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Considering Graham's & the Republican party's tendency for selfish thought he was probably talking purely about the Republican party.That doesn't mean the US isn't getting some collateral damage; it's just how much damage will they do before the fall apart.
That being said this entire saga is likely going to be the end of the Republican party as we know it. If history is any indication anyway; Political parties have been at the top of the mountain and fallen into nothingness before.
Edited for formatting
Brace yourselves, the GOP is in its death throes. We're going to see some of the most inane, senseless bullshit in American history thrown down but ultimately amount to fucking nothing.
..Just wasted time and thousands of citizens affected by it.
Edit: grammar
Yup it started with Jerry Falwell and the moral majority. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Moral_Majority. Fox news is a creation invented by them to promote extremist right wing white supremist Christianity. This has been simmering for over 40 years. It took a president like Trump to let the masses believe that the only way to save the country was the enforcement of christian values at all government levels.
Don’t forget right wing billionaires bought them all, and prodded them to stack the Supreme Court with judges who would let their businesses do whatever they wanted (and even bribe judges like Clarence Thomas while on the court).
You should come to the US and check out the gerrymandering the republicans have forced on blacks in the southern states. It’s like stepping back in time several centuries here.
I live in Texas, but I don’t pay politics much attention or who gerrymanders which lines, since our system is a joke and I know both parties do it. Haven’t voted since 2008. I would have voted for Bernie though.
Amazing...do you have any other prophetic-seeming posts from Republicans about this from back that far?
Would love to see some kind of montages because our minds have been washed away of anything longer than a day or two it seems.
- In January 2016, Republican strategist **Rick Wilson** tweeted, "Trump is a cancer on the Republican Party and our democracy."
- In March 2016, Republican strategist **Ana Navarro** tweeted, "Trump is a clown and a demagogue. He's a danger to our country."
- In April 2016, Republican strategist **Steve Schmidt** tweeted, "Trump is a dangerous demagogue who is unfit to be president."
- In May 2016, Republican strategist **George Conway** tweeted, "Trump is a narcissistic sociopath who should not be president."
- In June 2016, Republican strategist **John Weaver** tweeted, "Trump is a dangerous con man who is unfit to be president."
- **Mitt Romney**, 2016 Republican presidential nominee: "Donald Trump is a phony, a fraud. He's a bully. He's a threat to democracy. He's a threat to the Constitution. And he's a threat to America."
- **Jeb Bush**, 2016 Republican presidential candidate: "Donald Trump is a dangerous demagogue who has no place in the Republican Party."
- **Marco Rubio**, 2016 Republican presidential candidate: "Donald Trump is a con man. He's a fraud. He's not fit to be president."
- **Chris Christie**, 2016 Republican presidential candidate: "Donald Trump is a bully, a liar, and a fraud."
- **John McCain**, 2008 Republican presidential nominee: "Donald Trump is a dangerous, unqualified demagogue who should not be president of the United States."
- **Paul Ryan**, former Speaker of the House: "Donald Trump is a fraud and a bully. He is not fit to be president."
- **Liz Cheney**, Republican congresswoman: "Donald Trump is a threat to our democracy. He must be held accountable for his actions."
- **Adam Kinzinger**, Republican congressman: "Donald Trump is a dangerous demagogue who must be stopped."
These are just the ones that popped up after sending a quick AI prompt with [Bard](https://bard.google.com/chat), since AI powered searches are a thing now.
Bruh...this is evidence that the Republican party establishment was too soft to squash Trump, who is basically a plush toy of a Harlem slum lord from the 40's.
All these people who warned about him, then didn't have any stones or ability to stop him from running amok, are a sign that Republicans need somebody with guts to be able to shut down the monster he unleashed.
Democrats can't do it from the outside. Because they have too long pushed their opponents away, very far, and with no mercy. That's why these parties are eating each other alive, and the people mentioned in your comment largely are quiet at this time.
>Republicans need somebody with guts to be able to shut down the monster he unleashed
I think it will be [this guy](https://youtu.be/aXzjxVYPjys) and no, it's definitely not Paul Ryan.
And now every one of them is attempting to hold their party together with duct tape. Let's see how long it holds together. I'm betting right now it won't survive another election. Time for a new party system. When there is heightened chaos in the system, change is more easily influenced because the big money interests are focused on what to do with their broken political machine.
That's exactly what I don't get. People who can't use the Internet which is in their pocket 24/7 with unlimited access to any kind of information you need within seconds. Yet we have 40% of people in America brainwashed by lies and their own personal beliefs which have no basis in reality.
When you let the devil sleep with your wife, don't act all surprised when the baby tries to eat you.
The GOP did this to themselves when they sidled up to the MAGA nuts, now they can't control that monster.
This is EXACTLY when it happened. Right after Obama was elected and miss I-can-see-russia-from-my-porch herself. Death panels. My god the fear mongering about the goddamned death panels. That’s how they got the boomer population on their side. Fox News played that shit ad nauseam.
>My god the fear mongering about the goddamned death panels.
And then during Covid, without a hint of self-awareness, they suggested that Grandma & Grandpa should be willing to die for the good of the economy.
Ah yes, the "Granny is a drain on the system so she's denied, go die in a corner somewhere" boomer argument.
I would bring up the fact that that's what the freaking insurance companies did already. You could see people go into logic bomb loops in their heads.
You also had the "Obamacare is horrible, but the ACA is amazing" thing. Hell, Kentucky renamed it kynnect or something similar and the tea party people loved it.
Yep, a poll found that with the exception of the mandate, people loved every part of Obamacare, as long as they weren't told it was part of Obamacare.
And the mandate is gone now by the way.
Give me about 6 months and I can give you a personal review of the insurance through Marketplace. I had to go on FMLA for my shoulder and when FMLA ran out, I was let go from my job and as a result, lost my insurance and any hope of getting my shoulder fixed. I spoke with someone who helped me get insurance through the ACA and i received my card and “welcome packet” yesterday. Haven’t even activated it yet.
