They remind me of the endless headlines over the years (decades, actually) of how the Republican party is ready to collapse or implode or explode or insert-other-ominous-word-here.
As with all those failed predictions of the GOP going the way of the dodo bird, until I see Trump in an orange jumpsuit I won’t believe any of the shit they claim will happen.
@Hazdaz I kind of feel like the GOP has imploded, though. Since Trump especially (and really I think this strain of anti-democracy conservativism dates back to the 2000 election where they saw that they could just bully their way into stealing elections), there doesn’t seem to be much of the Republican Party that preceeded him left. Now it’s all antidemocratic fascists and nutjobs. Just because they call themselves Republicans and win elections doesn’t mean their politics really has anything to do with what their party stands for on paper.
I think it’s more a case of being careful what you wish for. Yes, they imploded. Yes, they don’t really exist anymore. What has supplanted them is so much worse
I really hate this perspective. It’s just plain wrong.
Trump DID NOT change the Republican party. He only made them think the mask was no longer necessary. They’ve been pro war, pro tax cuts, pro business, pro rich, pro racism, and anti-democracy… for literally decades.
Now that they’re not using platitudes and not couching their rhetoric in obvious lies it’s suddenly evil?!
Hell, he wasn’t even the first time they rioted after losing an election. That happened in 2000, when paid republican operatives disrupted the recount that would have confirmed al gore as president long enough for the supreme court to step in and award the state (and, therefore, the presidency) to dubya without counting the votes at all. Google ‘brooks brothers riot’, several Republican staffers openly acknowledge that they were there to use violence in order to stop the votes from being counted despite initial claims that they were only there to observe the process and ensure that it was fair. This includes congressman John Sweeney, who said “What I essential told my people was ‘You’ve got to stop them.’” Trump thought he could get away with this because Bush already had gotten away with it. They even planned copycat riots in Arizona and Nevada in 2020 because it worked the first time.
In the last 30 years Republicans have won the presidency 3 times despite having only gotten more votes than the other guy once. They have had two riots after elections, one of which successfully delayed counting votes long enough for the Republican to be installed as president, and one which failed to delay certification long enough to install the Republican. They are against democracy and in favor of violence. They consistently act with those values in mind. They are enemies of democracy and freedom.
That happened in 2000, when paid republican operatives disrupted the recount that would have confirmed al gore as president long enough for the supreme court to step in and award the state (and, therefore, the presidency) to dubya without counting the votes at all. Google ‘brooks brothers riot’
It just completely blows my mind that this happened and, more so, that it was allowed to stand after the fact. I think I read somewhere that Gore decided not to contest it in order to not mess with the peaceful transfer of power, but man…
Just imagine how world events had played out if Al Gore had been president on and after September 11th, 2001. Imagine the progress we could have made on climate change 24 years ago. I understand that it’s pure speculation, that he could have been a lukewarm president. But come on, he would have been loads better that GWB even if all he did was twirl his fingers.
Absolutely based post. I’ve recognized what they truly were 20 years ago. There is a slight distinction - the republican party always had 4 stools (people used to say three stools but I never agreed).
First stool is the wealthy just wanting to make more money (tax cuts, tax welfare, regulation capture, etc). This is the true stool in power pulling the strings of all the other stools. They know they can never win a popular vote (why would the workers vote to lower their own wages?). They ride the Santa sled with the big bag of money, the reigns are connected to the lesser stools, and they ride that sled into the bank
Second stool is the religious vote - really captured by Reagan I believe with the invention of the abortion issue, but they go as far back as Goldwater I believe, because he warned about them. These are the reindeer of the money sled
Third stool is the racists, the KKK types in the south. These are also the reindeer
Fourth stool is what I consider the conspiracy theory crowd - they sort of share the stool with the uneducated morons who can’t seem to figure out what their best interests are (“get gobernment off my Medicare, vote republican”). This stool might fall under the “undecided” crowd by some metrics, but they fall victim to the usual right wing lies and propaganda all the fucking time, so I don’t see why we can’t just label them as they truly are, the useful idiot voters of the republican propaganda arm
As a whole, these groups are the same pieces of shit that love Trump because he’s talks to them with a bullhorn, not through dog whistles like previous republicans, that’s the difference some of you might not appreciate
Edit - one distinction I think is needed is the people who fell for the dog whistles were usually of the authoritarian/fascist type. For example, There were pretty decent religious people or business people who felt the wrong message was being presented by the republican party, but the authoritarians/fascists always fell in line behind the republicans/conservatives. Still the case today
They would’ve done the same things, especially if they got the supreme court stacked like Trump did but without the extra drama.
