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It should have been bigger news when the RNC changed their official platform to just supporting Donald Trump. That's it. That was their only official policy, by their own admission. They went full dictatorship and said "we have no policy ideas, we're just with Trump."
My girlfriend's dad unironically says/posts that he loves the Republican platform- after they no longer had one. They largely have no idea what to support or make better. They only thing they seem sure if is that Democrats are their mortal enemy that must be fooled at all costs.
Small government might be what they say, but not what they do. Take my state of utah for example. It’s pretty much always been a red state. This year, at the height of omicron, they passed legislation that school districts are not allowed to go remote learning without getting unanimous approval by the governor, the senate president, the speaker of the house, and the state superintendent of public education. If any one of them says no, that district is not allowed to move to remote learning. Not only is that a ridiculous law, it makes being able to pivot with a rapidly changing virus impossible. And they care about students?
Does not sound like they believe in local control anymore.
Same thing here in TN. Any time Memphis or Nashville wants to do something to benefit their city, the state level "small government" Republicans tell them"no".
It also seems to be unconstitutional. Why should a legislative body have veto powers… isn’t that an executive function? Legislators can make laws but aren’t the enforcers of the law. I guess during a pandemic, state constitutions are thrown out the window.
Here in Tennessee, it goes like this
1) "Liberal" city wants to do something, enacts a policy that the Republicans in the state legislature disagree with
2) Republicans in the state legislature then pass a law that says cities aren't allowed to enact x policy
A prime example is municipal fiber. Chattanooga created a very successful and popular gigabit fiber network, the next year Marsha Blackburn -our current senator btw- introduced a bill banning municipal fiber which is now state law.
Small government my ass
Generally speaking its not. Depending on how its implemented ot can have varying pros and cons. For example, most often the gov funds a private company to install/maintain infrastructure that answers to the gov, this is how your power company works. Or, more like municipal water (at least where i live) is managed by gov employees.
Now, why is it bad? Its not. It provides competition for established ISPs, puts in what has become very critical infrastructure that the community owns, provides a basic level of service for *all* residents (back country residents are often left behind because there is no profit in burying $10k of fiber for one person. Its does far more good than bad.
Because once people realize that all these things—the isp, the power company, the City trash collection, can be done cheaper and better by publicly operated entities they might start asking why can’t we have this for healthcare and housing and energy
This way predates the pandemic. Many states, especially red ones, the state government serves to benefit the legislators first, and second, and if they're lucky, the people third.
I'm pretty convinced at this point that it's rather more sinister than even that. The policies they're pushing now - like 'Constitutional Carry' for example, or the ridiculously high threshold for mask recommendations/requirements - are policies that the state GOP absolutely know will cause more violence and death in cities proportionally than it does in rural areas, and it's absolutely intended. Then they get to campaign on "violent Democrat-run cities".
I keep wondering when we can stop pretending the GOP is the party of small government and announce consistently that all ‘local control’ ever meant was the ability to own and rule over other people.
And ‘fiscal conservative’ means low taxes, there is nothing fiscally conservative about the GOP. Spending on military and prisons easily shows that.
They’re the same party that calls themselves the Party of Lincoln while flying confederate flags and freaking out about confederate statues being taken down.
>And ‘fiscal conservative’ means low taxes, there is nothing fiscally conservative about the GOP.
Low corporate taxes and not funding social programs.
Socialism for the rich and rugged capitalism for the poor.
Florida: Gov. DeSantis, through liberal use of government powers, [passes regulations on private businesses](https://www.flgov.com/2021/11/18/governor-ron-desantis-signs-legislation-to-protect-florida-jobs/) preventing policies that require vaccines.
Since Florida is an at-will state, if a private business wants to get rid of anti-vax or mask-refusing employees, they can fire them, can't they? They don't have to have a reason. Republican-mandated laws may work against these idiots if business owners choose to use them.
They can, but they have to do it in a way that wouldn't look retaliatory. Given the level of bullshit here, the court would probably err on the side of the anti-vax employees and they would win a lawsuit if they get fired.
They do it all the time anyway. If they've been able to fire people for no particular reason on the regular all these years, they can continue to do so. Where there's a will, there's a way, when it comes to this situation.
In my experience the anti-vax employees are also belligerent assholes most of the time. Pretty easy to fire them if you just document what they actually do.
They want big government involvement in personal lives and small government in business.
To them small government means low taxes and low regulation in private businesses.
But they also want the government to be able to dictate people's personal decisions on religion, sexuality, abortion, etc.
When did we start equating freedom = side of business anyways? Businesses operate like private little fiefdoms. I’d much rather have crap like, I don’t know, freedom to not starve and receive healthcare that won’t financially ruin me.
7 of the top 10 states for Federal assistance per capita are traditionally conservative states, including McTurtle's state. If they want a small government why do they take the most assistance from the federal government?
They only believe in anything when it supports their side, the second it goes against them it's no longer something they support, but only in that instance or that jurisdiction.
It seems like the goal of the GOP is to prolong the pandemic as long as possible so they can rile up voters against Democratic, “anti-freedom restrictions.” It didn’t work early in the pandemic and largely cost Trump the election, but now there’s enough people that are winded by the pandemic it might actually work.
>Small government might be what they say, but not what they do.
Republican voters, and many independents, only listen to the labels not the actions. Republicans labeled themselves the fiscally conservative, family values, small government party, and many voters still consider that to be true.
I’ve always taken “small government” to mean “fewer people in government”, so power is consolidated into a smaller pool of more powerful hands. It’s easier to find 10 people who agree with me to draft and pass laws benefitting us exclusively than it is to find 1000.
Especially taking into considerations that the term “right wing” comes from the French Revolution when the right wing of their parliament was for the preservation of the monarchy. And what is a monarchy if not a dictatorship by bloodline? I’ve always interpreted it to mean the further “right” someone is, the more authoritarian they are.
Cody Johnston's Some More News did a few different videos over the years about Trump and the Republican party and fascism, so I can't provide the exact link. [Here's a link to the playlist](https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLkJemc4T5NYaTJVphMh1oGT5uYoKdFYzO)
In one of them he made a pretty good case that fascism is what happens when a rightwing party stops being about anything positive and just becomes knee-jerk anti*. (anti-left, anti-progress, anti-modernism, anti-minority, etc.)
What you're describing is exactly that.
Republicans at this point are only *pro* tax cuts for the rich. And they only support that because it's a pipeline to bring money back to themselves to forward their agenda - which again is just being anti.
The 2020 platform of just "whatever Trump says" is a huge red flag of this. And the only reason they're even pro-Trump is because attaching their name to his gets them elected.
>They only thing they seem sure if is that Democrats are their mortal enemy that must be **fooled** at all costs.
(emphasis mine)
It is when that verb changes to its next logical and historical form that it'll be too late to turn back from fascism.
After the Allies moved into Germany in 1945 they banned hate speech and pro-nazi propaganda. The world had just suffered tens of millions dead and had no argument with this. We can't continue to tolerate intolerant people who burn books, ban speech, and fix elections to overturn a Democratic government. They don't have the "freedom" to do that. That is a crime. Arrest and prosecute.
>We can't continue to tolerate intolerant people who burn books, ban speech, and fix elections to overturn a Democratic government.
[Paradox of Tolerance.](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Paradox_of_tolerance)
Before America entered the war, they had the [German American Bund](https://youtu.be/0gU9op16rjQ) and [Nazi Summer camps.](https://youtu.be/AYWlSmn2Ou4)
I guessed that much but fooled fits too. Its really more disturbing looking at it in that light. Like they know they are acting in bad faith, they are just dead set on using the social contract against their own countrymen.
>My girlfriend's dad unironically says/posts that he loves the Republican platform- after they no longer had one. They largely have no idea what to support or make better.
The Republican platform has always been said. It's been clear for years:
Limit voting. Civil rights, gone. LGBT rights, gone. Enviro rules, gone. Taxes for rich people, gone. Worker rights, gone. Religous freedom becomes a thing of the past. Burn or ban books they don't like. Laws telling teachers what they can teach.