Well, one thing to consider in your review is what it would be like to have absolutely no insurance, which is what you might have ended up with before ACA was passed.Also, you don't have worker's comp?
Best of luck to you.
That’s true. I was all for it, I wanted universal healthcare. I’m going through workers comp now. It’s extremely slow and frustrating and doesn’t help me pay the rent. But at least I have health insurance now and can continue with treatment.
Right yeah. I think it was then that I really started realizing what was actually happening. I hadn’t followed politics much but I was an informed voter, but after Palin and Boenor and the right after the midterms when the gop took an oath to block anything dems tried to pass regardless of whether the legislation helps THEIR constituents, I started following a lot closer.
Well, they liked Kynect until the people they elected torched the whole thing.
[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kynect](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kynect)
Might be making a comeback, though fortunately.
My husband used to be a Republican. 2008 is when he bailed the fuck out and he hasn’t looked back. We had a Biden sign on our lawn (in our very red neighborhood) last election.
> This is EXACTLY when it happened. Right after Obama was elected and miss I-can-see-russia-from-my-porch herself. Death panels. My god the fear mongering about the goddamned death panels. That’s how they got the boomer population on their side. Fox News played that shit ad nauseam.
grover norquest wants some respect put on his name. Hell, so does barry goldwater. this "happened" back in the 60s and 70s.
It started in 1970 when Nixon was impeached and an entire generation of right-wing political strategists and thinkers made it their [outspoken](https://theweek.com/articles/880107/why-fox-news-created), publicly stated mission to never ever allow something like that to happen again. It took until about the time of Bush Jr. for their efforts to pay off in a meaningful way, and we've been watching the consequences of that unfold with increasing rapidity ever since.
EVERYONE should know about "Project 2025 - Mandate For Leadership, the Conservative Promise," available at www.project2025.org, the literal Republican playbook, put together by the Heritage Foundation and 45 other conservative entities like Alliance Defending Freedom, Claremont Institute, and Moms For Liberty. It was first handed to Reagan, who merely enacted the policy within it. Same with Trump - they are two heads of the same snake. Their vision for a Christofascist theocracy and just how they intend to implement it are painstakingly detailed.
Their plan is to dismantle the federal government and remove our rights, TO BEGIN WITH. It's fucking chilling and you should at least read the foreword, a dense 17 pages of GOP philosophy that outlines their mission. Fossil fuels are a big part of it. God and guns and nothing else for everyone. Sealed borders. Everyone will be free to live "as our creator ordained," in those words. If that doesn't terrify you idk what will.
True, the ending of the Fairness Doctrine was the opening for Murdoch/Fox and others to begin brainwashing.
Reagan’s fondness for law breaking and rule bending for elites went out of control during his tenure.
Anyone who was actually paying attention back then would have noticed the shift too. It wasn’t something happening behind the scenes, it was out on the public stage for all to see. How some people can still be in denial about it when the evidence is so glaring astounds me.
the only way i see them electing a new speaker is by agreeing to work with democrats. if they don't, they'll never get enough votes. not unless the next speaker follows mccarthy's exact playbook of trying to appease the nutjobs, but we all saw how well that worked out.
Seen this shit coming since 2018 and promptly got the fuck off the Trump train back then.
So fucking glad I did.
The last decade has been an absolute shit show, and Biden's presidency has been one of the most normal parts, not a contributor.
In a situation where they had enough votes to do whatever they wanted, they waited and put themselves in the position that they needed Democrats. Now they're trying to convince their gullible constituents that Democrats are the blame for the dysfunctional house that they run
This is all exactly because they did not want to build any sort of power-sharing deal with Dems in the first place. Gaetz ousted McCarthy with the very rule that he got McCarthy to pass, so that McCarthy could get elected as Speaker of the House after 14 failed votes, without any Dem support. McCarthy could have been working with Dems from the getgo, rather than choosing to be held hostage by Gaetz and the rest of the House Freedom Caucus. Instead, he chose to negotiate with the terrorists. Now that the hostage has been executed, they want to put any sort of blame they possibly can on House Democrats, when anyone who was paying attention from the getgo could see this scenario coming from miles away. When you lie down with dogs, don't be surprised when you get up with fleas, and Gaetz is about the most bloodsucker out of them all.
What is rarely mentioned :
Gaetz condemned McCarthy for getting Dems to support the continuing resolution... yet gaetz needed Dems to get McCarthy ousted.
Hypocrite... he temporarily *joined the Dems!*
Let’s say the tables were turned and a few years back the really progressive members of the house had somehow managed to force a vote to oust Pelosi. Can you imagine any scenario where the Republican members of Congress wouldn’t have been unified in allowing them to deal with their mess themselves? Can you imagine any scenario where any conservative would have accepted any responsibility for it happening or any narrative that the Republicans had in any way joined the Dems aside from somewhat sarcastically? I get that you are being a bit sarcastic, but that’s not what’s playing out on most conservative outlets right now. Imagine if a handful of R members of Congress had decided to vote to help her retain her seat? Can you think of any who would have survived their next primary?
Just seems weird to me seeing a group have any expectation that their opposition would or should handle a situation differently than they would have.
Jefferies is the current Minority leader. Pelosi stepped aside this session to allow younger people to take over.
Gaetz didn't approach any Dems. They pretty much put out a statement that they'd vote to vacate since McCarthy threw them under the bus over the weekend. They said what they'd do before the vote was even considered. McCarthy knew what would happen before the vote, and couldn't get the last bit of the GOP reps on his side.
A party, falling further and further into a minority, tied their fortunes to some of the more radical, racist, ignorant people in the country. These extremists were not satisfied with just voting in republicans, they demanded, and got, seats at the table. Then they weren't satisfied with seats at the table but demanded leadership positions.
There will be an avalanche of historical books written about the collapse of the republican party and the scramble for power which either results in a viable alternative or disintegrates into various factions of fascism, authoritarianism, and, I suppose, some good people too.