It’d just be Mitt Romney spouting about protecting marriage and family values from erosion by all those miscreants instead of ol’ Marge TG spouting off about the drag queens grooming your kids at the library.
If anything, it’s actually a blessing Trump pulled the mask off. Now, only the truly dense or selfish fail to understand or admit how vile the Republican “leadership” is.
Yeah, I feel like the Republican Party has evolved (or devolved) into what they are now, but it’s not like they hadn’t already been moving in this direction anyways, he accelerated it if anything. Trump took advantage of a Party that wanted a “strongman”, he brought the racism, billionaire businessman background, toxic masculinity and performances you might normally see in wrestling back room drama or talk radio, and a feigned devotion to the Church (that was probably his weakest trait, thus Mike Pence). He brought together a lot of elements of the Republican Party that were already all there, just not really ever focused in one person with such a shitty moral compass and motivation to take advantage of the GOP. Pre-Trump, the GOP has mostly had boring business people like George Bush, Mitt Romney, Bob Dole, and Newt Gingrich and others, nobody really “inspiring” to them like Ronald Reagan.
He is not as free as you might think. For example: If attempted to leave the country right now, he would be arrested. He cannot go anywhere without a secret service detail and he isn’t legally allowed to drive himself anymore. He is being watched and monitored all day, every day.
Hopefully, when he sentenced he will actually be put behind bars and not on “house arrest” in a mansion.
The GOP dies with the Boomers so we still have a bit before it goes away. The DNC will become the new right but it will be because the center moves left and a Progressive Party is formed.
It not archaic, but the republican party will have to make shifts to survive, whether that be further gerrymandering states to favor them, or pivoting on toxic policies, but the real truth is they lost a whole generation
They won’t die, but if they make no changes, they will be referenced like today’s green party. No one will think them capable of winning an election.
I agree they won’t die but they will take a hit. As of 2021, 23% of Americans aged 18 to 29 are conservative, compared to 45% of Americans aged 65 and up.
Unfortunately it’s a very sheltered thought bud. Wherever you live, all the boomers must be the republicans.
Where I live I see teenagers in maga hats regularly. When I meet someone who isn’t a hardline Trump supporter it literally shocks me.
Things might go back to some sanity at some point, but it’s hard to imagine when everyone is being radicalized every day through extreme forms of media on the internet.
When I was younger I fully believed that the world would become more progressive because, well, progress. Most of the more liberal kids I grew up with are hardcore republicans coming up on their 40s now posting liberal tears memes.
I don’t know. Maybe we’ll get lucky. I definitely hope we do.
There are plenty of rightwing pipelines out there for young people, regardless of their parents. With people like Joe Rogan and Jordan Peterson, along with a much more online life so they can find and reinforce each other, I’d say it’s a much friendlier environment for right wing radicalization among young people than 20-30 years ago. The backbone of the Republican party may be old bigots, but at least some people in the movement are working very hard to generate young bigots to replace them and racism, sexism, and transphobia aren’t things only old people are prone to.
Looking at all the MAGA rallies over the last years, it looked like most attendants were significantly younger than Boomer age. Same with the guys who fly Trump flags on their pickup trucks. Same with the January 6 crowd. Same with the Proud Boys. Same with Bikers for Trump. Same with Moms for Liberty.
I think it’s wishful thinking to believe that the GOP will just disappear when the last Boomer dies. The GOP has already transformed into the party of Trump over the last couple of years, and it will keep on transforming.
It would take significantly more than old people dying fit them GOP to vanish.
MAGA is made up of people who are the scum of society. Criminals, con artists, drug dealers, etc… Hopefully you don’t think that is who the majority of voters are.
As the saying goes, “If there’s a Nazi at the table and 10 other people sitting there talking to him, you got a table with 11 Nazis.”
