Rs are setting things up so if a Republican loses they claim victory and then it becomes a mess. Who knows what the military & police will do.
The former will probably wait for the courts. The latter...in many cases, I'm afraid they'll chose sides. And not the good guys.
Good interview: History should be our guide when it comes to voting rights. The 15th Amendment, which gave Black people the right to vote, was passed with the votes of one party. The argument that unless something is bipartisan, it is not credible, flies in the face of history. pic.twitter.com/I5T0pDf9Yk— James E. Clyburn (@RepJamesClyburn) January 15, 2022
It's actually fairly typical during a democratic collapse for intellectual elites to side with the anti-democratic forces out of self interest, despite knowing better. There are numerous obvious examples on the right who know better (see the mud slinging between the pro-democracy never trumpers and there old mates at the national review for example). However you will also find these people on the liberal side. Sinema clearly understands from her own speech that voting rights and other electoral reforms are critical to prevent the GOP from tilting/stealing elections. But she pretends that we have to get the agreement from the people who are trying to do a legal coup, to safeguard democracy. This is clearly nonsense. Manchin's moves are consistent with his long standing political beliefs and the political realities in Virginia. Sinema's are not. Not excusing Manchin, but I think it's clear he is a true believer. Sinema clearly does not believe what she says. She also knows what she is doing is political suicide But she is enjoying the power and I believe she is gassed by the attention, fame and allure of money IMO she is simply selling out the country in her own self interest. She doesn't care that the GOP's anti-democratic moves in her own state could mean an election is stolen from her. But this is not unusual in history.
Alyssa Mastromonico calling Sinema the c word on Pod Save America last week is the tldr version of my post ...
NSFW From about 58.40 "It was the shittiest, grossest, like most disrespectful thing she could have done ... I think she's a c*** It was so many layers of arseholeness, you know she played a combative video game before she went down to the senate floor... and was like You are a maverick! You are a maverick! Bitch you're not a maverick ok? You are trash"
Are they mirrors on Capitol Hill? I would assume at least the bathrooms haver some. From the halls of Ebenezer Baptist Church to the steps of the Lincoln Memorial, #MLK spent his life spreading what he called "the gospel of freedom." He never gave up and never preached hate.His words and example inspire us today as we celebrate a great American on #MLKDay.— Kevin McCarthy (@SpeakerMcCarthy) January 17, 2022
I know you guys all hate Ronald Reagan, and you don't like it (at all) when I defend former Republicans, and you say that yesterday's GOP gave birth to today's Republicans, but ... I am stil not buying Case in point. I just read a toxic thread by Trumpsters about how the U.S. = China, both governments are equally bad, etc. Open and complete bullshit because they are free to write that material, as often as they wish, while their Chinese counterparts can do no such thing. It's a terrible argument. And it's deeply anti-democratic, because the followups to that are - 1) when Democrats are in office, argue that any act to tear down our awful government is patriotic, or 2) when Republicans are in office, openly and without shame hug murderers and dictators, because you know, governments by nature aren't moral. We're really not better than China when you get down to it, so stop complaining that our Republican President just smiled at a mass murderer. Ronnie didn't talk like that. Nor did mainstream Republicans back in the day. Yeah he sure didn't always walk his talk, as with his courting of South Africa's regime. But at least one could call him out on that, because he was not acting according to the values that he openly espoused. Whereas this new crop of "the U.S. = China (or Russia)" Republicans have openly abandoned fundamental American principles. They're not even pretending to be democrats. And no, the dropping of the pretense isn't a good thing. It's not refreshingly honest. It is instead the next step toward eliminating democracy. These people are a horror. And yes, worse than the past horrors.
Jon Meacham's fate of fact podcast was precisely smack bang on the point you make above. You may have disagreed with Ronnie on policy, but at least you mainly agreed with him on reality. Now the Trumpsters are reality free. The US is China. Putin is our friend. etc
The number of people that simply don't see this is shocking. I don't understand how people can even compare the GOP of the past with Trumpist GOP. You don't even have to go as far back as Regan, even Bush was at least policy-based disagreements.
Highly disagree on the respectable types. They were always like this. The "elites" crap that's always spouted is recycled John Birch Society stuff. Reagan entertained various conspiracy theories like Gerald Ford faked his assassination attempt so he could garner sympathy for instance. Or his various Soviet Union conspiracies. The only thing that's different now is that conservatives have lost the more respectable image that they had shielding them. If reading any of Perlstein's books has taught me, it's that the crazy always was there.
Meacham definitely agrees - that's the whole paranoia of US politics and goes back before the war. But the difference is, GOP politicians used to at least agree on what key facts were. e.g. the Unemployment figures Trump as President, claimed key data and obvious facts from his own government were in fact fake news. Reagan didn't do that. Reagan didn't accuse his own administration of being involved in a deep state plot against him. The 90s era of Spin has become government disinformation against your own voters - covid and vaxx being the shining example.
Bush was the beginning of creeping fascism (vast evangelical/nationalistic project, aggressive militarism, torture etc), but his administration at least still observed many norms
It was bound to happen here sooner or later. In Argentina the Peronists have been doing it since the 1940s.
He was awful - tax cuts for the rich, huge defense budgets, record deficits, doubling down on Nixon's racist War on Drugs, dodging Congress with Iran/Contra letting Evangelicals loose in American politics, had dementia in 2nd term...to name a few. But he wasn't as serious and lame as Carter and smiled like a friendly grandpa. Really was the 1st entertainer president which set the stage for the last creep.
I don’t know. The Bush Junta lead by Rove, Cheney and Rumsfeld. Using Condi as a mouthpiece certainly took down many of the norms. The not so thin end of the fascist wedge. “If you are not with us …!!!” You’ll end in some black ops camp under Eric Prince.
Reagan's embrace of the Southern Strategy as a means of tapping into racism to gain and hold power was a bad move. Yes, he was just doing what Nixon did, but is that a policy that we can disagree with him on, or was it a step in the direction of abandoning American principles? I guess it depends on if you think black people can be fully American. Bush Jr engaged in a number of proto-fascist moves. Lying their asses off about WMDs in order to invade Iraq. "Free speech zones" to keep valid protest - Constitutionally protected free speech - out of sight. Things like that. He was surely the worst President of my lifetime, is what I said to myself before 2016.
You can interpret this either way as an indicator of the health of our democracy. Nick Saban, a West Virginian, is publicly urging Joe Manchin to allow a vote in the Senate on voting rights legislation. You're mostly right, however.... I think the argument that the line from Reagan to Trump is mostly continuous is stronger than the argument that it's not. You can see the seeds of Trumpism in Reagan's political career. If you go back to the beginning of this thread, that's the contention of the writers of the book that inspired the thread. True. But it's not merely the crazy. In fact, to me, the defining characteristic of Trumpism isn't the crazy, it's the authoritarianism.
Is this a start or will they be TRUMPED?! More than 30 former Trump officials hold secret call aimed at working against the former president's efforts to sway 2022 midterms and 2024 presidential election Among those who participated were Alyssa Farah Griffin, Anthony Scaramucci, and retired Gen. John Kelly Miles Taylor, author of the famed 'Anonymous' New York Times op-ed and former DHS chief of staff, led the efforts Taylor said ideas for sabotaging Trump included 'shining a light' on his corporate contributors or targeting each of the candidates he endorses One individual said there was unanimity on the call that 'this cannot just be a professional trolling operation, putting out ads like the Lincoln group' https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/ar...med-working-against-former-presidents-efforts.