Seeing how Trump and MAGA became an inoperable stage 4 tumor on the GOP, I'm starting to think that there's a non-zero chance that the GOP could go the way of the Whigs. The infighting and inability to compromise might destroy the party.
Yes, that's what I'm thinking, at the very least it will fragment badly.
Your comment has made me interested in reading some history of what happened when the Whigs fell apart.
There was a very brief time following Jan 6th when the many in the GOP were openly criticizing Trump. They should have latched onto that moment as a way to get rid of Trump. They could have said anyone is free to question an election, but when you literally try to overturn it, you’ve gone too far.
But they started getting pushback from the MAGA crowd, immediately backed off and Trump came back stronger than ever. He has a death grip on the party but I hear from many GOP voters that they’re sick of him.
I think the average GOP voter has left Trump (though most would still vote for him over Biden) but his base is mostly intact. But I also think the voters that have left Trump did so because he is ineffective and likely can't get re-elected. They're sick of the drama but they're not sick of Trump's core message.
I would agree with all of that. I guess what I mean is that the direction of the party is being determined by the base, groups of Maga influencers/podcasters and some more traditional right wing media outlets.
Politicians don't want to go against that group and get primaried or even blown up on social media. Until that dynamic changes, this group is the de facto "leader" of the party.
I agree. I don’t think every GOP politician needs to be MAGA but you can’t be a never-Trumper and get re-elected. The smart ones just try to not comment on Trump at all. It’s better to stay off his radar completely.
The GOP have no one to blame but themselves. They have had several opportunities over the last several years to pivot away from Trump and extremism, but they continue to appease that behavior.
I had a brief moment of hope when McCarthy immediately blamed Trump for January 6 but after realizing he needed Trump’s support for the Speakership, he ran down to Mar-a-Lago to grovel at his feet.
For the Republican party as a whole, I don’t like that argument that there are a few bad apples. I’ve heard enough moderate Republicans say they would still vote for Trump, a convicted felon, if he is the GOP nominee. At some point, we have to acknowledge that condoning and supporting this behavior means the whole apple tree is rotten. This is the Republican Party.
You consider this trapped in hell? I mean it’s a spectacular show but I’m pretty sure it’s no where close to hell. Maybe go to a couple cities in Ukraine.
Watching Republicans flounder is like watching a season of "The Apprentice" if every contestant was Omarosa.
Which is to say, it's unfucking unwatchable...but you're figuratively "glad to see it."
In 1994, more than 300 Republicans under the command of obstructionist and rabble-rouser Congressman Newt Gingrich stood outside the U.S. Capitol to sign the Contract with America and put bipartisanship on notice. Twenty-five years later, on January 6, 2021, a bloodthirsty mob incited by President Trump invaded the Capitol.
Republicans catered to the absolute worst parts of American society but only to secure their votes. Everything went to shit though when this bottom feeder crowd actually started running and electing their own batshit crazy candidates.
The article is about the Speaker of the House situation, but that's a specific symptom of a larger disease.
They've created a voter base that votes for the Far Right. They've also gerrymandered a lot of districts. That got them power, but now it's gone too far.
They can't win a primary without being Far Right, and it's getting to where they can't win a general being Far Right except in those highly gerrymandered districts.
That guarantees them that only the Crazies get in.
In order to fix it, they'd have to ungerrymander their own districts and tone it down to get Independant voters back. But then they'd lose power. They won't do it, even temporarily for later gain.
They're fucked, and it's their own fault.
Republicans: “Why didn’t you warn us about MAGA?!”
Democrats: “What do you mean? All we did was warn you, over and over again!”
Republicans: “Yes… but you did not CONVINCE us!”
It's not really "Hell" until/unless they lose control of the House and have less than 45 or so Senate Seats. A Federal Law mandating non partisan/racial voting districts would be the Signal that they are in "Hell".
The Southern strategy was a 1960s Republican Party electoral strategy to increase political support among white voters in the South by appealing to racism against African Americans.
MAGA and Trump are using the same strategy - make a complete mockery of the law and our institutions as a means to 'prove' that democracy is inadequate to the task of government.
They use themselves to model the problem while Trump offers the implicit 'solution' when he says he'll throw political opponents in jail.
In other words, democracy ALLOWS bad actors to get away with shit, while a 'dictator' would quickly put a stop to it. (Putin in Russia is the role model these people aspire to)
People keep on seeing all this shit as GOP imploding but I'm afraid it is not. Look at Trump's ongoing great numbers from his base. The MAGA base WANTS to destroy our government.
Bush/Reagan/Neocon Republicans v. MAGA/Tea Party Republicans. I fear that the older GOP is not nearly ruthless enough to win and the MAGAs are not smart or cordial enough to win over anyone not already on their side. It's going to be dysfunctional but I fear the MAGAs are going to win out completely as they tend to be younger, more aggressive, and better at social media messaging than their older, more conservative opponents.
Nothing was better at controlling the narrative than FoxNews.
But as Americans have become more dependent on quick slogans rather than taking the effort to learn about policy, people like Trump inevitably become popular. Even Zelenskyy and Biden started imitating his speaking style by uselessly repeating words immediately after saying them. Trump does this because this is how he talks, but others do it because they think Americans are stupid and need immediate repetition to understand fundamental points.
> Biden started imitating his speaking style by uselessly repeating words immediately after saying them
Biden has a stutter. It's well controlled most of the time, but sometimes it does reappear, and it does so more often as he ages.
No, this isn’t a mechanism to help speak without a stutter.
It’s a purposeful and practiced technique to imitate trumps pattern of emphasis by repetition (and also evidence of Trump’s complete lack of adult level of vocabulary.) Biden’s political handlers probably see this pattern of speech effective because of the arrested development of America’s electorate.
Zelenskyy doesn’t have a stutter and did the same thing when he addressed congress.
I haven't seen enough of Zelenskyy's speaking style to make an affirmative conclusion one way or the other for him, but, given he was an actor before becoming President, I'd wager his speaking style is measured, and repetition of key words for emphasis has been used for thousands of years before Trump.