I don’t care how many Republicans are troubled by Trump’s behavior, I don’t care how many Republicans think he’s a bit too much, I don’t care how many Republicans dislike the MAGA movement.
Talk is cheap.
74 million voters decided that they wanted Trump to be president for another term in 2020, decided to give Trump their vote, decided to support Trump.
There are an awful lot of prominent Republicans among Gen-X and Millennials. 36-year-old grandmother Lauren Boebert; 41 year old Matt Gaetz; 49 year old MTG. Milo Yiannopoulos is 39. The “Proud Boys” founder is 39. Founder of the Oathkeepers is 57 (just barely Gen-X). College Republicans are a thing.
As a San Franciscan I’m not sure if I’m offended by the idea of him being that close, or intrigued by the idea of being able to hop a boat to go point and laugh at him
I think putting the former POTUS in solitary confinement indefinitely is probably too cruel even for his largest detractors. I mean that’s straight torture.
Not to mention he can still blab to the guards and clearing guards is more trouble than its worth. Most likely he’ll be confined to house arrest for his sentence. Hopefully he’ll be banned from using the internet or engaging with media agencies.
I’m so sick of these headlines.
They remind me of the endless headlines over the years (decades, actually) of how the Republican party is ready to collapse or implode or explode or insert-other-ominous-word-here.
As with all those failed predictions of the GOP going the way of the dodo bird, until I see Trump in an orange jumpsuit I won’t believe any of the shit they claim will happen.
@Hazdaz I kind of feel like the GOP has imploded, though. Since Trump especially (and really I think this strain of anti-democracy conservativism dates back to the 2000 election where they saw that they could just bully their way into stealing elections), there doesn’t seem to be much of the Republican Party that preceeded him left. Now it’s all antidemocratic fascists and nutjobs. Just because they call themselves Republicans and win elections doesn’t mean their politics really has anything to do with what their party stands for on paper.
I think it’s more a case of being careful what you wish for. Yes, they imploded. Yes, they don’t really exist anymore. What has supplanted them is so much worse
@YoBuckStopsHere
I really hate this perspective. It’s just plain wrong.
Trump DID NOT change the Republican party. He only made them think the mask was no longer necessary. They’ve been pro war, pro tax cuts, pro business, pro rich, pro racism, and anti-democracy… for literally decades.
Now that they’re not using platitudes and not couching their rhetoric in obvious lies it’s suddenly evil?!
Hell, he wasn’t even the first time they rioted after losing an election. That happened in 2000, when paid republican operatives disrupted the recount that would have confirmed al gore as president long enough for the supreme court to step in and award the state (and, therefore, the presidency) to dubya without counting the votes at all. Google ‘brooks brothers riot’, several Republican staffers openly acknowledge that they were there to use violence in order to stop the votes from being counted despite initial claims that they were only there to observe the process and ensure that it was fair. This includes congressman John Sweeney, who said “What I essential told my people was ‘You’ve got to stop them.’” Trump thought he could get away with this because Bush already had gotten away with it. They even planned copycat riots in Arizona and Nevada in 2020 because it worked the first time.
In the last 30 years Republicans have won the presidency 3 times despite having only gotten more votes than the other guy once. They have had two riots after elections, one of which successfully delayed counting votes long enough for the Republican to be installed as president, and one which failed to delay certification long enough to install the Republican. They are against democracy and in favor of violence. They consistently act with those values in mind. They are enemies of democracy and freedom.
It just completely blows my mind that this happened and, more so, that it was allowed to stand after the fact. I think I read somewhere that Gore decided not to contest it in order to not mess with the peaceful transfer of power, but man…
Just imagine how world events had played out if Al Gore had been president on and after September 11th, 2001. Imagine the progress we could have made on climate change 24 years ago. I understand that it’s pure speculation, that he could have been a lukewarm president. But come on, he would have been loads better that GWB even if all he did was twirl his fingers.
MLK Jr DID warn everyone about the complacency of the comfortable… Too bad people suck at listening to difficult but good advice.
Absolutely based post. I’ve recognized what they truly were 20 years ago. There is a slight distinction - the republican party always had 4 stools (people used to say three stools but I never agreed).
