost the Congress and Presidency under Trump, they seem to be in a stronger position for the next ten years. They firmly control many of the state legislatures and SCOTUS. And the Republicans may be clever enough in creating these anti-democratic laws that may just pass constitutional muster with the now heavily Republican appointed federal courts.

I’m certain all of these are just perceptions rather than reality. Maybe I should be more optimistic. After all, Biden has gotten a lot done in 100 days. I hope he continues this.

That is why I rely a lot on you and TPM to set my mind straight. Thank you for the great reporting over the many years I followed you.

So, by far the biggest outcome for me from the “Post Trump Era” (and to some extent I need to move the date back to November 2016 to describe this fully) is the realization that a lot of middle class white Americans (I’m in that group) are still racist as hell. Prior to that the racism was couched in careful language, was eased out with a nod and a wink that indicated that maybe someone still wasn’t on board with the modern state of the world.

What I think was most upsetting was that friends, people I knew well, suddenly decided that full-on racism was back in vogue, and that they had permission to speak freely on it. It’s bad enough that the guy running the cash register at the liquor store says something inappropriate, but when they guy you’ve known for 20 years does it you realize that, holy crap, he’s been hiding it from me all this time because I didn’t agree with him when he offered the verbal equivalent of the secret Klan handshake.

Now that it’s 2021 the new dynamic is for these people to speak of living in fear for their lives, getting guns and taking gun training because dark people are going to overrun their neighborhoods. The loony stuff about stolen elections and secret government cabals aren’t as big a deal when you’re sitting across the virtual table playing a board game. But when they start lecturing you on living in fear of the dark-skinned people, and they mean it, I’m completely repulsed. These people are all around us, and it is stunning how many of them see themselves as the defenders of Christian values. My board gaming hobby is chock-a-block with white Christians and a couple of them are racist as hell. They have no problem squaring that.

I’ve stopped associating with many people I had casual friendships with because, frankly, life is too short to deal with evil when it’s that easy to simply avoid. The good go out with the bad because I’m no longer willing to attend the meet ups where both still intermingle.

So that’s what Post-Trump-Era is for me. My friend circle has been greatly reduced not because the people have changed, but because they’ve clearly stated that they never will. That’s what four years of crazy left me with. The country continues to split in two.

[pnwguy]

www.nytimes.com/2021/04/22/opinion/trump-gop.html

David Brooks sees the cancer in the party going systemic.

[LFC]

Howard Dean tells it like it is.

The Republican Party has suffered a total moral collapse and is now held together by a bunch of “nutcases” happy to endorse autocracy and neo-fascism, according to Howard Dean, the former presidential candidate and ex-chairman of the Democratic National Committee.

The Democratic Party grandee tells Molly Jong-Fast he won’t run for office again, so he is no longer treading on eggshells, in a fiery edition of The New Abnormal.

Dean said there are still one or two decent Republicans in Washington, D.C. but they lack the backbone to stand up to the people who have taken over the party.

“I hate to call Republicans right-wing fascists because often they supported me, but this is unrecognizable,” he said. “They believe in autocracy, not democracy, they are racist. It’s just shocking what’s happened to the Republican Party.”

He has said Republican members of the House of Representatives were particularly inept. “There are some House Republicans who are basically a sentient YouTube comment section,” Dean said. “They have nothing to contribute, frankly, to American politics, except for incendiary and sometimes delusional public statements.”

After the Jan. 6 insurrection, Dean said the need to keep these people from power has become all-encompassing, and he called on members of the progressive wing of the Democratic Party to follow the lead of Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez in moderating their language while continuing to push their agenda within the Democratic framework because the alternative—a Republican administration containing the likes of Sen. Josh Hawley and former Secretary of State Mike Pompeo—is too alarming.

“These people are crazy. They’re conspiracy theorists, they’re whack jobs. They’re embedding their own reality. I mean, if they ever really run the country, it’s going to be a disaster for us. ’Cause you... this is why autocrats don’t run good economies, because they start believing in their own BS,” he said.

“You have a Republican Party, which emotionally, essentially are neo-fascist. They fundamentally do not believe that another legitimate point of view exists other than theirs.”

[pnwguy]

I listened to the podcast today, prior to seeing this post. It sure is depressing.

I fear we are in a 2 year lull, but that the 2021 gerrymandering, voter suppression, and 2022 congressional elections will bring the 4th Reich back to power. And this time they will use blood in the streets tactics.

[jackd]

The real danger is that the midterms don't bring out voters like presidential elections and the right wing may be the most motivated. I hope not.

[goldenvalley]

Apr 24, 2021 1:43:03 GMT pnwguy said:

They tried it once on 1/6.  The next time they'll be more sneaky in communicating, more organized, and more willing to use the bombs and firearms.  I hope the FBI is up to the task of keeping track of the terrorists.

[Deleted]

Apr 24, 2021 14:53:14 GMT jackd said:

The real danger is that the midterms don't bring out voters like presidential elections and the right wing may be the most motivated. I hope not.