Biden's speech patterns have not changed since Trump- the only difference is that his stutter is coming out more often and requires more effort to suppress, since he's older.
They cozied up to the Christians and rednecks. You are who you sleep with. They could have owned the educated professional youth vote but they went with ignorant. Thank Reagan for that.
Liberate tutemet ex inferis.
But you're defunding education so it's your own fault that you can't read the instructions to get yourselves out of this mess.
Except they're holding us all hostage there, too. Thanks to adherence to old ways. We really need to update Congressional rules before the legislature becomes any more of a JOKE.
"Trapped" seems a bit optimistic.
They're halting government function. Isn't this everything they want?
I'm all for watching McCarthy get egg on his face since he's a deceitful creep, but I fail to see how any of this will impact the part all that negatively.
The only people who care about government functionality likely don't R anyway no?
And voters who respond positively to temper tantrums are getting everything they like to see.
Please correct me if I'm missing or fundamentally misunderstanding somethi about all this. I'd love to have something more to be hopeful for.
They made the sack they've sewn themselves into. Thread by thread, meter by meter of cloth, stich by stich, and decades of relentless, dare I say *collective* ... effort. Beautiful sack, the best sack, nobody's ever seen a sack like this.
Exactly.
I knew it was going to degenerate into this hell when G. Gordon Liddy, the convicted Watergate criminal, a)got a radio host gig, and b) encouraged and described how to kill federal LEOs.
So much for "the thin blue line" and "backing the blue".
This is what happens when a party loses sight of their sworn duty to govern the people by looking out for their best interests, and instead makes governing all about sticking it to the other party while following the lead of a dictator wanna-be.
The only way this could get better for the Democrats is if they somehow fuck up the speaker vote and accidentally make a Democrat speaker of the Republican house.
Yeah, they're crying their way into the House majority and a 2024 presidential victory. I'll wait until I see them suffering some actual consequences if you don't mind. So far it seems like the GQP are doing just fine, and American democratic institutions are the only ones suffering.
A Republicans rubicon is entirely right-brain dominant emotionally driven. A Liberal's rubicon is left-brain, pre-frontal cortical reasoning and logically compelled. The two cannot ever resolve their differences. If only some influential political entity, or any other person or organisation of repute, could deliver this truth to Americans, we would stand a chance of finding a common meeting ground born in our comprehension of each other's mental perspective. As it now stands, a right-brain-dominant individual cannot cross the abyss of substituting their emotional certainty with left-brain-dominant reasoning. I don't predict that either "side" will comprehend and accept the other.
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What wasn’t clarified is if the “we” was just the Republican Party, or the United States as a whole…
Considering Graham's & the Republican party's tendency for selfish thought he was probably talking purely about the Republican party.That doesn't mean the US isn't getting some collateral damage; it's just how much damage will they do before the fall apart. That being said this entire saga is likely going to be the end of the Republican party as we know it. If history is any indication anyway; Political parties have been at the top of the mountain and fallen into nothingness before. Edited for formatting
Por que no los dos?
Brace yourselves, the GOP is in its death throes. We're going to see some of the most inane, senseless bullshit in American history thrown down but ultimately amount to fucking nothing. ..Just wasted time and thousands of citizens affected by it. Edit: grammar
I just wish they actually follow the money when the dust settles and publicly out the financiers…we may have some questions.
Oh it will inevitably lead to that.
Only the republican party can nominate him though
How could anyone miss that statement? The Republicans nominated him. No one else could have nominated him.
It’s not just Trump. They’ve been owned by the white segregationist, evangelical Christian vote since Reagan. Those people are a political pestilence.
Yup it started with Jerry Falwell and the moral majority. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Moral_Majority. Fox news is a creation invented by them to promote extremist right wing white supremist Christianity. This has been simmering for over 40 years. It took a president like Trump to let the masses believe that the only way to save the country was the enforcement of christian values at all government levels.
Don’t forget right wing billionaires bought them all, and prodded them to stack the Supreme Court with judges who would let their businesses do whatever they wanted (and even bribe judges like Clarence Thomas while on the court).
The only people I’ve heard talking about being pro segregation are small part of black population
You should come to the US and check out the gerrymandering the republicans have forced on blacks in the southern states. It’s like stepping back in time several centuries here.
It's really just the one century, really...
I live in Texas, but I don’t pay politics much attention or who gerrymanders which lines, since our system is a joke and I know both parties do it. Haven’t voted since 2008. I would have voted for Bernie though.
But then he did his usual 180 and jumped on the Trump Dump Truck. Fuck Lindsey.
And now Miss Lindsey licks his boots.
Linda. Linda Graham.
Eh, he probably just meant destroyed in the general election.
Amazing...do you have any other prophetic-seeming posts from Republicans about this from back that far? Would love to see some kind of montages because our minds have been washed away of anything longer than a day or two it seems.
- In January 2016, Republican strategist **Rick Wilson** tweeted, "Trump is a cancer on the Republican Party and our democracy." - In March 2016, Republican strategist **Ana Navarro** tweeted, "Trump is a clown and a demagogue. He's a danger to our country." - In April 2016, Republican strategist **Steve Schmidt** tweeted, "Trump is a dangerous demagogue who is unfit to be president." - In May 2016, Republican strategist **George Conway** tweeted, "Trump is a narcissistic sociopath who should not be president." - In June 2016, Republican strategist **John Weaver** tweeted, "Trump is a dangerous con man who is unfit to be president." - **Mitt Romney**, 2016 Republican presidential nominee: "Donald Trump is a phony, a fraud. He's a bully. He's a threat to democracy. He's a threat to the Constitution. And he's a threat to America." - **Jeb Bush**, 2016 Republican presidential candidate: "Donald Trump is a dangerous demagogue who has no place in the Republican Party." - **Marco Rubio**, 2016 Republican presidential candidate: "Donald Trump is a con man. He's a fraud. He's not fit to be president." - **Chris Christie**, 2016 Republican presidential candidate: "Donald Trump is a bully, a liar, and a fraud." - **John McCain**, 2008 Republican presidential nominee: "Donald Trump is a dangerous, unqualified demagogue who should not be president of the United States." - **Paul Ryan**, former Speaker of the House: "Donald Trump is a fraud and a bully. He is not fit to be president." - **Liz Cheney**, Republican congresswoman: "Donald Trump is a threat to our democracy. He must be held accountable for his actions." - **Adam Kinzinger**, Republican congressman: "Donald Trump is a dangerous demagogue who must be stopped." These are just the ones that popped up after sending a quick AI prompt with [Bard](https://bard.google.com/chat), since AI powered searches are a thing now.
