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teach1st

(5,935 posts)
Thu Sep 10, 2020, 08:48 AM Sep 2020

The Atlantic: This Republican Party Is Not Worth Saving

This Republican Party Is Not Worth Saving
The Atlantic, by Tom Nichols, 9/10/2020

...Indeed, the transformation of the GOP into a cult of personality is so complete that the Republicans didn’t even bother presenting a platform at their own convention. Like a group of ciphers at a meeting of SPECTRE, they nodded at whatever Number One told them to do, each of them fearing an extended pinkie finger pressing the button that would electrocute them into political oblivion.

Some Republicans, even while they grant that Trump is a sociopath and an idiot—and how unsettling that so many of them will stipulate to that—are willing to continue voting for Republican candidates because the GOP is nominally pro-life or because the administration’s judicial appointments show that the people around the president are doing what conservatives should want done.

But Trump’s few conservative achievements are meaningless when compared with his war on American democracy, a rampage that few Republicans have lifted a finger to stop. Trump and Attorney General Bill Barr have turned the constitutional order and the rule of law into a joke. If you’re Roger Stone or Michael Flynn, the White House will arrange pardons, commutations, or even the outright betrayal of the Justice Department’s own lawyers. Felony convictions are for the little people. The Constitution is just busywork for chumps.

GOP representatives in the people’s house sneer at concepts such as oversight and the separation of powers. Rather than demand accountability from the executive branch on COVID-19, on the Hatch Act, on the Postal Service—on anything, really—they either repose in sullen silence or they take up the lance for the president and overwhelm committee hearings with Trumpian word salad.


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The Atlantic: This Republican Party Is Not Worth Saving (Original Post) teach1st Sep 2020 OP
They are already dead as far as I am concerned. SamKnause Sep 2020 #1
Ageement . . . Iliyah Sep 2020 #2
What do these old white men fear? greymattermom Sep 2020 #3
It's not only us old white men! jaxexpat Sep 2020 #14
A lovely dacha where they can spend their ill-gotten Roubles. lagomorph777 Sep 2020 #15
Perhaps they value their kneecaps Wicked Blue Sep 2020 #21
Because there usually are no sycophants. OldBaldy1701E Sep 2020 #29
Excellent article. k&r n/t Laelth Sep 2020 #4
today's R party needs cancelling. Into the circular file with all of em. NRaleighLiberal Sep 2020 #5
Bury this toxicity six times sixty feet deep, 2020, 2022, and 2024. RobertDevereaux Sep 2020 #6
KNR niyad Sep 2020 #7
There are only two issues to the deplorables in my area, abortion and guns, overleft Sep 2020 #8
You can be sure Republicans will suddenly want ot have extreme oversight of Biden. Hypocrites. . nt Bernardo de La Paz Sep 2020 #9
Ha! I've been saying the same for about 3.5 years FakeNoose Sep 2020 #10
I've been saying it since the 1990's Tommymac Sep 2020 #20
K&R 2naSalit Sep 2020 #11
While he correct about the current GOP jayschool2013 Sep 2020 #12
As I said in another thread, Trump is their Surtur. Initech Sep 2020 #13
Haven't voted Repub in years... Wounded Bear Sep 2020 #16
that's what I've been saying for a while LymphocyteLover Sep 2020 #17
How do we know what might replace it wouldn't be worse? Auggie Sep 2020 #18
Ouch!! Thekaspervote Sep 2020 #19
Trump's actions feel like death throes to me Blue Owl Sep 2020 #22
Let's make sure. Vote all of them out! BlueWavePsych Sep 2020 #23
ugh, Reagan voter Skittles Sep 2020 #24
GOP delenda est. temporary311 Sep 2020 #25
Time to drown in its bathtub. roamer65 Sep 2020 #26
Yup. summer_in_TX Sep 2020 #28
Wow, that was devastating TheDemsshouldhireme Sep 2020 #27
The GOP could go to hell after raygun as far as I'm concerned. BlancheSplanchnik Sep 2020 #30
Never forget Trump is not the reason Republicans are dangerous. BeckyDem Sep 2020 #31

SamKnause

(13,103 posts)
1. They are already dead as far as I am concerned.
Thu Sep 10, 2020, 08:53 AM
Sep 2020

It is now the party of Trump.