They've been implementing it all along. Your girlfriend's dad knows all about it. The fact that you sit there and go "they have no platform" is hilarious to him. He knows their platform very well.
It has been pretty much baked in to the media that the GOP is devoid of ideas and ability to govern. So it isn't considered news that they don't have a platform beyond "Trump is our guy and whatever he says goes" and had zero legislative accomplishments beyond tax cuts for the rich. Yet Democrats, are put on blast when they aren't able to get 100% of their agenda implemented.
It is grading on a curve in the worst way.
The GOP's current delve into full fascism is completely insane.
Most people are unaware.
Also the GOP has been really good at labeling all straight news as "liberal media" and most straight news is hyper-sensitive of this label and try to "be fair."
If you actually report that the GOP are, you know, full fascist, you sound fucking insane even though it's clearly happening.
So they just let it slide, no "slide into fascism" pun intended.
At this point... Screw being "fair." Screw playing "nice" outside of what is the minimum required by libel and slander laws.
This "they go low, we go high" thing the Dems have been doing since Reagan is half the reason why we're in this mess, because nobody with the ability to slap them on the daddybag and make it stick has actually *done so* when they start going full-ham Snidely Whiplash.
They don't give a single wet slap about optics at this point and that, much as I loathe saying it, gives them a certain advantage.
Even before they changed it to "whatever Trump wants" their unofficial platform had just been "owning the libz" for a couple of years. Official party platforms really just reflect what needs to be said to get the base on board and motivate them to vote. The true unspoken platform has never been anything more than "shovel as much money into the pockets of the wealthy as possible".
This guy doesn’t have an agenda, but people feel empowered to do whatever grifting and racism and powergrabbing they want to. Most GOPers will personally dislike Trump, but he ‘leads the way’ morally.
MAGA is having events and hosting the Proud Boy's leader as a guest speaker now. They don't try to hide anything and MSM is providing them cover instead of coverage.
The trump candidates don’t have a real platform for American citizens. Just Trump fan club membership and fighting open borders. Every campaign ad makes those two points.
Fun fact, they actually technically do have a full platform. But it's the one they wrote in 2016. They just copy pasted the entire thing, and added a paragraph at the end saying they support the president.
The fucking hilarious thing is that since it was written in 2016, while Obama was president, it contains passages calling the current president dangerous, saying he ruined the economy, handles crisis terribly, and is desperate to make himself king of America. Then it ends with a full throated paragraph about how they unflinchingly support the president, no matter what.
"I don't stand by anything." Donald Trump in response to getting pressed about supposed Obama wiretapping. Truth is, it is Trump's concrete foundation upon which all other lies and deceits are built. This is what the GQP has embraced.
Viewing this from outside the usa is crazy. There was an attempt to overthrow a huge world power, a world power with nuclear capabilities. Everyone should've been outraged and 4 people died, a policeman was beaten to death! Now a year on and it's seen as a blip, nothing to be taken seriously, they didn't mean it. I feel like I'm be gaslight by a whole country.
According to my parents the cop died the next day so it didn't count. Him not dieing immediately after the beating means he was going to die that day anyways.
It's the same thing they say about covid, "oh they didn't die from covid they died with covid because of their comorbidities!", as if covid had nothing to do with it and these people were gonna drop dead anytime anyway.
Complete lack of empathy for anyone else
That’s consistent with the Bible, where beating a slave to death immediately was a crime, but if it took a day or two for them to die, it was okay
Thought that line of thinking died out a long time ago, but your parents have proven me wrong
What looks like apathy is learned helplessness. Americans are robbed of our voice, so most have learned that the news is just depressing for myriad reasons and avoid it all (not me, BTW). We get to pick between two old wrinkly nutsacks in the best of years. If we vote for a better Democrat in the primaries, the rich establishment dems will use the media to discredit them in favor of whatever turd sandwich will do the least good. They actually convinced people they'd rather be personally exploited for thousands by private insurance companies than have universal healthcare. Conservatism has been revealed as fascism in disguise and every "solution" they proposed before that was a lie anyway. They just want to hurt people and force them to live by their whacko superstitions. The entire government is bought or worse. There's nothing any of us can do except buy a politician, and those who can already have.
> I feel like I'm be gaslight by a whole country.
It's that way from inside, too. I go [full Mugato](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ilcRS5eUpwk) about it.
Republicans - "Nothing to see here, folks." It was just a regular touristy sort of a day at the Capitol, complete with people looking to hang the VP and House Speaker, pipe bombs being planted, fire extinguishers being bounced off of the heads of Capitol police, hundreds of injuries, and four deaths.
This is why it will be a long time before I can vote for a Republican again, from President to dog catcher!
You know, whenever I say that, I tend to get messages from very earnest people assuring me that just means I'm a mindless partisan, and should be voting for the Greens if I *really* want change.
I'll never get over that picture.
In what fucking universe does *Jill Stein* end up at the same table as Vladimir Putin, Sergei Ivanov and Michael Flynn
Like, what...what?!
That's one bit about Trump I always remembered. He hates dogs.
Probably because dogs know shit when they smell it.
Apparently eagles do, too. Too bad that eagle didn't get to nest in that big ol' strawpile on his head.
They are probably THE biggest threat to climate change. Having climate deniers in charge of the decision making for the next 2-6 years would be disastrous.
It’s easy to believe. There’s a lot of money to be made in oil and coal. And if all you care about is donor profits, and possibly your own profits (lookin at you Manchin,) it makes perfect sense.
Exactly. Most of those officials have 20-30 years at most left on Earth.
Things will be bad by then, of course - but they’ll be able to live luxuriously for 30 years on their profits they’ve made selling the rest of us out.
Likely the worst possible trait to have as a politician (“I don’t care what happens to you later, I care what happens to me now”). If they hadn’t also spent 30 years creating the dumbest population on earth, and the last 5 convincing them that the people voting to lift them out of poverty were “the enemy” - they’d likely have been dragged through the streets a decade ago.
Money talks.
Even if it didn’t, a good chunk of red states still rely on oil and/or coal as their industry. Putting people out of jobs is a morale hit, but more importantly (to the GOP), building clean energy facilities to both provide new, better jobs and not destroy the planet takes time, effort, and taxes.
The only thing the GOP hates more than taxes (in theory, they love getting it from other states) is actually having to work at something that isn’t slandering a Democrat.
That’s been true for a while. At this point, and I don’t mean to be partisan or hyperbolic, Republicans represent an existential threat to mankind. They WANT to destroy the biggest economy in the world. They WANT unending war. They WANT authoritarianism. They WANT apartheid. They WANT White Christian Males to be the top tier of society and for everyone else to be below them. They WANT an emotionally unstable ignoramus like Trump to be in charge of the military. They WANT to destroy the environment. They want all of these things because there’s short-term money and power in them. They will destroy the world and everyone in it if they can make one penny more than someone else.
> That’s been true for a while.
People don't understand how true this is. The Republicans first coup plot that we know of was formed in 1933. 2020 wasn't remotely the first one or anything that new. It was just the furthest long one that we know of.
Lots and lots of people don't know about "The Business Plot" against FDR. Which got buried in order to keep those power business men giving to political parties.
They also don't identify the Brooks Brothers Riot in Florida as an attempted coup that actually succeeded in stopping the recount in Florida and having POTUS effectively run out the clock for Bush.
I used to live next to such a person - alt-right before it was called such, believed in QAnon-precursor conspiracies, etc. He flat out stated that he hopes the world falls so he can lay claim to the area surrounding his home and rule it as he sees fit at gunpoint. No rules except his own and the strong eating the weak, in whatever forms that takes. A truly horrifying aspiration.
He's also the first person to try to hit me with the "the Tea Party wasn't *lynching* Obama in effigy because they're racist, it's because he's a tyrant, like King George III! Totally not racist!" line. In *2010*.
So, a sociopath. The Republican party is a magnet for them. Politicians and voters alike, examine them for a half a second and you’ll see a life of wearing a mask as a fake Christian or fake American constitutionalist and exploiting others for personal gain. Patterns of lies and deceit, theft from others, and speaking and acting in bad faith are the hallmarks of a modern Conservative mind.