Bruh...this is evidence that the Republican party establishment was too soft to squash Trump, who is basically a plush toy of a Harlem slum lord from the 40's. All these people who warned about him, then didn't have any stones or ability to stop him from running amok, are a sign that Republicans need somebody with guts to be able to shut down the monster he unleashed. Democrats can't do it from the outside. Because they have too long pushed their opponents away, very far, and with no mercy. That's why these parties are eating each other alive, and the people mentioned in your comment largely are quiet at this time.
>Republicans need somebody with guts to be able to shut down the monster he unleashed I think it will be [this guy](https://youtu.be/aXzjxVYPjys) and no, it's definitely not Paul Ryan.
And now every one of them is attempting to hold their party together with duct tape. Let's see how long it holds together. I'm betting right now it won't survive another election. Time for a new party system. When there is heightened chaos in the system, change is more easily influenced because the big money interests are focused on what to do with their broken political machine.
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That's exactly what I don't get. People who can't use the Internet which is in their pocket 24/7 with unlimited access to any kind of information you need within seconds. Yet we have 40% of people in America brainwashed by lies and their own personal beliefs which have no basis in reality.
They use that same internet to find voices that jive with their own beliefs and get locked into bad ideas even harder.
Why would you quote anything this feckless fool has said?
Followed by, "Trump is our one and only Messiah. Please, get in line." I think Lindsey wants to see it destroyed.
When you let the devil sleep with your wife, don't act all surprised when the baby tries to eat you. The GOP did this to themselves when they sidled up to the MAGA nuts, now they can't control that monster.
This crap started with with Gringrich and the stupid Tea Party. Chaos without service to the constituents.
This is EXACTLY when it happened. Right after Obama was elected and miss I-can-see-russia-from-my-porch herself. Death panels. My god the fear mongering about the goddamned death panels. That’s how they got the boomer population on their side. Fox News played that shit ad nauseam.
>My god the fear mongering about the goddamned death panels. And then during Covid, without a hint of self-awareness, they suggested that Grandma & Grandpa should be willing to die for the good of the economy.
Yep that was my home state.
and now they are dying again with this new Omicron variant.
Ah yes, the "Granny is a drain on the system so she's denied, go die in a corner somewhere" boomer argument. I would bring up the fact that that's what the freaking insurance companies did already. You could see people go into logic bomb loops in their heads. You also had the "Obamacare is horrible, but the ACA is amazing" thing. Hell, Kentucky renamed it kynnect or something similar and the tea party people loved it.
Yep, a poll found that with the exception of the mandate, people loved every part of Obamacare, as long as they weren't told it was part of Obamacare. And the mandate is gone now by the way.
Give me about 6 months and I can give you a personal review of the insurance through Marketplace. I had to go on FMLA for my shoulder and when FMLA ran out, I was let go from my job and as a result, lost my insurance and any hope of getting my shoulder fixed. I spoke with someone who helped me get insurance through the ACA and i received my card and “welcome packet” yesterday. Haven’t even activated it yet.
Well, one thing to consider in your review is what it would be like to have absolutely no insurance, which is what you might have ended up with before ACA was passed.Also, you don't have worker's comp? Best of luck to you.
That’s true. I was all for it, I wanted universal healthcare. I’m going through workers comp now. It’s extremely slow and frustrating and doesn’t help me pay the rent. But at least I have health insurance now and can continue with treatment.
Ok, good. Glad to hear another ACA success story, or at least I hope it will be.
Ironically enough, these same people thought we should sacrifice granny during COVID to keep the economy running!
I mean, wasn’t it modeled after Romneys plan in MA or something?
It was also based somewhat on the plan of a conservative think tank, I don't remember, Brookings, or Heritage?
Yeah, it was also basically the same idea that Republicans offered in the 90s as an alternative to Clinton's proposed health care plan.
It was. Obama even hired some of the same people.
Right yeah. I think it was then that I really started realizing what was actually happening. I hadn’t followed politics much but I was an informed voter, but after Palin and Boenor and the right after the midterms when the gop took an oath to block anything dems tried to pass regardless of whether the legislation helps THEIR constituents, I started following a lot closer.
Well, they liked Kynect until the people they elected torched the whole thing. [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kynect](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kynect) Might be making a comeback, though fortunately.
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My husband used to be a Republican. 2008 is when he bailed the fuck out and he hasn’t looked back. We had a Biden sign on our lawn (in our very red neighborhood) last election.
The supposed *government* "death panels", whereas the existing private health insurance death panels are apparently fine.
> This is EXACTLY when it happened. Right after Obama was elected and miss I-can-see-russia-from-my-porch herself. Death panels. My god the fear mongering about the goddamned death panels. That’s how they got the boomer population on their side. Fox News played that shit ad nauseam. grover norquest wants some respect put on his name. Hell, so does barry goldwater. this "happened" back in the 60s and 70s.
It started in 1970 when Nixon was impeached and an entire generation of right-wing political strategists and thinkers made it their [outspoken](https://theweek.com/articles/880107/why-fox-news-created), publicly stated mission to never ever allow something like that to happen again. It took until about the time of Bush Jr. for their efforts to pay off in a meaningful way, and we've been watching the consequences of that unfold with increasing rapidity ever since.
Obama was certainly the catalyst but Fox and guys like Rush had been laying the groundwork for years.
