Republican Party much worse off than thought

[struggle4progress]

Opinion by Jennifer Rubin
November 16, 2020 at 12:43 p.m. EST

Ah, the good old days — when the hottest topic among Never Trumpers was whether the Republican Party, after President Trump was gone, would return to the traditional conservatism of limited government and free markets or whether it would adopt economic populism and isolationism — now seem like a naive fantasy ...

... on one side of the party stands a handful of conservatives and moderates who willingly recognize objective reality. They defend democracy and the sanctity of elections. They believe Republicans’ grievances are heartfelt and reasonable, amenable to rational solutions. They think of government as a defender of liberty, which is one side of a transactional relationship with its citizens ...

... a far greater number of Republican elected officials, the right-wing media, a good number of previously respectable think tanks and millions of Americans are no longer willing to operate within the confines of democracy, which demands recognition of easily ascertained facts. They seem to think of politics as either cynical entertainment or group therapy, in which the leaders and their media consorts orchestrate rage, resentment and paranoia. Politics is about identity, mostly negative (not socialist, not multiracial, not secular) ...

In that mind-set, reality must be twisted, deformed or ignored to provide fodder for the symbiotic relationship between the rage machine and the enraged. The defining question for political self-promoters of this ilk — usually well-educated beneficiaries of the very liberal democracy and multiracial society they rail against — is not what ideas they can advance or what problems they can address, but how they can cultivate a codependent relationship with Americans willing (anxious, even) to be infuriated and enlisted into a tribe of the resentful ...

https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/2020/11/16/republican-party-is-much-worse-off-than-we-thought/

[struggle4progress]

1. Last gasp in Georgia

Opinion by Jennifer Rubin
November 16, 2020 at 10:30 a.m. EST

Republicans’ strategy in the two Georgia Senate runoff contests is confused ...

Sens. David Perdue and Kelly Loeffler called on Secretary of State and fellow Republican Brad Raffensperger to quit, which he properly scoffed at. “There have been too many failures in Georgia elections this year, and the most recent election has shined a national light on the problems,” they vaguely alleged. “While blame certainly lies elsewhere as well, the buck ultimately stops with the Secretary of State.” With as many facts as Trump lawyers have provided in their frivolous election lawsuits around the country (i.e. zero), they assert that Raffensperger “has failed to deliver honest and transparent elections. He has failed the people of Georgia, and he should step down immediately.”

But Loeffler and Perdue nonetheless have not really embraced President Trump’s delusional claim of victory, which puts them in a tough spot. Being unwilling to go all-in on election denial, they look like wimpy heretics in the Trumpian land of self-delusion. Tossing around unfounded suspicions about the elections, however, likely annoys voters residing in the real world and raises concerns that the senators are undermining the democratic process ...

Perdue is emblematic of the intellectual collapse of the GOP. Just as Trump tried to make the presidential election about America’s identity (which he defines as White and Christian) and name-calling (Socialist! Antifa!) rather than solving voters’ problems, Perdue does not seem much interested in any exchange of ideas, in finding common ground or in telling voters uncomfortable truths. He makes Ossoff’s best argument against GOP control of the Senate ...

https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/2020/11/16/republicans-last-gasp-georgia/

[Buckeyeblue]

4. It will be interesting if Trump uses his political muscle to ensure Republicans lose Georgia

He might decide to do this to show the Republican establishment that he still has influence. Especially if he is felling hung out to dry or ignored.

But if he show he can tip the balance by instructing his supporters to stay home, he puts himself in a stronger position going forward. His TV network gains value. And general ass kissing will need to continue.

If Republicans in Georgia win without Trump's "help" it may signal that the Trump Era is coming to the end.

[Celerity]

9. not that he is a future-forward thinker, but IF he has any intention of running in 2024, it would

deffo help his cause if Moscow McTraitor was still the majority leader in order to kneecap Biden and hinder Joe's ability to much more fully deal with the steaming plate of shit he is being handed on January 20th, 2021.

This probably assumes too much of the orange bloat, of that I will admit.

[struggle4progress]

2. We need an investigation into Graham's intervention

Opinion by Jennifer Rubin
November 17, 2020 at 7:45 a.m. EST

... Graham denied to The Post that he encouraged Raffensperger to discard ballots, saying he was only investigating signature-matching rules. That raises the question why he would need to know this information and decide directly to contact Raffensperger, who is under death threats and has been subject to baseless accusations of misconduct by fellow Republicans.