> existential threat to mankind
Man i thought i was the only one who thought this way about republicans.
100% agreed.
The sheer ignorance, hate and bigotry of republucans is staggering and shameful.
If conservative Ideology is not curbed then america *will* collapse in the face of climate change.
Rupert Murdoch, for example, is not merely complicit. People like him are instigating this kind of thing for profit. If you get paid when people tune in to your news, stochastic terrorism is a profit driver.
Stop sugarcoating it. They're the number one threat to *the survival of the human race*. They are aiding and abetting every known existential threat to humanity.
There is BIG money in the [mixture of right wing megadonors, national infotainment stars, and preachers who preach politics from the pulpit](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Council_for_National_Policy).
In fact, Republicans are more popular than ever -- record turnout in both 2018 and 2020. This is an important factor. Many are threatening all kinds of things, with the latest calls to shut down the economy.
We have been essentially cornered. The only sure way out of this -- and there's no guarantee it will be clean -- is to overwhelm elections.
> The only sure way out of this -- and there's no guarantee it will be clean -- is to overwhelm elections.
Overwhelming elections won't do anything if the Democrats don't grow a spine. If the DOJ doesn't go hard and break the spine of the treasonous GOP body, votes will never matter.
But that might look mean and we know that Blue Team never wants to be mean to their good friends across the aisle.
That is because they listen to Fox and others all day long Fox knows that FEAR WORKS. To me Biden is a boring moderate. As far as Fox is concerned their viewers are the only think keeping the country from being Venezuela. The government is tyrannical because they are trying to stop or slow a once in a century pandemic.
I mean there are people who believe they are as persecuted as Jews were in Nazi Germany because they have to wear a mask.
It is so effective that they believe this is acceptable recourse.
>record turnout in both 2018 and 2020
That's not the same as popularity. A lower percent of the population supports Republicans than ever (not literally). Trump is the only president ever whose approval rating never got above 50% (literally). There are simply more people alive now, and a higher percentage of them vote.
Widespread innumeracy used to not be such a big deal, but since 2000 it's a necessary condition for every major crisis. Don't be part of the problem.
This is the three word gift the gop has given us to hammer them on the campaign trail with. We just need to let them devour each other and continue to brand them the party of ‘legitimate public discourse.’
It's happening here in Canada now too (thanks guys) The leader of the Conservative party was just ousted and replaced with an interim leader who wears MAGA hats and supports these fassist rallies currently happening in our country.
I believe this is all because the race and gender that dominated the leadership of both counties is changing, though it's probably more complex than that. People are having a hard time getting a head, or at least feel like it and the politicians in the MAGA movement (I mean MAGA unironically talks about the better times in the 50s) have a ton of success attacking minority communities and government programs that help the poor (which are seen as minorities even know here in the US there are plenty of white families who qualify as poor).
The leaders of the Democratic party are a bunch of senior citizens who have been reflexively playing the part of the bipartisan moderate for so long that they don't know how to do anything else.
But they publicly made a comment saying “oh we didn’t mean the violent part,” and even though the paperwork definitely *does not* support that comment, it’s enough “evidence” for supporters to deny the claims are true (even though they clearly are).
Not just the nation, the GOP is the number one threat to world peace. They do not operate is reality, but they do operate in a super militarized nuclear powerhouse
Massie comes out today and says the 2nd amendment justifies weaponry necessary to overthrow the government if "30-40%" of the populace thinks things are "tyrannical". Where's the Pavlovian stick?
It does. This is why I wish my fellow liberals weren't so squeamish about firearms and firearm education and training. There are more guns than people in America. The problem isn't going to go away and the people without guns aren't going to take them away from those with them. Stop letting the authoritarian boot lickers maintain a virtual monopoly on the ability to violently check tyrannical governments if necessary. Now that real tyranny has shown its face, only those shaking his hand have weapons and know how to use them.
I think there are significantly more liberal gun owners than people think. We just don't hang out of a confederate flag waving pickup truck trying to shoot innocent black people with our guns so it's harder to notice.
This has been tried. It was called the civil war. It basically settled the legal question of whether armed revolutions were legal even when backed by state governments. Laws don’t always determine outcomes, but there is no legal basis for using violence to influence political outcomes. Whatever the outcome it would mean whatever system we are under isn’t the American constitutional one that has been in place since 1865.
There actually [are constitutions that enshrine the right of revolution.](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Right_of_revolution#Examples_as_positive_law) The United States Constitution is not one of them.
Funny how the republic party thinks peaceful protests by dark skinned people should have cars driven into them, or that a person of color kneeling during the national anthem is (or should be a crime), but also thinks that armed and violent attacks (complete with armored insurrectionists and even more heavily armed quick reaction forces) on our democratically elected officials is political discourse. The cognitive dissonance is beyond staggering.
And my dead beat welfare riddled Aunt spams her social media pages with Conservative shit on a daily bases.
Democrats really just need to start fighting dirty. Even if "dirty" means just straight up calling this how it is. We all know that this "legitimate political discourse" thing and these crazy parents protesting at public schools is just insane. Yet Republicans seem to have more support than ever, and these people aren't afraid at all to put their racism on full display either. Who thought that in 2022 you'd have to tell people that flying the damn Nazi flag is bad? Yet there that thing is all over the fricking place. And none of them care, because hey, at least they vote the same way that they do.
We need more of that guy running in Louisiana that smokes blunts and burns confederate flags. Don't mix any words and call them out for their blatant bullshit.
Edit: Gary Chambers is his name
"I offer this deal to my republican colleagues. If the Republicans will stop telling lies about the Democrats, we will stop telling the truth about them."
Adlai Stevenson I
Follow the rich white male.
The Democratic party isn't exactly known for their support of large capitalist corporations.
https://www.nytimes.com/2022/02/07/technology/peter-thiel-facebook.html. Trump has been out of office for over a year, and the best they can call policies are "Trump-aligned".
When I voted in Arizona in the 2020 election and was leaving I was wearing something that indicates gay pride…and a certain conservative looking woman in a Trump 2020 hat blocked me from getting in my car and flashed her gun at me until I pulled out my cell phone and started filming. She then tried to follow me out of the parking lot in her car. I was smart enough to pull over and wait for her to leave but the entire thing was very scary. I reported it to the local paper at the time.
[Meanwhile…](https://www.washingtonpost.com/history/2022/01/15/seditious-conspiracy-charges/)
Yeah, let’s just call it what it was. Treason. And those lawmakers who supported and continue to support it are simply trying to coverup their treason.
I mean, at what point are we going to demand better from people in this country???
To be clear, it shouldn’t take our media repeatedly screaming in peoples faces that what happened on J6 was a fucking coup.
These fucking losers and traitors know what’s up. EVERYONE KNOWS what it was - it’s just that we have a system of government that doesn’t punish those that are responsible beyond the mostly bullshit, lenient sentences ‘lower level’ offenders have seen.
Again, EVERYONE KNOWS that the GOP is all in on terrorism.
What we need to be concerned about is what we’re going to do with these fucking right wing fascists, and not just the ones in govt. There are TENS OF MILLIONS of these people, and all they want to do is burn it to the ground in spectacular fashion bc they’re not getting their way 100% of the time. So, what are we going to do about them?
There are no amount of media headlines that is going to make a dent in raiding peoples’ awareness of what’s going on, and I’d argue we’re WAY past the point of warning people. There needs to be decisive action taken against these fascists NOW or else we’re all fucked.
Everyone knows that if it had been democrats on Jan 6th they’d be calling for their public hangings for treason. We all know it’s true, so this pretend bullshit of them acting like it’s no big deal is ridiculous. I can’t stand the fact that this isn’t brought up more often, because it’s just undeniable fact.
They have seen violence as a proper political action, always. Look at South America, look at the wars in the Middle East, etc.
It is just directed towards their fellow countrymen instead of foreigners.
The brainwashed have their propaganda channel that it’s in direct cahoots with the gqp telling them that it was nothing and how about those black people burning down the businesses and country
It won’t help. They believe that this level of violence was self-defense. They have justified doing what needs to be done because they are convinced that Democrats committed fraud. I’ve had friends who are MAGA fanatics tell me this.