Redistricting will be enough to give Republicans the House in '22. More states under Republican control are up for redistricting than Democratic.

[andydp]

I was tempted to put this in the humor thread, but is not from The Onion.

Befuddled Larry Kudlow Rails That Biden Will Force Americans To Guzzle ‘Plant-Based Beer’

So no more beer made of grains, yeast and hops? Oh, wait ...

Now that Donald Trump’s former economic adviser Larry Kudlow has taken his words of wisdom from the White House to Fox News, he wants the nation to know that President Joe Biden is plotting to force Americans to drink “plant-based beer.”


www.huffpost.com/entry/larry-kudlow-plant-based-beer-joe-biden_n_6084b41ae4b0ccb91c24f815?fbclid=IwAR2a1C7XvF_8-OeYb-aIDrvKhNyTgebDGoetN3tPKc3US834Bqb_nzW7P-o

The best of many great tweets

[jackd]

Next he'll be forcing us to consume plant based whiskey and wine as well!

[Deleted]

Apr 25, 2021 21:21:59 GMT jackd said:

Next he'll be forcing us to consume plant based whiskey and wine as well!

Plant based salad? Oh, the humanity!

[LFC]

Larry Kudlow is still suffering from all that plant-based cocaine he jammed up his nose.

[Deleted]

Apr 26, 2021 13:08:03 GMT LFC said:

Larry Kudlow is still suffering from all that plant-based cocaine he jammed up his nose.

What's jammed up Kudlow's nose is the digestive detritus of hamburgers. He can't smell the cocoa. 

[LFC]

Bill Kristol and several Republican strategists created the GOP Accountability Project to showcase those Republican members of Congress who have defended democracy and those who didn't. Spoiler Alert: A lot more didn't. (I'm shocked, shocked I say.)

Our Capitol was attacked by a mob that believed that the 2020 election was being stolen. They were encouraged by the lies and actions of President Trump and many Republican members of Congress. In the name of accountability, it’s vitally important we remember which Congressional Republicans stood with democracy and the Constitution, and which did not.

The Congress critters from my state of Pennsylvania are almost all rated D- or F. My former Rep., before the unwinding of the GOP gerrymandering, made it to C-. Sen. Pat Toomey (no prize by any stretch) got an A but then of course he's not running for reelection. Republicans in Congress only seem to find their stones when they have little or nothing to lose.

[Deleted]

"Joe Biden’s climate plan includes cutting 90% of red meat from our diets by 2030,” Rep. Lauren Boebert (R-Colo.) tweeted on Saturday. “They want to limit us to about four pounds a year. Why doesn’t Joe stay out of my kitchen?"

Yes, I wholeheartedly agree. Joe Biden, for that manner any sane person, should steer clear of Ms. Boebert's kitchen. The stench of what she's cooking is unbearable.

[LFC]

Classic right-wing do as I say and not as I do. Here's an online ammunition shop that says it won't sell to anybody who voted for Biden because one of his proposed policies was to shut down online gun and ammo sales. OK, fair enough. I can understand that. But, of course, this is the same right-wing that screeches when big tech companies refuse to do business with people who spread lies that undermine our nation. As the author of the piece says you can have it one way or the other, not both.

A Michigan-based ammunition shop is refusing to sell to any customer who voted for President Joe Biden in the 2020 election. "We've had a few potential customers call this morning to ask why they have to check a box stating they did not vote for Joe Biden in order to purchase our ammunition," Fenix Ammunition tweeted yesterday morning.

The answer: "Joe Biden ran on a campaign built on the most radical gun control platform a major party candidate has ever had, including banning the online sale of ammunition." This, says Fenix, is "essentially, a plan to bankrupt our company."

Fenix Ammunition's announcement has provoked a wave of positive attention from the right. Many are applauding the company for sticking up for its beliefs and declining to do business with people it sees as a threat to its business model.

"Private company," tweeted perennial MAGA gadfly Jack Posobiec, the implication being that because Fenix is private, it can do what it wants.

He's right, of course. Fenix is perfectly within its rights to reject customers who voted for Biden, or for any other reason related to a person's politics.

So is Twitter. And YouTube. And Facebook. And Reddit. And so on…

Yet when it comes to these private companies rejecting customers based on their ideological beliefs and political statements, Posobiec and many, many others on the right have been whining and objecting nonstop. They insist it violates their rights, somehow. They champion proposals to force these private actors to carry speech they disagree with and cater to customer bases they find objectionable. They support federal action to punish private businesses for not being politically "neutral."

So which is it when private companies get political—a brave and respectable act, or something that should be totally disallowed and result in anyone who tries it getting destroyed?

Conservatives can't have it both ways.

The author then pulls the libertarian superiority card which I find kind of amusing due to my generally low opinion of libertarianism but that could be a whole other thread. In fact I think it was on the old TRS.

[Deleted]

Being obnoxious is not a new marketing strategy.