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dajoki

(10,678 posts)
Mon Nov 30, 2020, 07:27 PM Nov 2020

The GOP: A party that cannot change

The GOP: A party that cannot change
https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/2020/11/29/gop-party-that-cannot-change/

snip//

Swap out “Green New Deal” for “Obamacare” or the “Clinton health-care plan,” and those sentences could have been spoken by any Republican in the past 20 years. Blunt went a little further than his new colleagues, and suggested Medicare and Medicaid might have been mistakes.

It is probably unrealistic to expect the GOP tune to change. Blunt rose to national prominence during the 1990s, when a Democrat left the country in decent shape, but conservative hysteria, driven by right-wing media, led to the election of a Republican who threw all that away with reckless decisions.

Malliotakis and Mace are entering Washington four years after another Democrat left the country in decent shape, but conservative hysteria, driven by right-wing media, led to the election of a Republican who threw all that away with reckless decisions.

Yes, the blunders differ — a disastrous war and a recession for Bush; a horrific pandemic “response” and a near-total loss of norms for Trump. Trumpism lacks the niceties that led too many observers to give “compassionate conservatism” the benefit of the doubt 20 years ago. And today’s GOP is far more open about its contempt for American ideals of equality and justice than 20 years ago.

The Republican Party of 2020 may look different from its earlier incarnations, but the fundamentals remain the same: The party is fearful of change, partial to fearmongering, hostile to free elections and running short on competence.

Don’t be surprised if the GOP of 2030 looks a lot like that, too.

7 replies = new reply since forum marked as read
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The GOP: A party that cannot change (Original Post) dajoki Nov 2020 OP
Roy Blunt is an asshole The Genealogist Nov 2020 #1
Yes. MO is so lucky. Josh Hawley is just as bad...two that have their noses up in the air so high SWBTATTReg Nov 2020 #3
Agree! I watch Murphy Brown reruns BigmanPigman Nov 2020 #2
Actually, they change all the time...for the worse...nt Wounded Bear Nov 2020 #4
In Abe's day, the GOP wasn't racist RainCaster Nov 2020 #5
Of course it was racist BainsBane Nov 2020 #6
Maybe the reTHUGS can't change, but we can make them wish they could! abqtommy Nov 2020 #7

The Genealogist

(4,723 posts)
1. Roy Blunt is an asshole
Mon Nov 30, 2020, 07:32 PM
Nov 2020

He was my house district's rep before he slithered his way into the Senate. Of course he is a self-proclaimed man of god, having done a stint as a Christian college's president.

SWBTATTReg

(22,100 posts)
3. Yes. MO is so lucky. Josh Hawley is just as bad...two that have their noses up in the air so high
Mon Nov 30, 2020, 08:01 PM
Nov 2020

that I'm surprised that they don't have nosebleeds all of the time. Sickening.

BigmanPigman

(51,584 posts)
2. Agree! I watch Murphy Brown reruns
Mon Nov 30, 2020, 07:36 PM
Nov 2020

from the late 80s to late 90s. Every time they mention the GOP and their policies, talking points and attitudes are identical to what they are now, almost word for word.

The GOP does change...the names of the reps change. With tRump they have changed too, they are even more right wing than before, even more right wing than the Tea Party was. They are at their most extreme point during the past 40 years.

BainsBane

(53,029 posts)
6. Of course it was racist
Mon Nov 30, 2020, 09:20 PM
Nov 2020

The Free Soil Movement, that motivated the founding of the GOP, sought to arrest the expansion of slavery into the new territories, in part because white Americans didn't want to live near blacks.

We're talking about the mid-19th century, Antebellum America. How could they not be racist?

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