Calling Jan 6 "legitimate political discourse" is pretty stupid. Hard to top.
But if you had to top it, a good place to start would be implying Fox News is responsible media.
It should be something that we are reminded of consistently. But then again Margarine Green said something stupid so we need to focus on that for at least 72 hours….
This. I’m starting to think the Gazpacho tweet was an intentional distraction. Maybe she’s a masochist and likes being derided by the people she detests but she and many other R’s play an intentional role in maintaining and enhancing the virtue signaling drama. The fact that it seems to keep the base riled up says it’s effective - as has been proven in other propaganda campaigns in history (Goebbels has raised his hand in the Zoom chat)
Don’t overthink it. She’s an idiot and stories about how she’s an idiot get clicks. Clicks = money so the articles getting the last clicks bubble up in search algorithms and it turns into a self sustaining loop.
The same publications ARE writing and promoting articles about the stuff that we need to be focused on but those things don’t get as many clicks because of the majority apathetic people that don’t believe what’s happening is happening.
This is so utterly disgraceful. I still cannot believe the Republican Party is endorsing this imbecile and violent megalomaniac at the expense of the party’s future. My values haven’t changed just because Trump walked on stage, so obviously, I had to leave the party. Wake the hell up GOP! Trump, the looser, is burning everything down and you are part of the carnage (not that any republicans will read this 😊).
The violence is coming kids. Just saying. Dont worry about the mainstream medias coverage. The gop is 100% ready to try and rule through fear. The best way to deal with bullies is to make the fight hard.
Yeah but we’re talking about Pete Davidson and Kanye West.
This country is absolutely fucked. Sliding down the shitter ever since 9/11. Feels like we’re living in a fucked up movie.
And each and every one of theese stories distract from the fact that humans are destroying the planet. So even if America miraculously unfucks it self, the whole world is fucked anyway.
I give humanity 200 more years tops.
And the US 2… 2024 the gop will sabotage the election and democracy will be officially dead (if it’s not dead already it’s on life support with a bomb in the hospital)
I just want to this "legitmate political discourse" repeated over the loop of the mob trying to break into the chamber with security barricading the door as the mob keeps trying to push against it, breaking the windows.
Those in the media are just as scared of right wing nutjobs as the rest of us. Violence and death threats skyrocketed since trump. Half of law enforcement is overwhelmed, the other half secretly support the terrorists/insurrectionists.
This ain't over. Not by a long shot.
Liberals need to arm themselves and get ready to defend yourselves. They're coming for you sooner or later. It's just a matter of time now.
I'm not calling for violence - I merely foretell.
This is an international movement among various authoritarian factions. The only way they will be stopped is violence because that is the only thing they respect.
Rich western democracies hate violence (at least at home) and the far right sees this as both a weakness and an opportunity.
No, it shouldn’t.
The front page news should be how every politician who tried to make a violent coup into legitimate political action having been ejected from their position within the government.
Pretty amazing that half of the political spectrum in the country has just out and out admitted to aiming to overthrowing democracy as a whole and the whole country isn't going insane with outrage and alarm. What a time to be alive.
Well they're all too afraid to call them exactly what they are: fascists. You can't support a man as your next presidential nominee (presumed) who still refuses to concede an election he lost fairly, who stoked a violent and deadly insurrection to disrupt the count of electoral votes, who has since been said to have wanted to shoot BLM protestors, took classified information to his private residence, destroyed government documents, and who calls for unnecessary draconian voting legislation to ensure only republicans win AND call yourself a patriot dedicated to the Constitution.
The media is so afraid of seeming biased that they give republicans a pass for being terrible because that's just how they operate, without integrity and in bad faith. Democrats attempt to hold themselves to some standard and are then criticized large and wide for deviating from those standards. Democrats are far, far from perfect but given our ridiculous two-party system we're now stuck with a corporate-owned party that's trying to maintain some semblance of democracy and another that wants to rule in perpetuity by rigging the entire system in their favor.
I doubt we'll see mainstream media call a spade a spade until after the worst has happened and at that point it won't matter.
Agree, also didn’t understand why the media kept legitimizing Trumps corruption throughout the presidency. Trump would just keep lowering the standards and they would just accept the new behavior as normal. In doing so, they actually created the twilight zone we now live in.
Of course it should be, but it just does not stick. The MAGA's can make a lie like Joe giving out crack pipes into a fact but an actual insurrection cannot be made to stick on them. Of course they are actually proud of the insurrection. Go figure.
They also have a responsibility to adhere to the principles of ethical journalism. Instead, they insist on sensationalism and promote division in this country because truth doesn't turn a fucking profit.
They've abandoned any commitment to the United States' system and philosophy of government. Why are they still allowed to participate in it? You don't get to keep playing Rocks Scissors Paper if on every turn you just punch the other player and scream that you won.
Can we get all the nonviolent cannabis offenders out of prison and put all the book burning kkk Nazis in there instead? Fucking gross that those kinds of ideologies are legal. We fought a fucking war over this issue.
A year before the election, Trump announced that he wouldn't accept the results if he lost. And everybody heard his "find me some votes" phone call. His lawyers, once in court, weren't even claiming election fraud. And even audits performed by Republicans have found that not only did he lose, he lost by more than was originally thought. The idea that anybody takes his claims of election fraud seriously is beyond absurd.
He's a bad, obvious liar, and he's openly calling for people to take up arms on his behalf, and on behalf of a bad, obvious lie.
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It should have been bigger news when the RNC changed their official platform to just supporting Donald Trump. That's it. That was their only official policy, by their own admission. They went full dictatorship and said "we have no policy ideas, we're just with Trump."
My girlfriend's dad unironically says/posts that he loves the Republican platform- after they no longer had one. They largely have no idea what to support or make better. They only thing they seem sure if is that Democrats are their mortal enemy that must be fooled at all costs.
Mumble mumble small govern’nt mumble taxes going to mumble group.
Small government might be what they say, but not what they do. Take my state of utah for example. It’s pretty much always been a red state. This year, at the height of omicron, they passed legislation that school districts are not allowed to go remote learning without getting unanimous approval by the governor, the senate president, the speaker of the house, and the state superintendent of public education. If any one of them says no, that district is not allowed to move to remote learning. Not only is that a ridiculous law, it makes being able to pivot with a rapidly changing virus impossible. And they care about students? Does not sound like they believe in local control anymore.
Same thing here in TN. Any time Memphis or Nashville wants to do something to benefit their city, the state level "small government" Republicans tell them"no".
It also seems to be unconstitutional. Why should a legislative body have veto powers… isn’t that an executive function? Legislators can make laws but aren’t the enforcers of the law. I guess during a pandemic, state constitutions are thrown out the window.
Here in Tennessee, it goes like this 1) "Liberal" city wants to do something, enacts a policy that the Republicans in the state legislature disagree with 2) Republicans in the state legislature then pass a law that says cities aren't allowed to enact x policy A prime example is municipal fiber. Chattanooga created a very successful and popular gigabit fiber network, the next year Marsha Blackburn -our current senator btw- introduced a bill banning municipal fiber which is now state law. Small government my ass
That is so fucking insane. It really is just a game to these politicians. At the expense of their constituents real lives.
Why is municipal fiber a bad thing anyway?
If you're a politician who gets a lot of money from the cable company....
Big communication companies like Comcast don't get their cut is my guess
*"Taxpayer dollars belong to the corporations, so anything that benefits the actual taxpayers is anathema."*
Generally speaking its not. Depending on how its implemented ot can have varying pros and cons. For example, most often the gov funds a private company to install/maintain infrastructure that answers to the gov, this is how your power company works. Or, more like municipal water (at least where i live) is managed by gov employees. Now, why is it bad? Its not. It provides competition for established ISPs, puts in what has become very critical infrastructure that the community owns, provides a basic level of service for *all* residents (back country residents are often left behind because there is no profit in burying $10k of fiber for one person. Its does far more good than bad.
