“They’re bonkers. Bizarre. They’re like a Star Wars bar room”

[babylonsister]

http://www.salon.com/2015/11/07/robert_reich_was_i_becoming_excessively_crotchety_and_partisan_or_are_these_people_really_as_weird_as_they_seem_partner/?utm_source=facebook&utm_medium=socialflow

Saturday, Nov 7, 2015 10:00 AM EST

“They’re bonkers. Bizarre. They’re like a Star Wars bar room”: A former Republican congressman bemoans his sorry candidates

"Carson? Trump? They're out of their f*cking minds," an ex-rep tells Robert Reich. "The rest aren't much better"

This originally appeared on Robert Reich's blog.


The other night I phoned a former Republican member of Congress with whom I’d worked in the 1990s on various pieces of legislation. I consider him a friend. I wanted his take on the Republican candidates because I felt I needed a reality check. Was I becoming excessively crotchety and partisan, or are these people really as weird as they seem? We got right into it:

Me: “So what do really you think of these candidates?”

Him: “You want my unvarnished opinion?”

Me: “Please. That’s why I called.”

Him: “They’re all nuts.”

Me: “Seriously. What do you really think of them?”

Him: “I just told you. They’re bonkers. Bizarre. They’re like a Star Wars bar room.”

Me: “How did it happen? How did your party manage to come up with this collection?”

Him: “We didn’t. They came up with themselves. There’s no party any more. It’s chaos. Anybody can just decide they want to be the Republican nominee, and make a run for it. Carson? Trump? They’re in the lead and they’re both out of their f*cking minds.”

Me: “That’s not reassuring.”

Him: “It’s a disaster. I’m telling you, if either of them is elected, this country is going to hell. The rest of them aren’t much better. I mean, Carly Fiorina? Really? Rubio? Please. Ted Cruz? Oh my god. And the people we thought had it sewn up, who are halfway sane – Bush and Christie – they’re sounding almost as batty as the rest.”

Me: “Who’s to blame for this mess?”

Him: “Roger Ailes, David and Charles Koch, Rupert Murdoch, Rush Limbaugh. I could go on. They’ve poisoned the American mind and destroyed the Republican Party.

Me: “Nice talking with you.”

Him: “Sleep well.”

[longship]

1. Happy to DURec this.

It was posted a couple times earlier however, some may have missed it. So, happy to support it again. It is that good. And it is not Robert Reich to make something like this up. (He's not Andy Borowitz, I don't think.)

And yup! This is that good!

R&

[Wounded Bear]

2. K & R...for the Sat morning crowd....nt

[Hortensis]

3. I rec'd too. "Roger Ailes, David and Charles Koch, Rupert Murdoch, Rush Limbaugh.

I could go on. They’ve poisoned the American mind and destroyed the Republican Party."

The rest is fun, but THIS is important. Fox is poisoning and destroying America, not just the GOP.

[underpants]

26. It's been obvious for years

One false move. One stray off the topic of the day and you are finished. Trump is an exception but let's remember he was the closest thing to reality for the notable Birchers and he built up his support being a regular Monday morning caller in to Fox & Friends

[MADem]

4. Now I want to know who the former Republican congressman is! nt

[KittyWampus]

13. I believe in having an honest opposition in politics. We used to have a back/forth

from which we could move forward and progress however slowly.

It's disturbing that all we can do now is try and keep our country from swirling down the toilet until the public finally just gets sick of the chaos.

[MADem]

14. Blame Newt Gingrich. He was the one who inked that Contract ON America (and I say ON because

that's what it was, a machine-gunning of the political process. All his fault.)!

[hifiguy]

22. I concur,

but Gingrich was just the first highly visible public face of what the Repigs had already become. The massive purges of the responsible adults and non-jebus wheezers began in the 1970s. It took a good 15 years to run all the sane people out of the party but it was done with a thoroughness Stalin would have admired.

My home state of Minnesota used to have many decent people in the Republican party, people with whom one could civilly disagree and debate, and who were evidence-based thinkers - individuals like former governor Arne Carlson, former US Senator Dave Durenberger and many others. They were all run out of the party on a rail by the religulously insane who were eventually joined by the Ayn Rand disciples. It's a wasteland now. Carlson endorsed Kerry in '04 and Obama in '08. Very publicly.

[MADem]

30. Point taken-Gingrich was simply the pimple about to burst-the problem had been building for awhile.

[underpants]

27. Frank Luntz

[SunSeeker]

5. Looks like the GOP's Citizens United Frankensteins are destroying the GOP.

[Fast Walker 52]

6. But according to the MSM, both sides are just as bad...

when will they ever fucking admit how fucking crazy the GOP has become?

[Rex]

8. No their paychecks depend on their continued lying and false narratives.

Sadly money wins out over the good of the nation.

[yardwork]

10. This is the terrible truth.

[hifiguy]

23. + one googolplex

[Rex]

7. And yet the M$M gets paid billions to make the sheeple believe 'both sides are the same'.

[Capn Sunshine]

16. And they get a lot of help from us

A least once a Week I see that meme , which was designed in the 60's as a voter suppression tactic, spread by some holier than thou person thinking they are original.

The sad truth is republican AstroTurfers are behind all of those.

[freshwest]

20. They take advantage of our learning style. Monkey see, monkey do. Monkeys repeat. n/t

[Scarsdale]

38. Exactly.

One small local newspaper here in Wis/Ill is claiming that the ONLY reason the gop gerrymandered districts, is to prevent the dems. from doing it first!! They claim that the dems. did not stop the gerrymandering, because they thought they would win the election, then do it themselves. There are people who actually believe this, plus the constantly repeated chant "Both sides do it" Well, when was the last time the dems backed a seriously flawed liar or grifter for the highest office in the land? Trump and Carson are two of a kind, phony.

