Bill Kristol: Live image from CPAC.

[highplainsdem]

Link to tweet

[DemocratSinceBirth]

1. THIS

https://www.democraticunderground.com/100215160727

[EarlG]

2. Lol

Maybe a combo of the two...?

[cry baby]

3. EarlG, may I pass this on? nt

[EarlG]

4. Feel free!

[cry baby]

6. Thanks for all you do and thanks especially for your creativity!

[DemocratSinceBirth]

7. The smoke should be coming out of his a$$.

[KS Toronado]

11. Yea, especially since that's where he talks from.

[highplainsdem]

14. Yep.

[highplainsdem]

12. Perfect!

[calimary]

21. LOVE this!

I saw some of the coverage of CPAC this morning and couldn’t help noticing empty chairs in the audience.

[malaise]

43. Perfect n/t

[Omnipresent]

5. I was expecting scenes similar to the movies 'Thunder Dome' and 'The Purge', but that works too!

[SoonerPride]

8. And their god will smite them as well.

Good riddance

[sheshe2]

9. The fatted calf.

🤣

[SledDriver]

10. And the morons bowed and prayed

[KS Toronado]

13. This one should have been in today's toons.

[soldierant]

35. Pretty sure it was when it was new.

(Not that it would ever get old as long as the cult keeps going)

[Hekate]

15. Simon & Garfunkel had it right all those years ago

[calimary]

24. Yep. That's about the size of it.

They claim they’re “Christian” but they do love their cheap gold-painted idolatry.

[calimary]

25. Dupe. Sorry.

[Sympthsical]

16. Something in the party just plain broke at some point

And I don't think the answer is as simple as people want to make it. Racist, sexist, etc. Yeah, there's no minor amount of that. But there is more going on here. These people done snapped. I have conservative friends and acquaintances who I've valued over the years. Not because we agreed on policy, but just because I could tell in conversation that they did think their beliefs through. These are incredibly intelligent people who have made insights that made me think differently about various questions. I still landed on the liberal/progressive side in my answers, but just knowing they were thinking made conversation possible.

Now, I can't quite recognize a few of them. They bought into this idea that there's a corporate Uniparty. Which I'm almost with them on, except Biden is tracking much farther Left than I would've imagined. The man is up to something. In a good way. It's like he's like, "Tch, I only pretended to be a moderate. Now I shall unleash the full power of Democratic Liberalism!" And I am fucking here for all of it.

But some of these cogent, intelligent people I knew have gone goofy. I can't explain it. They're not the same people. Not all the conservatives I know. Not by a long way. But a few of them. You can see they've been corrupted and deformed in some way. Their thinking is skewed, conspiratorial, desperate, hunted. They're not thinking anymore. They're reacting. But I don't know what they're reacting to. They're not racist or sexist. They've never betrayed a hint of that. But they feel like they're at war or defending their territory against the Cultural Left. Which I kind of get. I'm very anti-woke. I hate woke crap. Such authoritarian nonsense. But it's not just that.

They feel oppressed.

And no, it's not just, "Oh, they're just losing their white privilege." That's a trite-ass answer people throw at everything. When all you have is a hammer, etc.

Something broke. I'm still trying to piece together what. But I'm so disheartened, disappointed, sad, etc. to see some of the most intelligent people I know empty their critical thinking and embrace total reactionism.

[DinahMoeHum]

22. Their brains are broken.

[Lonestarblue]

23. I hear you.

I have a friend who has now switched from Fox to Newsmax, and his theories have gone from just nutty to over-the-too crazy. The most recent one is that all the election fraud is coming out, and when it’s public Biden will be forced out of the presidency and Trump will become president again. The total lack of understanding of US law is just mind boggling! I have given up on the idea that these people can be reached with facts because the only “facts” they’re willing to believe are conspiracy theories.