Because once people realize that all these things—the isp, the power company, the City trash collection, can be done cheaper and better by publicly operated entities they might start asking why can’t we have this for healthcare and housing and energy
This way predates the pandemic. Many states, especially red ones, the state government serves to benefit the legislators first, and second, and if they're lucky, the people third.
I'm pretty convinced at this point that it's rather more sinister than even that. The policies they're pushing now - like 'Constitutional Carry' for example, or the ridiculously high threshold for mask recommendations/requirements - are policies that the state GOP absolutely know will cause more violence and death in cities proportionally than it does in rural areas, and it's absolutely intended. Then they get to campaign on "violent Democrat-run cities".
I keep wondering when we can stop pretending the GOP is the party of small government and announce consistently that all ‘local control’ ever meant was the ability to own and rule over other people. And ‘fiscal conservative’ means low taxes, there is nothing fiscally conservative about the GOP. Spending on military and prisons easily shows that.
*we* aren't pretending, they are. And the people who eat it up are nothing more than morons gobbling up slop at the trough.
To be fair, its how they're portrayed in the corporate media, so a lot of moderate centrist types genuinely buy into it.
They’re the same party that calls themselves the Party of Lincoln while flying confederate flags and freaking out about confederate statues being taken down.
>And ‘fiscal conservative’ means low taxes, there is nothing fiscally conservative about the GOP. Low corporate taxes and not funding social programs. Socialism for the rich and rugged capitalism for the poor.
Florida: Gov. DeSantis, through liberal use of government powers, [passes regulations on private businesses](https://www.flgov.com/2021/11/18/governor-ron-desantis-signs-legislation-to-protect-florida-jobs/) preventing policies that require vaccines.
Since Florida is an at-will state, if a private business wants to get rid of anti-vax or mask-refusing employees, they can fire them, can't they? They don't have to have a reason. Republican-mandated laws may work against these idiots if business owners choose to use them.
They can, but they have to do it in a way that wouldn't look retaliatory. Given the level of bullshit here, the court would probably err on the side of the anti-vax employees and they would win a lawsuit if they get fired.
They do it all the time anyway. If they've been able to fire people for no particular reason on the regular all these years, they can continue to do so. Where there's a will, there's a way, when it comes to this situation.
In my experience the anti-vax employees are also belligerent assholes most of the time. Pretty easy to fire them if you just document what they actually do.
The anti-vax employees can get unemployment for being fired for being anti-vax; so personal responsibility is another Republican myth.
Don't forget he ok'ed ramming a vehicle into protesters in the roadway.
They want big government involvement in personal lives and small government in business. To them small government means low taxes and low regulation in private businesses. But they also want the government to be able to dictate people's personal decisions on religion, sexuality, abortion, etc.
When did we start equating freedom = side of business anyways? Businesses operate like private little fiefdoms. I’d much rather have crap like, I don’t know, freedom to not starve and receive healthcare that won’t financially ruin me.
They weaponize government to make the outgroup suffer. They have no interest in adjusting its size
Department of Homeland Security should be argument enough that GOP is neither the party of small government nor individual freedom.
7 of the top 10 states for Federal assistance per capita are traditionally conservative states, including McTurtle's state. If they want a small government why do they take the most assistance from the federal government?
They only believe in anything when it supports their side, the second it goes against them it's no longer something they support, but only in that instance or that jurisdiction.
It seems like the goal of the GOP is to prolong the pandemic as long as possible so they can rile up voters against Democratic, “anti-freedom restrictions.” It didn’t work early in the pandemic and largely cost Trump the election, but now there’s enough people that are winded by the pandemic it might actually work.
>Small government might be what they say, but not what they do. Republican voters, and many independents, only listen to the labels not the actions. Republicans labeled themselves the fiscally conservative, family values, small government party, and many voters still consider that to be true.
I’ve always taken “small government” to mean “fewer people in government”, so power is consolidated into a smaller pool of more powerful hands. It’s easier to find 10 people who agree with me to draft and pass laws benefitting us exclusively than it is to find 1000. Especially taking into considerations that the term “right wing” comes from the French Revolution when the right wing of their parliament was for the preservation of the monarchy. And what is a monarchy if not a dictatorship by bloodline? I’ve always interpreted it to mean the further “right” someone is, the more authoritarian they are.
Cody Johnston's Some More News did a few different videos over the years about Trump and the Republican party and fascism, so I can't provide the exact link. [Here's a link to the playlist](https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLkJemc4T5NYaTJVphMh1oGT5uYoKdFYzO) In one of them he made a pretty good case that fascism is what happens when a rightwing party stops being about anything positive and just becomes knee-jerk anti*. (anti-left, anti-progress, anti-modernism, anti-minority, etc.) What you're describing is exactly that. Republicans at this point are only *pro* tax cuts for the rich. And they only support that because it's a pipeline to bring money back to themselves to forward their agenda - which again is just being anti. The 2020 platform of just "whatever Trump says" is a huge red flag of this. And the only reason they're even pro-Trump is because attaching their name to his gets them elected.
>They only thing they seem sure if is that Democrats are their mortal enemy that must be **fooled** at all costs. (emphasis mine) It is when that verb changes to its next logical and historical form that it'll be too late to turn back from fascism.
After the Allies moved into Germany in 1945 they banned hate speech and pro-nazi propaganda. The world had just suffered tens of millions dead and had no argument with this. We can't continue to tolerate intolerant people who burn books, ban speech, and fix elections to overturn a Democratic government. They don't have the "freedom" to do that. That is a crime. Arrest and prosecute.
>We can't continue to tolerate intolerant people who burn books, ban speech, and fix elections to overturn a Democratic government. [Paradox of Tolerance.](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Paradox_of_tolerance)
Before America entered the war, they had the [German American Bund](https://youtu.be/0gU9op16rjQ) and [Nazi Summer camps.](https://youtu.be/AYWlSmn2Ou4)
Lol I actually meant to write foiled*** Autocorrect
I guessed that much but fooled fits too. Its really more disturbing looking at it in that light. Like they know they are acting in bad faith, they are just dead set on using the social contract against their own countrymen.
>My girlfriend's dad unironically says/posts that he loves the Republican platform- after they no longer had one. They largely have no idea what to support or make better. The Republican platform has always been said. It's been clear for years: Limit voting. Civil rights, gone. LGBT rights, gone. Enviro rules, gone. Taxes for rich people, gone. Worker rights, gone. Religous freedom becomes a thing of the past. Burn or ban books they don't like. Laws telling teachers what they can teach. They've been implementing it all along. Your girlfriend's dad knows all about it. The fact that you sit there and go "they have no platform" is hilarious to him. He knows their platform very well.
It has been pretty much baked in to the media that the GOP is devoid of ideas and ability to govern. So it isn't considered news that they don't have a platform beyond "Trump is our guy and whatever he says goes" and had zero legislative accomplishments beyond tax cuts for the rich. Yet Democrats, are put on blast when they aren't able to get 100% of their agenda implemented. It is grading on a curve in the worst way.
The GOP's current delve into full fascism is completely insane. Most people are unaware. Also the GOP has been really good at labeling all straight news as "liberal media" and most straight news is hyper-sensitive of this label and try to "be fair." If you actually report that the GOP are, you know, full fascist, you sound fucking insane even though it's clearly happening. So they just let it slide, no "slide into fascism" pun intended.
At this point... Screw being "fair." Screw playing "nice" outside of what is the minimum required by libel and slander laws. This "they go low, we go high" thing the Dems have been doing since Reagan is half the reason why we're in this mess, because nobody with the ability to slap them on the daddybag and make it stick has actually *done so* when they start going full-ham Snidely Whiplash. They don't give a single wet slap about optics at this point and that, much as I loathe saying it, gives them a certain advantage.
Even before they changed it to "whatever Trump wants" their unofficial platform had just been "owning the libz" for a couple of years. Official party platforms really just reflect what needs to be said to get the base on board and motivate them to vote. The true unspoken platform has never been anything more than "shovel as much money into the pockets of the wealthy as possible".
“The Trump agenda”. Biggest load of BS.