Federal and/or state law enforcement should get to the bottom of this, requiring both parties to the conversation, and any witnesses, to preserve evidence ...

Federal law (18 U.S.C. Section 242) provides: “Whoever, under color of any law, statute, ordinance, regulation, or custom, willfully subjects any person in any State, Territory, Commonwealth, Possession, or District to the deprivation of any rights, privileges, or immunities secured or protected by the Constitution or laws of the United States shall be fined under this title or imprisoned not more than one year, or both.” In addition, 18 U.S.C. 1038(c) states that it is a crime to conspire to violate voting rights.

There are also state laws that may be relevant ...

https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/2020/11/17/we-need-an-investigation-into-lindsey-grahams-intervention-georgia/

[struggle4progress]

3. Media can't slip back into old habits

Opinion by Jennifer Rubin
November 16, 2020 at 7:45 a.m. EST

ABC’s “This Week” made the poor journalistic choice on Sunday to air interviews with Trump voters who made irrational, fact-free claims — or simply revealed their inability to cope with reality. Sorry .. a Trump voter declaring he simply cannot believe President-elect Joe Biden got 78 million votes is not news; it is evidence of participation in a mass delusion ...

The first responsibility of journalism in a time of rampant disinformation and assaults on reality is to refuse to provide a platform for conspiracy-mongers. Letting them on without directly confronting them only grants legitimacy to lies ...

Mainstream media needs to do a much better job denying a platform to irrational voices who operate in a fact-free world. Republicans need to police not only their own fellow Republicans but also the right-wing media that helps to radicalize their base and makes its viewers paranoid, ill-informed and angry. And Fox News needs to decide if it wants to be a news organization with opinion shows or a disinformation machine that tears at the fabric of our democracy ...

https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/2020/11/16/media-slip-back-into-bad-habits/

[Sherman A1]

5. Precisely

It is not so much the Republican Party ad it is the media leading them around by the nose.

[JHB]

7. The only way they'll do better is if they're incentivized to break the bad habits...

Smack them around for "both-sides bias" and false equivalency the way conservatives smacked them around for "liberal media bias".

What would be even more effective is if the people who sign their paychecks insisted they act as journalists and not stenographers or cocktail party hosts, but that's not under our control. If those people weren't fine with stenographers or cocktail party hosts, they wouldn't keep paying them.

[uponit7771]

14. +1, "smack them around for "both-sides bias" and false equivalency" Make em conscience of this EVERY

... SINGLE TIME its even thought to be uttered.

I've been saying for years we need to play the refs better and bring their bothsidest shit to attention.

[uponit7771]

13. THIS !!!! ☝🏾☝🏾☝🏾

[JHB]

6. I think a lot of that "handful of conservatives and moderates" need to...

...re-evaluate a whole lot of what they think they know, now that those "previously respectable" think tanks and all the rest have shown how fare they're willing to go.

Mainly, will they recognize that the "respectability" was always cover for advancing a more radical agenda? Will they wonder how much their views were influenced by radical who were deliberately camouflaging their extremism?

Will they re-evaluate the opinions they've held about people and viewpoints that had correctly identified the zealots for what they were? Does it still sound "shrill" and "knee-jerk" now? Or like they saw it sooner than you did?


I think a lot of them need to do so, but few of them will.

[lindysalsagal]

8. What Jenn said.

[kwolf68]

10. But But But...

Us Libs have people who chase Ann Coulter off campus and get bent about "sensitive words" and of course DEFUND THE POLICE. Of course, no Dem ran on those ideas (though I think one did on Defund and WON). And also don't forget we gotta speak to rural America. The "D" is toxic, Maher told us.

You mean the Republicans have their issues?

Yes I agree the Democratic Party has issues to resolve and we will work on them. It's good to see someone suggest not all is pixie dust and sunshine in the Republic Party.

[BannonsLiver]

11. Seems like they're doing okay to me

They will almost certainly have the senate until the 2022 mid terms and are within a whisker in the house. They control most of the state legislatures and governorships. It seems like through all the tumult they’re still winning elections, and lots of them.

[wnylib]

12. All the more reason for us to work hard

at winning in Georgia on Jan 5, and in the House and Senate in 2022, isn't it? It starts NOW, with promoting our policies and ideas, and opposing what the R's promote in people and ideas.

And maintaining an optimistic resolve not to give in to discouragement.