[maindawg]

9. This man is exactly wrong

Ronald Reagan along with the supreme court have created the environment where as creeps and fascists can flourish. We used to have safeguards to protect us from mass media brainwashing tools. When radio was young, there was a very popular personality with his own 50,000 watts broadcasting out of Mexico. He advertised that he could fix male dysfunction by installing goats testicles in you. He made allot of money too.He is why we have the AMA and the FCC.
But Reagan destroyed the fair political rules. He stacked the FCC with corporate sycophants. The law used to be that ALL MEDIA had to be locally owned and had to serve the local population. Reagan got rid of that and now 6 corporations own all media. All of it.There isn't even any local because the corps make sure to put them out of business. They will not allow a man to own a radio station.
So don't blame the fascists for being fascists. Blame Ronald Reagan.

[yardwork]

11. Reagan was the actor they hired to take office.

I don't think any of it was his idea.

[Enthusiast]

17. He was a weasel anyway, his ideas or not. nt

[yardwork]

25. True.

[Art_from_Ark]

41. He sicced the National Guard on students at Berkeley back in 1969

So his weasel days go back a while.

[Enthusiast]

42. I remember that now that you reminded me.

Sure was lot of funny stuff going on back then. Had to keep that war going, keep the world safe from Communism.

[raouldukelives]

40. Reagan was only a natural extension of the will of shareholders.

And the combined purchasing power of billions of investor dollars working towards a common goal. The depression of enlightenment and democracy and the rise of ignorance and fascism.

Like the Hydra, if it wasn't Reagan, it would be another well coiffed, vacuous Ted Baxter of a politician. Propped up and supported by Wall St and foisted on the people as anything but the harbinger of unbridled greed they are.

We exist, thanks to them and as you astutely point out, in the most reality they will allow.

[Enthusiast]

43. Reagan served as a model for future right wing Democrats.

[skepticscott]

45. Agreed...what's happening now

has its strongest roots in the Reagan era. Things have followed a perfectly logical path since then, and anyone who claims this is not the Republican party they used to support is a lying sack of shit. Ever since Reagan, the GOP has been hard-core anti-abortion, anti-gay, anti-union, anti-woman, anti-black, anti-poor, anti-welfare, anti-immigrant, anti-public employee, anti-tax, anti-minimum wage, anti-science, anti-intellectual, plutocratic, theocratic, warmongering, gun-humping, corporate whores. Anyone who has voted for or supported the Republican party in any way over the last 35 years is complicit in all of that.

[Lunabell]

12. Batshit crazy

All of them.

[WinkyDink]

15. Who wants to bet the source is John Boehner?

[bvf]

33. Nice!

I went through the conversation again, and it wasn't hard to imagine Boehner's voice.

[Scarsdale]

39. Right

Plus describing them as patrons of a bar, THAT would be Boehner's frame of reference.

[bvf]

46. Great point! LOL! n/t

[Hekate]

18. That is a beautiful line. Great article from Reich.

What his unnamed source said is all true and I take no joy in it. We've said it for years.

[GeorgeGist]

19. A Republican friend told me today ...

that she's won't be voting for President.

[skepticscott]

44. Why? Did she not vote for Romney?

Did she not vote for McCain/Palin? Or GWB/Cheney...twice? None of today's candidates are pushing anything that isn't just the same or the logical continuation of what those candidates stood for. Republicans like her are getting exactly what they wanted and what they deserve from their party.

[freshwest]

21. Quos Deus vult perdere, prius dementat: Whom the gods would destroy, they first make mad. n/t

[Hydra]

24. It's great that the party could not be revived permanently

But like he said: "Sleep well..."

What do we do when the crazies have all the money(power) and our party is trying to keep up with them moving right?

[Warren DeMontague]

28. "My personal theory is that Joseph built the pyramids to store grain"

[Guy Whitey Corngood]

47. "He's so hot right now." nt

[Kalidurga]

29. They have made it impossible to chose who the craziest one is.

Not a moment of sanity among them. Rubio only stands out because he can be coherent for a moment or two. But, I doubt he is any saner, just younger with the energy to tone it down for a bit.

[struggle4progress]

31. The utter collapse of the R party is a potential disaster for US politics

It not only means that Congress remain dysfunctional while the ideologues maintain control through gerrymandering but also that defections from the R to the D party effectively push the D party to the right

[lpbk2713]

32. "There’s no party any more. It’s chaos." ... I believe it.

And I'm sure that is why Boner threw in the towel.

[derby378]

34. They're bonkers, and they'll win - unless we vote

Not only that, but we must ensure everyone else votes in such volume as to not leave the election to chance - or a few rigged voting machines, if you get my drift.

[smirkymonkey]

48. +1000

[backscatter712]

35. But hey, the music's sweet!

[Beartracks]

37. Han shot first! n/t

[Major Nikon]

36. Nothing has really changed with the GOP

For at least the last 100 years or so they have always been about making the rich richer and the poor poorer. The difference now is that demographics are working against them so in order to remain a viable party they have to increasingly appeal to batshit crazy single issue voters like the fundies, the gun nuts, and the bigots, most of which are one and the same due to inbreeding. Whenever you have to convince people to vote against their own best interests, the crazies are going to have to come out of the woodwork.