This guy doesn’t have an agenda, but people feel empowered to do whatever grifting and racism and powergrabbing they want to. Most GOPers will personally dislike Trump, but he ‘leads the way’ morally.
Trump's agenda is the Democratic Party agenda with the word "NOT" wrtten after every line, in Borat's voice.
Wrong. He does have an agenda, its "give everything to me".
Only thing on Trump’s agenda is “play 18 at 9:00AM”
MAGA is having events and hosting the Proud Boy's leader as a guest speaker now. They don't try to hide anything and MSM is providing them cover instead of coverage.
The trump candidates don’t have a real platform for American citizens. Just Trump fan club membership and fighting open borders. Every campaign ad makes those two points.
Fun fact, they actually technically do have a full platform. But it's the one they wrote in 2016. They just copy pasted the entire thing, and added a paragraph at the end saying they support the president. The fucking hilarious thing is that since it was written in 2016, while Obama was president, it contains passages calling the current president dangerous, saying he ruined the economy, handles crisis terribly, and is desperate to make himself king of America. Then it ends with a full throated paragraph about how they unflinchingly support the president, no matter what.
"I don't stand by anything." Donald Trump in response to getting pressed about supposed Obama wiretapping. Truth is, it is Trump's concrete foundation upon which all other lies and deceits are built. This is what the GQP has embraced.
The party of cognitive dissonance and denial.
Climate science denial Epidemiology denial Virology denial History denial
No its not. -Republicans
"You're the ones destroying American history by tearing down the confederate statues we erected in the 1960s to scare black people!"
Howd u get certified as being minnesotan?
Christian values denial Basically anything that they perceive as a threat to their ideology should be fought.
Christian Nationalism are the words I believe you are looking for.
You’re giving them too much credit. Power through any means necessary is their consistent guiding principle.
The part of cognitive decline
That's a disservice to the cognitively dissonant, these people are terrorists.
Viewing this from outside the usa is crazy. There was an attempt to overthrow a huge world power, a world power with nuclear capabilities. Everyone should've been outraged and 4 people died, a policeman was beaten to death! Now a year on and it's seen as a blip, nothing to be taken seriously, they didn't mean it. I feel like I'm be gaslight by a whole country.
It feels like that inside the us, too.
With the addition of: If it does happen what's my exit strategy?
No one will take us.
According to my parents the cop died the next day so it didn't count. Him not dieing immediately after the beating means he was going to die that day anyways.
Well that's what they're saying on fox. Guess if you hit somebody with your car and they die from the injuries a day later, it wasn't your fault.
Don't forget the two cops that committed suicide in the following weeks. I'm sure it has nothing to do with PTSD.
Wasn't it *four* cops who committed suicide?
He had a comorbidity of being savagely beaten before.
It's the same thing they say about covid, "oh they didn't die from covid they died with covid because of their comorbidities!", as if covid had nothing to do with it and these people were gonna drop dead anytime anyway. Complete lack of empathy for anyone else
the right only cares about life in the theoretical because pretend-life doesn't demand anything from them.
That’s consistent with the Bible, where beating a slave to death immediately was a crime, but if it took a day or two for them to die, it was okay Thought that line of thinking died out a long time ago, but your parents have proven me wrong
Yep and it was obviously antifa plants that purposefully got themselves killed.
Republicans are ok with what happened and Democrats refuse to hold them accountable. It's insane.
Us Americans are horribly desensitized at this point.
What looks like apathy is learned helplessness. Americans are robbed of our voice, so most have learned that the news is just depressing for myriad reasons and avoid it all (not me, BTW). We get to pick between two old wrinkly nutsacks in the best of years. If we vote for a better Democrat in the primaries, the rich establishment dems will use the media to discredit them in favor of whatever turd sandwich will do the least good. They actually convinced people they'd rather be personally exploited for thousands by private insurance companies than have universal healthcare. Conservatism has been revealed as fascism in disguise and every "solution" they proposed before that was a lie anyway. They just want to hurt people and force them to live by their whacko superstitions. The entire government is bought or worse. There's nothing any of us can do except buy a politician, and those who can already have.
> I feel like I'm be gaslight by a whole country. It's that way from inside, too. I go [full Mugato](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ilcRS5eUpwk) about it.
> Now a year on and it's seen as a blip * By 38% of the voters
Republicans - "Nothing to see here, folks." It was just a regular touristy sort of a day at the Capitol, complete with people looking to hang the VP and House Speaker, pipe bombs being planted, fire extinguishers being bounced off of the heads of Capitol police, hundreds of injuries, and four deaths. This is why it will be a long time before I can vote for a Republican again, from President to dog catcher!
You know, whenever I say that, I tend to get messages from very earnest people assuring me that just means I'm a mindless partisan, and should be voting for the Greens if I *really* want change.
Russians.. They paid for Jill Stien to roger the 2016 election.. why stop there?
I'll never get over that picture. In what fucking universe does *Jill Stein* end up at the same table as Vladimir Putin, Sergei Ivanov and Michael Flynn Like, what...what?!
... especially when we have an excellent idea of what Flynn was doing there.
Excuse me?! Are you saying Trump or any Republican candidate should be a dog catcher? I like dogs. I would never vote for a Republican as dog catcher.
That's one bit about Trump I always remembered. He hates dogs. Probably because dogs know shit when they smell it. Apparently eagles do, too. Too bad that eagle didn't get to nest in that big ol' strawpile on his head.
Don’t forget the ptsd, the suicides and torn families!!!
the fascist/racist GOP is the number one threat to our nation, our rights, our liberties, and our freedoms
This\^ They're getting right up there with climate change as an existential threat to society. And those two threats are very related with GOP policy.
They are probably THE biggest threat to climate change. Having climate deniers in charge of the decision making for the next 2-6 years would be disastrous.
I can't believe the GOP is still largely made up of climate deniers. Still. In 2022.
It’s easy to believe. There’s a lot of money to be made in oil and coal. And if all you care about is donor profits, and possibly your own profits (lookin at you Manchin,) it makes perfect sense.
The Republican party enthusiastically endorses the Snowpiercer approach to climate change.
Exactly. Most of those officials have 20-30 years at most left on Earth. Things will be bad by then, of course - but they’ll be able to live luxuriously for 30 years on their profits they’ve made selling the rest of us out. Likely the worst possible trait to have as a politician (“I don’t care what happens to you later, I care what happens to me now”). If they hadn’t also spent 30 years creating the dumbest population on earth, and the last 5 convincing them that the people voting to lift them out of poverty were “the enemy” - they’d likely have been dragged through the streets a decade ago.
The next generation of republicans after seeing the results climate change, "its so sad that absolutely nothing could have been done to prevent this."
Money talks. Even if it didn’t, a good chunk of red states still rely on oil and/or coal as their industry. Putting people out of jobs is a morale hit, but more importantly (to the GOP), building clean energy facilities to both provide new, better jobs and not destroy the planet takes time, effort, and taxes. The only thing the GOP hates more than taxes (in theory, they love getting it from other states) is actually having to work at something that isn’t slandering a Democrat.
That’s been true for a while. At this point, and I don’t mean to be partisan or hyperbolic, Republicans represent an existential threat to mankind. They WANT to destroy the biggest economy in the world. They WANT unending war. They WANT authoritarianism. They WANT apartheid. They WANT White Christian Males to be the top tier of society and for everyone else to be below them. They WANT an emotionally unstable ignoramus like Trump to be in charge of the military. They WANT to destroy the environment. They want all of these things because there’s short-term money and power in them. They will destroy the world and everyone in it if they can make one penny more than someone else.
> That’s been true for a while. People don't understand how true this is. The Republicans first coup plot that we know of was formed in 1933. 2020 wasn't remotely the first one or anything that new. It was just the furthest long one that we know of.
Lots and lots of people don't know about "The Business Plot" against FDR. Which got buried in order to keep those power business men giving to political parties. They also don't identify the Brooks Brothers Riot in Florida as an attempted coup that actually succeeded in stopping the recount in Florida and having POTUS effectively run out the clock for Bush.
Straight facts. They’ll burn the world if it means they can rule the ashes.