It’s sad, but we just have to do our best to convince independents and new voters that the Republican Party does not serve their interests. I think Biden is doing that, and once Covid is under control he can move even more aggressively on his agenda to improve the lives of working people. Using alternative energy to create new jobs in areas hit hard by the loss of coal jobs or manufacturing jobs (like Youngstown) would be a real show of Democratic intent—versus the demonstrated Republican intent of Trump’s first two years where the only significant legislation was a tax cut for the rich and an effort to take health insurance away from millions of people.

I’d like to see some regular communication coming from the White House and going to social media and whatever channels work, a “Here’s what Democrats are working on for you” message. Republicans are good at getting their message out, even though it’s usually filled with nothing but lies.

I would also like to see email surveys that genuinely allow for voter input rather than the endless surveys I get via email that are barely disguised appeals for money. Their questions are worded so that you will answer only one way if you’re a Democrat, so there is no real opinion being voiced. I just delete these.

[Yavin4]

37. Or maybe something didn't "break"? Maybe it was always there.

And we never noticed it.

Trump just gave them license to show it in public. People are capable of good and bad things, and sometimes all it takes is for a leader to come along and unlock it.

If JFK, RFK, MLK, John Lewis, Obama, etc. can inspire good people to do good/great things, isn't the opposite true as well?

[Sympthsical]

42. That isn't true, though

I hear you and what you're saying. But, I know these people. I've known them for years. They were waiting for permission to be awful people. They're not awful people.

But they bought into something. I'm still trying to figure it. Because it makes little logical sense to me.

These are not bad people. But they are under a lot of bad thinking at the moment.

I don't have an answer yet. But if pressed, I think this is a media thing. Both mainstream and social. There is a devil somewhere. I'm just trying to identify it, because I don't know yet. I can't see the cause yet. But I see the influence.

[lindysalsagal]

17. Nope. I remember Kristol when he was a neo-con, promoting the Iraq invasion.

Not a good guy. Don't be fooled.

[OldBaldy1701E]

26. No, he isn't a good guy

but even a broken clock is right twice a day. I will give him this one.

[RussellCattle]

27. Kristol sold his flimsy, shopworn soul with the Project for a New American Century (PNAC) that.....

......actively promoted sending half a million American troops to the Middle East to smite the enemies of God's own chosen country Israel. He was aided and abetted in this idiotic enterprise by the entire Kagan family of narrow minded assholes who infected American academia for years as they masqueraded as "historians".

[ratchiweenie]

18. It really should be a butter cow.

[Evolve Dammit]

19. I think I'm going to be sick. The cult is in full brainwash, fever pitch mode. nt

[speak easy]

20. Wow.

[Oldem]

28. Apt and pointed. The conservative PAC

has sold its soul.

[DesertRat]

29. k&r

[Volaris]

31. He can joke all he wants.

I'll laugh when hes ready to cop to being one of the goldsmiths who built the forge for that fuckin thing.

[Cha]

32. Kick

[BobTheSubgenius]

33. Has Bill Kristol had a change of heart?

Or does he just see a schism between his (possibly former) neoconservative compatriots and views and...whatever the hell this mess is now? Would-be dictatorship?

[mucifer]

34. he's been very anti trump for the past few years.

[AllaN01Bear]

36. ouch . that stings ,:)

[locks]

38. There was once a king named David

He made a golden calf and taught his people how to dance naked to worship the calf. Moses came down from the mountain and was so angry when he saw what the people were doing that he threw down the table of Ten Commandments and melted down the golden calf. I hope we've elected a Moses who will melt down the golden Trumpet.

[JoeOtterbein]

39. Bloody Bill with a...

...bull?

They all bow down to the golden calf everyday; aka cold hard cash. Which is how they got and maintain their jobs.

[keithbvadu2]

40. Mammon / Moloch - The Trump/GOP Gods

Mammon / Moloch - The Trump/GOP Gods

[dalton99a]

41. Stupid cult

[malaise]

44. He looks like a fucking clown

seriously