First stool is the wealthy just wanting to make more money (tax cuts, tax welfare, regulation capture, etc). This is the true stool in power pulling the strings of all the other stools. They know they can never win a popular vote (why would the workers vote to lower their own wages?). They ride the Santa sled with the big bag of money, the reigns are connected to the lesser stools, and they ride that sled into the bank
Second stool is the religious vote - really captured by Reagan I believe with the invention of the abortion issue, but they go as far back as Goldwater I believe, because he warned about them. These are the reindeer of the money sled
Third stool is the racists, the KKK types in the south. These are also the reindeer
Fourth stool is what I consider the conspiracy theory crowd - they sort of share the stool with the uneducated morons who can’t seem to figure out what their best interests are (“get gobernment off my Medicare, vote republican”). This stool might fall under the “undecided” crowd by some metrics, but they fall victim to the usual right wing lies and propaganda all the fucking time, so I don’t see why we can’t just label them as they truly are, the useful idiot voters of the republican propaganda arm
As a whole, these groups are the same pieces of shit that love Trump because he’s talks to them with a bullhorn, not through dog whistles like previous republicans, that’s the difference some of you might not appreciate
Edit - one distinction I think is needed is the people who fell for the dog whistles were usually of the authoritarian/fascist type. For example, There were pretty decent religious people or business people who felt the wrong message was being presented by the republican party, but the authoritarians/fascists always fell in line behind the republicans/conservatives. Still the case today
He killed their euphemisms
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They would’ve done the same things, especially if they got the supreme court stacked like Trump did but without the extra drama.
It’d just be Mitt Romney spouting about protecting marriage and family values from erosion by all those miscreants instead of ol’ Marge TG spouting off about the drag queens grooming your kids at the library.
If anything, it’s actually a blessing Trump pulled the mask off. Now, only the truly dense or selfish fail to understand or admit how vile the Republican “leadership” is.
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Yeah, I feel like the Republican Party has evolved (or devolved) into what they are now, but it’s not like they hadn’t already been moving in this direction anyways, he accelerated it if anything. Trump took advantage of a Party that wanted a “strongman”, he brought the racism, billionaire businessman background, toxic masculinity and performances you might normally see in wrestling back room drama or talk radio, and a feigned devotion to the Church (that was probably his weakest trait, thus Mike Pence). He brought together a lot of elements of the Republican Party that were already all there, just not really ever focused in one person with such a shitty moral compass and motivation to take advantage of the GOP. Pre-Trump, the GOP has mostly had boring business people like George Bush, Mitt Romney, Bob Dole, and Newt Gingrich and others, nobody really “inspiring” to them like Ronald Reagan.
Please use Satan’s full title, Ronald “Genocidal Astrology Fascist” Reagan.
The countless headlines of trump being indicted?
This past few weeks were the first time he is actually having any legal consequences. Nothing like the headlines of old.
And yet, he still walks free and his allies still sit in power.
Do not mistake the shadenfreud for actual justice being served. That ship sailed years ago.
He is not as free as you might think. For example: If attempted to leave the country right now, he would be arrested. He cannot go anywhere without a secret service detail and he isn’t legally allowed to drive himself anymore. He is being watched and monitored all day, every day.
Hopefully, when he sentenced he will actually be put behind bars and not on “house arrest” in a mansion.
The GOP absolutely imploded. That’s why they went from “compassionate conservative” to full on fash.
They kinda did though. The tea party wackos took it over.
This…
I’ve been hearing “This isn’t fascism these are the death wails of a dying party” Since Bush’s second term…
The GOP dies with the Boomers so we still have a bit before it goes away. The DNC will become the new right but it will be because the center moves left and a Progressive Party is formed.
This is incredibly dangerous and flat out WRONG thinking. This is being beyond naive.
It not archaic, but the republican party will have to make shifts to survive, whether that be further gerrymandering states to favor them, or pivoting on toxic policies, but the real truth is they lost a whole generation
They won’t die, but if they make no changes, they will be referenced like today’s green party. No one will think them capable of winning an election.
I agree they won’t die but they will take a hit. As of 2021, 23% of Americans aged 18 to 29 are conservative, compared to 45% of Americans aged 65 and up.
Sorry but your political enemy is dying off. They went to far right to pivot.