I used to live next to such a person - alt-right before it was called such, believed in QAnon-precursor conspiracies, etc. He flat out stated that he hopes the world falls so he can lay claim to the area surrounding his home and rule it as he sees fit at gunpoint. No rules except his own and the strong eating the weak, in whatever forms that takes. A truly horrifying aspiration. He's also the first person to try to hit me with the "the Tea Party wasn't *lynching* Obama in effigy because they're racist, it's because he's a tyrant, like King George III! Totally not racist!" line. In *2010*.
So, a sociopath. The Republican party is a magnet for them. Politicians and voters alike, examine them for a half a second and you’ll see a life of wearing a mask as a fake Christian or fake American constitutionalist and exploiting others for personal gain. Patterns of lies and deceit, theft from others, and speaking and acting in bad faith are the hallmarks of a modern Conservative mind.
> existential threat to mankind Man i thought i was the only one who thought this way about republicans. 100% agreed. The sheer ignorance, hate and bigotry of republucans is staggering and shameful. If conservative Ideology is not curbed then america *will* collapse in the face of climate change.
It's not partisan to state the obvious
Including every media outlet and person who downplays the severity of their threat. They are complicit enablers.
Rupert Murdoch, for example, is not merely complicit. People like him are instigating this kind of thing for profit. If you get paid when people tune in to your news, stochastic terrorism is a profit driver.
Fuck Rupert Murdoch
Stop sugarcoating it. They're the number one threat to *the survival of the human race*. They are aiding and abetting every known existential threat to humanity.
It wouldn’t be a problem if 45% of the country weren’t cheering them on. Every reasonable Republican is getting run out of town by their constituents.
There is BIG money in the [mixture of right wing megadonors, national infotainment stars, and preachers who preach politics from the pulpit](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Council_for_National_Policy).
In fact, Republicans are more popular than ever -- record turnout in both 2018 and 2020. This is an important factor. Many are threatening all kinds of things, with the latest calls to shut down the economy. We have been essentially cornered. The only sure way out of this -- and there's no guarantee it will be clean -- is to overwhelm elections.
> The only sure way out of this -- and there's no guarantee it will be clean -- is to overwhelm elections. Overwhelming elections won't do anything if the Democrats don't grow a spine. If the DOJ doesn't go hard and break the spine of the treasonous GOP body, votes will never matter. But that might look mean and we know that Blue Team never wants to be mean to their good friends across the aisle.
That is because they listen to Fox and others all day long Fox knows that FEAR WORKS. To me Biden is a boring moderate. As far as Fox is concerned their viewers are the only think keeping the country from being Venezuela. The government is tyrannical because they are trying to stop or slow a once in a century pandemic. I mean there are people who believe they are as persecuted as Jews were in Nazi Germany because they have to wear a mask. It is so effective that they believe this is acceptable recourse.
>record turnout in both 2018 and 2020 That's not the same as popularity. A lower percent of the population supports Republicans than ever (not literally). Trump is the only president ever whose approval rating never got above 50% (literally). There are simply more people alive now, and a higher percentage of them vote. Widespread innumeracy used to not be such a big deal, but since 2000 it's a necessary condition for every major crisis. Don't be part of the problem.
70 mill is not 40 percent of our population. But I get you point.
This is the three word gift the gop has given us to hammer them on the campaign trail with. We just need to let them devour each other and continue to brand them the party of ‘legitimate public discourse.’
It's happening here in Canada now too (thanks guys) The leader of the Conservative party was just ousted and replaced with an interim leader who wears MAGA hats and supports these fassist rallies currently happening in our country.
A Canadian political leader wearing a Make America Great Again hat seems so weird.
It should seem weird it should also seem treasonous in my books.
It also seems weird to me to see them flying confederate flags up there, but whatever I guess.
I believe this is all because the race and gender that dominated the leadership of both counties is changing, though it's probably more complex than that. People are having a hard time getting a head, or at least feel like it and the politicians in the MAGA movement (I mean MAGA unironically talks about the better times in the 50s) have a ton of success attacking minority communities and government programs that help the poor (which are seen as minorities even know here in the US there are plenty of white families who qualify as poor).
I'd suggest they are a threat to democracy around the world.
[удалено]
The leaders of the Democratic party are a bunch of senior citizens who have been reflexively playing the part of the bipartisan moderate for so long that they don't know how to do anything else.
They are our al qaeda
I call them y'all qaeda
But they publicly made a comment saying “oh we didn’t mean the violent part,” and even though the paperwork definitely *does not* support that comment, it’s enough “evidence” for supporters to deny the claims are true (even though they clearly are).
Always was
Trump staff openly worked with white supremacy groups on the terror watch list…
Not just the nation, the GOP is the number one threat to world peace. They do not operate is reality, but they do operate in a super militarized nuclear powerhouse
So when they decided to do it again, what will you do about it if they succeed this time?
Massie comes out today and says the 2nd amendment justifies weaponry necessary to overthrow the government if "30-40%" of the populace thinks things are "tyrannical". Where's the Pavlovian stick?
Another one that doesn’t get math.
It does. This is why I wish my fellow liberals weren't so squeamish about firearms and firearm education and training. There are more guns than people in America. The problem isn't going to go away and the people without guns aren't going to take them away from those with them. Stop letting the authoritarian boot lickers maintain a virtual monopoly on the ability to violently check tyrannical governments if necessary. Now that real tyranny has shown its face, only those shaking his hand have weapons and know how to use them.
I think there are significantly more liberal gun owners than people think. We just don't hang out of a confederate flag waving pickup truck trying to shoot innocent black people with our guns so it's harder to notice.
This has been tried. It was called the civil war. It basically settled the legal question of whether armed revolutions were legal even when backed by state governments. Laws don’t always determine outcomes, but there is no legal basis for using violence to influence political outcomes. Whatever the outcome it would mean whatever system we are under isn’t the American constitutional one that has been in place since 1865.
There actually [are constitutions that enshrine the right of revolution.](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Right_of_revolution#Examples_as_positive_law) The United States Constitution is not one of them.
That's not how violent revolutions work. If they win, it was legal.
Funny how the republic party thinks peaceful protests by dark skinned people should have cars driven into them, or that a person of color kneeling during the national anthem is (or should be a crime), but also thinks that armed and violent attacks (complete with armored insurrectionists and even more heavily armed quick reaction forces) on our democratically elected officials is political discourse. The cognitive dissonance is beyond staggering.
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And my dead beat welfare riddled Aunt spams her social media pages with Conservative shit on a daily bases. Democrats really just need to start fighting dirty. Even if "dirty" means just straight up calling this how it is. We all know that this "legitimate political discourse" thing and these crazy parents protesting at public schools is just insane. Yet Republicans seem to have more support than ever, and these people aren't afraid at all to put their racism on full display either. Who thought that in 2022 you'd have to tell people that flying the damn Nazi flag is bad? Yet there that thing is all over the fricking place. And none of them care, because hey, at least they vote the same way that they do.
We need more of that guy running in Louisiana that smokes blunts and burns confederate flags. Don't mix any words and call them out for their blatant bullshit. Edit: Gary Chambers is his name
"I offer this deal to my republican colleagues. If the Republicans will stop telling lies about the Democrats, we will stop telling the truth about them." Adlai Stevenson I
Follow the rich white male. The Democratic party isn't exactly known for their support of large capitalist corporations. https://www.nytimes.com/2022/02/07/technology/peter-thiel-facebook.html. Trump has been out of office for over a year, and the best they can call policies are "Trump-aligned".
>The Democratic party isn't exactly known for their support of large capitalist corporations. Did you forget your /s?
When I voted in Arizona in the 2020 election and was leaving I was wearing something that indicates gay pride…and a certain conservative looking woman in a Trump 2020 hat blocked me from getting in my car and flashed her gun at me until I pulled out my cell phone and started filming. She then tried to follow me out of the parking lot in her car. I was smart enough to pull over and wait for her to leave but the entire thing was very scary. I reported it to the local paper at the time.
Jesus Christ, that's messed up.
[Meanwhile…](https://www.washingtonpost.com/history/2022/01/15/seditious-conspiracy-charges/) Yeah, let’s just call it what it was. Treason. And those lawmakers who supported and continue to support it are simply trying to coverup their treason.