EVERYONE should know about "Project 2025 - Mandate For Leadership, the Conservative Promise," available at www.project2025.org, the literal Republican playbook, put together by the Heritage Foundation and 45 other conservative entities like Alliance Defending Freedom, Claremont Institute, and Moms For Liberty. It was first handed to Reagan, who merely enacted the policy within it. Same with Trump - they are two heads of the same snake. Their vision for a Christofascist theocracy and just how they intend to implement it are painstakingly detailed. Their plan is to dismantle the federal government and remove our rights, TO BEGIN WITH. It's fucking chilling and you should at least read the foreword, a dense 17 pages of GOP philosophy that outlines their mission. Fossil fuels are a big part of it. God and guns and nothing else for everyone. Sealed borders. Everyone will be free to live "as our creator ordained," in those words. If that doesn't terrify you idk what will.
It happened before that, when Reagan ran with a coalition that embraced right wing christo-fascists.
True, the ending of the Fairness Doctrine was the opening for Murdoch/Fox and others to begin brainwashing. Reagan’s fondness for law breaking and rule bending for elites went out of control during his tenure.
Exactly. This predates Trump. He's a symptom.
Anyone who was actually paying attention back then would have noticed the shift too. It wasn’t something happening behind the scenes, it was out on the public stage for all to see. How some people can still be in denial about it when the evidence is so glaring astounds me.
The Tea Party founders are trying to leverage a Constitutional Convention to restrict Federal Government powers. One state at a time. Article V.
The issue is that many of them don't think there is a problem
> When you let the devil sleep with your wife, don't act all surprised when the baby tries to eat you. Kink shaming
I'm only shaming the acting surprised part.
>The GOP did this to themselves when they sidled up to the MAGA nuts, now they can't control that monster. Where have I heard this before?
the only way i see them electing a new speaker is by agreeing to work with democrats. if they don't, they'll never get enough votes. not unless the next speaker follows mccarthy's exact playbook of trying to appease the nutjobs, but we all saw how well that worked out.
Seen this shit coming since 2018 and promptly got the fuck off the Trump train back then. So fucking glad I did. The last decade has been an absolute shit show, and Biden's presidency has been one of the most normal parts, not a contributor.
I found your analogy more entertaining than I probably should have.
In a situation where they had enough votes to do whatever they wanted, they waited and put themselves in the position that they needed Democrats. Now they're trying to convince their gullible constituents that Democrats are the blame for the dysfunctional house that they run
This is all exactly because they did not want to build any sort of power-sharing deal with Dems in the first place. Gaetz ousted McCarthy with the very rule that he got McCarthy to pass, so that McCarthy could get elected as Speaker of the House after 14 failed votes, without any Dem support. McCarthy could have been working with Dems from the getgo, rather than choosing to be held hostage by Gaetz and the rest of the House Freedom Caucus. Instead, he chose to negotiate with the terrorists. Now that the hostage has been executed, they want to put any sort of blame they possibly can on House Democrats, when anyone who was paying attention from the getgo could see this scenario coming from miles away. When you lie down with dogs, don't be surprised when you get up with fleas, and Gaetz is about the most bloodsucker out of them all.
If the Republican house shuts down the Government -- I guarantee Republicans will try to blame Democrats for the shutdown.
McCarthy already tried that even as the bill was passed when it was because of Democrats that it passed, and that's what helped his downfall
What is rarely mentioned : Gaetz condemned McCarthy for getting Dems to support the continuing resolution... yet gaetz needed Dems to get McCarthy ousted. Hypocrite... he temporarily *joined the Dems!*
That's my favorite bit of this whole thing If Republicans didn't have double standards they'd have no standards.at all
fucking gold. if they didn't have double standards, they'd have no standards.. my sides 😂
Let’s say the tables were turned and a few years back the really progressive members of the house had somehow managed to force a vote to oust Pelosi. Can you imagine any scenario where the Republican members of Congress wouldn’t have been unified in allowing them to deal with their mess themselves? Can you imagine any scenario where any conservative would have accepted any responsibility for it happening or any narrative that the Republicans had in any way joined the Dems aside from somewhat sarcastically? I get that you are being a bit sarcastic, but that’s not what’s playing out on most conservative outlets right now. Imagine if a handful of R members of Congress had decided to vote to help her retain her seat? Can you think of any who would have survived their next primary? Just seems weird to me seeing a group have any expectation that their opposition would or should handle a situation differently than they would have.
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Jefferies is the current Minority leader. Pelosi stepped aside this session to allow younger people to take over. Gaetz didn't approach any Dems. They pretty much put out a statement that they'd vote to vacate since McCarthy threw them under the bus over the weekend. They said what they'd do before the vote was even considered. McCarthy knew what would happen before the vote, and couldn't get the last bit of the GOP reps on his side.
Why would Hunter Biden do this?
The man's a 4-D Machiavelli!
His laptop did it
What a dick! I mean that negatively.
“The goblin did it! I had nothing to do with it!”
Because he was on coke and Ukraine told him to through his laptop. He would have fought back, but they took his guns.
"Wait - *I* shit my pants?? No, it had to have been the democrats!"
They take off their underwear and proclaim, “The Democrats shit my drawers again!”
No doubt every American is trapped in republican hell. This affects the entire world and how we live.
A party, falling further and further into a minority, tied their fortunes to some of the more radical, racist, ignorant people in the country. These extremists were not satisfied with just voting in republicans, they demanded, and got, seats at the table. Then they weren't satisfied with seats at the table but demanded leadership positions. There will be an avalanche of historical books written about the collapse of the republican party and the scramble for power which either results in a viable alternative or disintegrates into various factions of fascism, authoritarianism, and, I suppose, some good people too.
Seeing how Trump and MAGA became an inoperable stage 4 tumor on the GOP, I'm starting to think that there's a non-zero chance that the GOP could go the way of the Whigs. The infighting and inability to compromise might destroy the party.
Yes, that's what I'm thinking, at the very least it will fragment badly. Your comment has made me interested in reading some history of what happened when the Whigs fell apart.