I wish you were right but we’re not that lucky.
That’s a nice thought, it really is.
Unfortunately it’s a very sheltered thought bud. Wherever you live, all the boomers must be the republicans.
Where I live I see teenagers in maga hats regularly. When I meet someone who isn’t a hardline Trump supporter it literally shocks me.
Things might go back to some sanity at some point, but it’s hard to imagine when everyone is being radicalized every day through extreme forms of media on the internet.
When I was younger I fully believed that the world would become more progressive because, well, progress. Most of the more liberal kids I grew up with are hardcore republicans coming up on their 40s now posting liberal tears memes.
I don’t know. Maybe we’ll get lucky. I definitely hope we do.
Teenagers are influenced by parents, usually by force.
There are plenty of rightwing pipelines out there for young people, regardless of their parents. With people like Joe Rogan and Jordan Peterson, along with a much more online life so they can find and reinforce each other, I’d say it’s a much friendlier environment for right wing radicalization among young people than 20-30 years ago. The backbone of the Republican party may be old bigots, but at least some people in the movement are working very hard to generate young bigots to replace them and racism, sexism, and transphobia aren’t things only old people are prone to.
Looking at all the MAGA rallies over the last years, it looked like most attendants were significantly younger than Boomer age. Same with the guys who fly Trump flags on their pickup trucks. Same with the January 6 crowd. Same with the Proud Boys. Same with Bikers for Trump. Same with Moms for Liberty.
I think it’s wishful thinking to believe that the GOP will just disappear when the last Boomer dies. The GOP has already transformed into the party of Trump over the last couple of years, and it will keep on transforming.
It would take significantly more than old people dying fit them GOP to vanish.
MAGA is made up of people who are the scum of society. Criminals, con artists, drug dealers, etc… Hopefully you don’t think that is who the majority of voters are.
As the saying goes, “If there’s a Nazi at the table and 10 other people sitting there talking to him, you got a table with 11 Nazis.”
I don’t care how many Republicans are troubled by Trump’s behavior, I don’t care how many Republicans think he’s a bit too much, I don’t care how many Republicans dislike the MAGA movement.
Talk is cheap.
74 million voters decided that they wanted Trump to be president for another term in 2020, decided to give Trump their vote, decided to support Trump.
That makes them Trump supporters.
And it makes the GOP the Party of Trump.
Not all Republicans are sitting at the same table. There are two very different tables and only one has Nazis sitting at it.
The one with the Nazis sitting at it has 74 million people.
How many Republicans are sitting at the other table, and where can I find that table?
There are an awful lot of prominent Republicans among Gen-X and Millennials. 36-year-old grandmother Lauren Boebert; 41 year old Matt Gaetz; 49 year old MTG. Milo Yiannopoulos is 39. The “Proud Boys” founder is 39. Founder of the Oathkeepers is 57 (just barely Gen-X). College Republicans are a thing.
That’s fair. But what demographic votes for someone like boebert? And she barely won her race.
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@YoBuckStopsHere I don’t know, I feel like I’ve been waiting 40 years for a new political party to be formed in the US.
It seems more like the two we have just keep morphing.
@Hazdaz
That’s because the only time the D’s and R’s actually work together is to quash any 3rd Party from gaining traction.
They also band together to lower taxes on our oligarchy and corporations.
We all have been waiting but the funding and branding haven’t been there.
Trump will never go to prison. He’s a liability. He’d blab top secret info for an extra scoop of ice cream.
That’s why places like ADX Florence exist.
I think former presidents should get a more dramatic and unique prison to rot in.
I vote Alcatraz
As a San Franciscan I’m not sure if I’m offended by the idea of him being that close, or intrigued by the idea of being able to hop a boat to go point and laugh at him
I think putting the former POTUS in solitary confinement indefinitely is probably too cruel even for his largest detractors. I mean that’s straight torture.
Not to mention he can still blab to the guards and clearing guards is more trouble than its worth. Most likely he’ll be confined to house arrest for his sentence. Hopefully he’ll be banned from using the internet or engaging with media agencies.
It’s where we keep prisoners who pose a threat to national security, I don’t see why he would get special treatment just because of his old job.
Plenty of spies have been sent to prison, having guards near them is a solved problem.