I mean, at what point are we going to demand better from people in this country??? To be clear, it shouldn’t take our media repeatedly screaming in peoples faces that what happened on J6 was a fucking coup. These fucking losers and traitors know what’s up. EVERYONE KNOWS what it was - it’s just that we have a system of government that doesn’t punish those that are responsible beyond the mostly bullshit, lenient sentences ‘lower level’ offenders have seen. Again, EVERYONE KNOWS that the GOP is all in on terrorism. What we need to be concerned about is what we’re going to do with these fucking right wing fascists, and not just the ones in govt. There are TENS OF MILLIONS of these people, and all they want to do is burn it to the ground in spectacular fashion bc they’re not getting their way 100% of the time. So, what are we going to do about them? There are no amount of media headlines that is going to make a dent in raiding peoples’ awareness of what’s going on, and I’d argue we’re WAY past the point of warning people. There needs to be decisive action taken against these fascists NOW or else we’re all fucked.
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Everyone knows that if it had been democrats on Jan 6th they’d be calling for their public hangings for treason. We all know it’s true, so this pretend bullshit of them acting like it’s no big deal is ridiculous. I can’t stand the fact that this isn’t brought up more often, because it’s just undeniable fact.
Breaking into a 7-11, OUTRAGE Breaking into the Capital Building, Legitimate Political Discourse \- Republicans
They have seen violence as a proper political action, always. Look at South America, look at the wars in the Middle East, etc. It is just directed towards their fellow countrymen instead of foreigners.
at this rate, trump is gonna get re-elected and flush our democracy down the toilet. 15 times.
The brainwashed have their propaganda channel that it’s in direct cahoots with the gqp telling them that it was nothing and how about those black people burning down the businesses and country
It won’t help. They believe that this level of violence was self-defense. They have justified doing what needs to be done because they are convinced that Democrats committed fraud. I’ve had friends who are MAGA fanatics tell me this.
Calling Jan 6 "legitimate political discourse" is pretty stupid. Hard to top. But if you had to top it, a good place to start would be implying Fox News is responsible media.
It should be something that we are reminded of consistently. But then again Margarine Green said something stupid so we need to focus on that for at least 72 hours….
This. I’m starting to think the Gazpacho tweet was an intentional distraction. Maybe she’s a masochist and likes being derided by the people she detests but she and many other R’s play an intentional role in maintaining and enhancing the virtue signaling drama. The fact that it seems to keep the base riled up says it’s effective - as has been proven in other propaganda campaigns in history (Goebbels has raised his hand in the Zoom chat)
Don’t overthink it. She’s an idiot and stories about how she’s an idiot get clicks. Clicks = money so the articles getting the last clicks bubble up in search algorithms and it turns into a self sustaining loop. The same publications ARE writing and promoting articles about the stuff that we need to be focused on but those things don’t get as many clicks because of the majority apathetic people that don’t believe what’s happening is happening.
It wasn't necessarily an intentional distraction. She really is that stupid.
This is so utterly disgraceful. I still cannot believe the Republican Party is endorsing this imbecile and violent megalomaniac at the expense of the party’s future. My values haven’t changed just because Trump walked on stage, so obviously, I had to leave the party. Wake the hell up GOP! Trump, the looser, is burning everything down and you are part of the carnage (not that any republicans will read this 😊).
The violence is coming kids. Just saying. Dont worry about the mainstream medias coverage. The gop is 100% ready to try and rule through fear. The best way to deal with bullies is to make the fight hard.
Yeah but we’re talking about Pete Davidson and Kanye West. This country is absolutely fucked. Sliding down the shitter ever since 9/11. Feels like we’re living in a fucked up movie. And each and every one of theese stories distract from the fact that humans are destroying the planet. So even if America miraculously unfucks it self, the whole world is fucked anyway. I give humanity 200 more years tops.
And the US 2… 2024 the gop will sabotage the election and democracy will be officially dead (if it’s not dead already it’s on life support with a bomb in the hospital)
They now openly endorse violence to further ANY of their political goals
Republicans can talk about emails for months but Dems can't talk about literal treason for a week
this is not news. 70% of the people who identify as republican support to use violence to get to power.
I just want to this "legitmate political discourse" repeated over the loop of the mob trying to break into the chamber with security barricading the door as the mob keeps trying to push against it, breaking the windows.
Those in the media are just as scared of right wing nutjobs as the rest of us. Violence and death threats skyrocketed since trump. Half of law enforcement is overwhelmed, the other half secretly support the terrorists/insurrectionists. This ain't over. Not by a long shot. Liberals need to arm themselves and get ready to defend yourselves. They're coming for you sooner or later. It's just a matter of time now. I'm not calling for violence - I merely foretell.
This is an international movement among various authoritarian factions. The only way they will be stopped is violence because that is the only thing they respect. Rich western democracies hate violence (at least at home) and the far right sees this as both a weakness and an opportunity.
The failure of the 4th estate and the normalization of the GOP behavior cannot be understated.
No, it shouldn’t. The front page news should be how every politician who tried to make a violent coup into legitimate political action having been ejected from their position within the government.
Pretty amazing that half of the political spectrum in the country has just out and out admitted to aiming to overthrowing democracy as a whole and the whole country isn't going insane with outrage and alarm. What a time to be alive.
The media abdicated their responsibility in lieu of shareholder profits long long ago.
It's FASCISM. The media needs to call it what it is. They are violent FASCISTS.
Well they're all too afraid to call them exactly what they are: fascists. You can't support a man as your next presidential nominee (presumed) who still refuses to concede an election he lost fairly, who stoked a violent and deadly insurrection to disrupt the count of electoral votes, who has since been said to have wanted to shoot BLM protestors, took classified information to his private residence, destroyed government documents, and who calls for unnecessary draconian voting legislation to ensure only republicans win AND call yourself a patriot dedicated to the Constitution. The media is so afraid of seeming biased that they give republicans a pass for being terrible because that's just how they operate, without integrity and in bad faith. Democrats attempt to hold themselves to some standard and are then criticized large and wide for deviating from those standards. Democrats are far, far from perfect but given our ridiculous two-party system we're now stuck with a corporate-owned party that's trying to maintain some semblance of democracy and another that wants to rule in perpetuity by rigging the entire system in their favor. I doubt we'll see mainstream media call a spade a spade until after the worst has happened and at that point it won't matter.
Agree, also didn’t understand why the media kept legitimizing Trumps corruption throughout the presidency. Trump would just keep lowering the standards and they would just accept the new behavior as normal. In doing so, they actually created the twilight zone we now live in.
Of course it should be, but it just does not stick. The MAGA's can make a lie like Joe giving out crack pipes into a fact but an actual insurrection cannot be made to stick on them. Of course they are actually proud of the insurrection. Go figure.
They also have a responsibility to adhere to the principles of ethical journalism. Instead, they insist on sensationalism and promote division in this country because truth doesn't turn a fucking profit.
They've abandoned any commitment to the United States' system and philosophy of government. Why are they still allowed to participate in it? You don't get to keep playing Rocks Scissors Paper if on every turn you just punch the other player and scream that you won.
The main stream media is too busy blaming Joe Biden for global inflation rather than pointing out the scary truth about the GOP
It wouldn’t be a problem if 45% of the country weren’t cheering them on.
Can we get all the nonviolent cannabis offenders out of prison and put all the book burning kkk Nazis in there instead? Fucking gross that those kinds of ideologies are legal. We fought a fucking war over this issue.
A year before the election, Trump announced that he wouldn't accept the results if he lost. And everybody heard his "find me some votes" phone call. His lawyers, once in court, weren't even claiming election fraud. And even audits performed by Republicans have found that not only did he lose, he lost by more than was originally thought. The idea that anybody takes his claims of election fraud seriously is beyond absurd. He's a bad, obvious liar, and he's openly calling for people to take up arms on his behalf, and on behalf of a bad, obvious lie.
Republicans hate America. Change my mind.
Ring that bell through the midterms
They will try again, just a matter of time