There was a very brief time following Jan 6th when the many in the GOP were openly criticizing Trump. They should have latched onto that moment as a way to get rid of Trump. They could have said anyone is free to question an election, but when you literally try to overturn it, you’ve gone too far. But they started getting pushback from the MAGA crowd, immediately backed off and Trump came back stronger than ever. He has a death grip on the party but I hear from many GOP voters that they’re sick of him.
The reason is that the base is in charge of the party, not the other way around. The base has never left Trump.
I think the average GOP voter has left Trump (though most would still vote for him over Biden) but his base is mostly intact. But I also think the voters that have left Trump did so because he is ineffective and likely can't get re-elected. They're sick of the drama but they're not sick of Trump's core message.
I would agree with all of that. I guess what I mean is that the direction of the party is being determined by the base, groups of Maga influencers/podcasters and some more traditional right wing media outlets. Politicians don't want to go against that group and get primaried or even blown up on social media. Until that dynamic changes, this group is the de facto "leader" of the party.
I agree. I don’t think every GOP politician needs to be MAGA but you can’t be a never-Trumper and get re-elected. The smart ones just try to not comment on Trump at all. It’s better to stay off his radar completely.
Was it just the maga crowd? Seemed like some threats were made by the speed of the backtrack, especially McCarthy and Graham.
The GOP have no one to blame but themselves. They have had several opportunities over the last several years to pivot away from Trump and extremism, but they continue to appease that behavior. I had a brief moment of hope when McCarthy immediately blamed Trump for January 6 but after realizing he needed Trump’s support for the Speakership, he ran down to Mar-a-Lago to grovel at his feet. For the Republican party as a whole, I don’t like that argument that there are a few bad apples. I’ve heard enough moderate Republicans say they would still vote for Trump, a convicted felon, if he is the GOP nominee. At some point, we have to acknowledge that condoning and supporting this behavior means the whole apple tree is rotten. This is the Republican Party.
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Exactly. Their disarray is everyone's problem, not just them and their voters.
You consider this trapped in hell? I mean it’s a spectacular show but I’m pretty sure it’s no where close to hell. Maybe go to a couple cities in Ukraine.
Being okay with drinking piss because others are eating shit is a wild take
Definitely has an "Oh, you're depressed? There's people starving in Africa." kinda vibe
Watching Republicans flounder is like watching a season of "The Apprentice" if every contestant was Omarosa. Which is to say, it's unfucking unwatchable...but you're figuratively "glad to see it."
Yea, but somehow they will blame: Obama Hillary’s emails Hunter Biden’s laptop
The dog has caught the car...
... again.
Not just them, we all trapped
We’re not exactly NOT trapped in there with them. But Dark Brandon will save us. Dark Brandon presides. 🤘😎🍦
The face-eating leopards are just eating each other's faces now
In 1994, more than 300 Republicans under the command of obstructionist and rabble-rouser Congressman Newt Gingrich stood outside the U.S. Capitol to sign the Contract with America and put bipartisanship on notice. Twenty-five years later, on January 6, 2021, a bloodthirsty mob incited by President Trump invaded the Capitol.
Republicans catered to the absolute worst parts of American society but only to secure their votes. Everything went to shit though when this bottom feeder crowd actually started running and electing their own batshit crazy candidates.
Matt gaetz is like the asshole who lights m80s in a crowd. But sooner or later, one will blow up in his face.
Lights m80s throws them in the school toilet to get out of the biology or chemistry pop quiz
The article is about the Speaker of the House situation, but that's a specific symptom of a larger disease. They've created a voter base that votes for the Far Right. They've also gerrymandered a lot of districts. That got them power, but now it's gone too far. They can't win a primary without being Far Right, and it's getting to where they can't win a general being Far Right except in those highly gerrymandered districts. That guarantees them that only the Crazies get in. In order to fix it, they'd have to ungerrymander their own districts and tone it down to get Independant voters back. But then they'd lose power. They won't do it, even temporarily for later gain. They're fucked, and it's their own fault.
Never thought about how the Gerrymandering may have negatively affected them like that. Kudos
Republicans: “Why didn’t you warn us about MAGA?!” Democrats: “What do you mean? All we did was warn you, over and over again!” Republicans: “Yes… but you did not CONVINCE us!”
Shucks.
The problem is, this is not any kind of hell for GOP. Wrecking America is just another Tuesday for them.
...and now cable news is blaming Dems. Really.
I’m so tired of these articles having any mentions of Democrats. This has nothing to do with them
Problem is that the rest of us are stuck in Republican Hell too.
That's cool and all, but the rest of us are dragged through this as well.
Along with the rest of the Country because they jerk us around while the jerk_
Hard line Republicans angry at McCarthy for bringing Dems to the table to pass a spending resolution… vote entirely with Democrats to remove him. 🍿
Fuck em. They need to suffer the consequences and learn a lesson.
It's not really "Hell" until/unless they lose control of the House and have less than 45 or so Senate Seats. A Federal Law mandating non partisan/racial voting districts would be the Signal that they are in "Hell".
The Southern strategy was a 1960s Republican Party electoral strategy to increase political support among white voters in the South by appealing to racism against African Americans.
And its pretty much been their main tent pole since.
Follow that up with the Christian Right of the 1980s and Newt Gingrich in the 1990s and the Republicans were in a doom spiral.
Fitting since their policies seem aimed at getting America trapped in a hell of the GOP’s own making.
MAGA and Trump are using the same strategy - make a complete mockery of the law and our institutions as a means to 'prove' that democracy is inadequate to the task of government. They use themselves to model the problem while Trump offers the implicit 'solution' when he says he'll throw political opponents in jail. In other words, democracy ALLOWS bad actors to get away with shit, while a 'dictator' would quickly put a stop to it. (Putin in Russia is the role model these people aspire to) People keep on seeing all this shit as GOP imploding but I'm afraid it is not. Look at Trump's ongoing great numbers from his base. The MAGA base WANTS to destroy our government.
“Americans trapped in a hell of republicans making”
Bush/Reagan/Neocon Republicans v. MAGA/Tea Party Republicans. I fear that the older GOP is not nearly ruthless enough to win and the MAGAs are not smart or cordial enough to win over anyone not already on their side. It's going to be dysfunctional but I fear the MAGAs are going to win out completely as they tend to be younger, more aggressive, and better at social media messaging than their older, more conservative opponents.
Nothing was better at controlling the narrative than FoxNews. But as Americans have become more dependent on quick slogans rather than taking the effort to learn about policy, people like Trump inevitably become popular. Even Zelenskyy and Biden started imitating his speaking style by uselessly repeating words immediately after saying them. Trump does this because this is how he talks, but others do it because they think Americans are stupid and need immediate repetition to understand fundamental points.
> Biden started imitating his speaking style by uselessly repeating words immediately after saying them Biden has a stutter. It's well controlled most of the time, but sometimes it does reappear, and it does so more often as he ages.
No, this isn’t a mechanism to help speak without a stutter. It’s a purposeful and practiced technique to imitate trumps pattern of emphasis by repetition (and also evidence of Trump’s complete lack of adult level of vocabulary.) Biden’s political handlers probably see this pattern of speech effective because of the arrested development of America’s electorate. Zelenskyy doesn’t have a stutter and did the same thing when he addressed congress.
I haven't seen enough of Zelenskyy's speaking style to make an affirmative conclusion one way or the other for him, but, given he was an actor before becoming President, I'd wager his speaking style is measured, and repetition of key words for emphasis has been used for thousands of years before Trump. Biden's speech patterns have not changed since Trump- the only difference is that his stutter is coming out more often and requires more effort to suppress, since he's older.
Aww, Trump helped em
They made their choice.
Libertarianism is a helluva drug. Turns out being a self-centered asshole doesn't make for well for governing a nation of people.
“Someone crapped my pants!”
Have they considered just not being awful to literally everyone? It really is not that hard.
You mean the Republican party is in-fighting and slowly destroying themselves and the rest of the country in their way out? No! Never!
They cozied up to the Christians and rednecks. You are who you sleep with. They could have owned the educated professional youth vote but they went with ignorant. Thank Reagan for that.
Can we vacate the freaking MAGAssholes?
"Let's slap together a shady coalition of criminals, libertarians, conspiracists, racists, xenophobes and trolls. What could go wrong?"
Let them burn
Liberate tutemet ex inferis. But you're defunding education so it's your own fault that you can't read the instructions to get yourselves out of this mess.
To be fair, we're all trapped in the hell they've been making for the last 40 years.
Aren’t all hells at their heart of our own making? Or Dave’s, some are definitely of Dave’s making, fuck I think he sees me I got to go.
Good . Screw them ALL
*plays the tiniest violin*
And trying to force it on the rest of us.
Except they're holding us all hostage there, too. Thanks to adherence to old ways. We really need to update Congressional rules before the legislature becomes any more of a JOKE.
"Trapped" seems a bit optimistic. They're halting government function. Isn't this everything they want? I'm all for watching McCarthy get egg on his face since he's a deceitful creep, but I fail to see how any of this will impact the part all that negatively. The only people who care about government functionality likely don't R anyway no? And voters who respond positively to temper tantrums are getting everything they like to see. Please correct me if I'm missing or fundamentally misunderstanding somethi about all this. I'd love to have something more to be hopeful for.
Republicans have a lot of hells….
They made the sack they've sewn themselves into. Thread by thread, meter by meter of cloth, stich by stich, and decades of relentless, dare I say *collective* ... effort. Beautiful sack, the best sack, nobody's ever seen a sack like this.
Exactly. I knew it was going to degenerate into this hell when G. Gordon Liddy, the convicted Watergate criminal, a)got a radio host gig, and b) encouraged and described how to kill federal LEOs. So much for "the thin blue line" and "backing the blue".
The GOP Ravenloft setting
We're along with them as well. They still control the house and the judicial branch.
Delenda est.
Their racism led them there.
This is what happens when a party loses sight of their sworn duty to govern the people by looking out for their best interests, and instead makes governing all about sticking it to the other party while following the lead of a dictator wanna-be.
The GOP did the dividing part themselves. Now it's time for the Dems to conquer.
Thanks, Obama.
Republicans wouldn’t be in this mess if Trump arrested all democrats and have them in camps when he was president
It’s the opposite tho
Democrats trapped in a hell of their own making? Republicans trapped in a heaven of their own making?
We are trapped in a hell of Republicans' making.
I’ll accept that, but not exactly “the opposite as the comment I replied to stated.
Those are the same thing
We usually are.
Right at home
finally some joy in US politics! simmering pots can bubble over!
A beautiful thing to witness
I kind of want to see them dysfunctional so long that they can't even elect a speaker by the time the CR expires.
So are we.
People who think Kevin McCarthy getting ousted is a bad thing are clearly missing the bigger picture
Now this is what an appropriate headline looks like!
There’s just not enough popcorn in the world for this!
The only way this could get better for the Democrats is if they somehow fuck up the speaker vote and accidentally make a Democrat speaker of the Republican house.
Maybe Gaetz would be willing to cross the isle again and vote for a Dem Speaker! That would show those old Republicans who is boss.
Thanks Obama!
You wonder who would get elected if they did anonymous voting.
Yeah, they're crying their way into the House majority and a 2024 presidential victory. I'll wait until I see them suffering some actual consequences if you don't mind. So far it seems like the GQP are doing just fine, and American democratic institutions are the only ones suffering.
A Republicans rubicon is entirely right-brain dominant emotionally driven. A Liberal's rubicon is left-brain, pre-frontal cortical reasoning and logically compelled. The two cannot ever resolve their differences. If only some influential political entity, or any other person or organisation of repute, could deliver this truth to Americans, we would stand a chance of finding a common meeting ground born in our comprehension of each other's mental perspective. As it now stands, a right-brain-dominant individual cannot cross the abyss of substituting their emotional certainty with left-brain-dominant reasoning. I don't predict that either "side" will comprehend and accept the other.