None of them are worth saving.

They are unpatriotic and unAmerican.

They are the greatest threat this country has ever faced.

Iliyah

(25,111 posts)
2. Ageement . . .
Thu Sep 10, 2020, 08:56 AM
Sep 2020

Where the fuck are they? Sill defending shithole OR staying silent, while the country goes downward.

greymattermom

(5,754 posts)
3. What do these old white men fear?
Thu Sep 10, 2020, 09:00 AM
Sep 2020

Many of them are over 70 years old. They can retire in comfort and leave the nastiness forever. What's wrong with a beach condo and a mountain house?

jaxexpat

(6,828 posts)
14. It's not only us old white men!
Thu Sep 10, 2020, 10:21 AM
Sep 2020

Statistically, to name only a few, it's:
law enforcement personnel
military personnel
white people from the old confederacy
blue collar white people from the rust belt
farmers and ranchers
rural people
evangelical Christians
old white women
high school maximum (or less) education
country music fans
football worshipers
NASCAR worshipers
sports bar clientele
opioid addicts
prostitutes' clientele
serial killers
cereal killers
tailgaters (on the highway and in the stadium lot)
road-ragers
bigots
racists
macho men
macho women
bullys
felons
war criminals
peace criminals
pay-day loan collectors
bank loan collectors
tax cheaters
tax code writers
bankers
bank robbers
rich people
poor people that want to be rich REAL bad
poor people that spend more than they earn, then blame poorer people for their debts
stock brokers
funeral directors
mal-practice attorneys
mal-practice defendants
my ex-wifes' attorney
my attorney
RW talk radio listeners
Fox news watchers
gun collection owners
hand gun carriers
guys with their pickups jacked up on off road monster tires and those stupid black smoke exhausters
the guy behind me in the checkout line without a mask
the lady who called me a socialist for voting for Obama
my whole neighborhood
Larry and Bruce
There's more, too.

OldBaldy1701E

(5,128 posts)
29. Because there usually are no sycophants.
Fri Sep 11, 2020, 07:17 AM
Sep 2020

It is about their fragile ego. They want everyone to see them as important. They could not achieve this on their own, so they had to get into a position where people were basically forced to give them respect. (Aka: Steven Munchkin for example). According to the information I found, around 77% of Congress is old white men but they only make up around 28% of the population. The main one that I feel we have to address is that 52% of Congress are millionaires... yet they make up only 5% of the population. Anyone reckon that has anything to do with why the rethugs act as they do? Because I sure do. What we are witnessing is the downfall of the white superiority complex that has been S.O.P. in this country since it was founded, and the rethugs are the heirs of that attitude. I am glad, but there is so much to do before we can even think about trying to act like we are a country worthy of any respect. (Forced respect does not count).

NRaleighLiberal

(60,014 posts)
5. today's R party needs cancelling. Into the circular file with all of em.
Thu Sep 10, 2020, 09:08 AM
Sep 2020

politicians AND trump worship cult

overleft

(356 posts)
8. There are only two issues to the deplorables in my area, abortion and guns,
Thu Sep 10, 2020, 09:59 AM
Sep 2020

Two truths to consider: 1. repubs are not going to outlaw abortion because it is the "cow that gives the milk" i.e. votes.

2. liberals will not take all of your guns. they just want to insure that lunatics don't get them. Also no one
needs a military style weapon to hunt with or to defend your home.

FakeNoose

(32,639 posts)
10. Ha! I've been saying the same for about 3.5 years
Thu Sep 10, 2020, 10:02 AM
Sep 2020

It's the Party of Death, Greed, Hate and Ignorance.



Tommymac

(7,263 posts)
20. I've been saying it since the 1990's
Thu Sep 10, 2020, 11:17 AM
Sep 2020

when 'Movement Conservatives' embraced the Sociopathic [im]'Moral Majority' and Rush became their hero of the airwaves and led best seller lists.

They have bee callous uncaring shits forever, but these 2 events opened the floodgates for racists, neo-nazis, and all other extreme right asshats to feel like they got legitimacy.

The Repub party of today needs to be burned to the fucking ground.

jayschool2013

(2,312 posts)
12. While he correct about the current GOP
Thu Sep 10, 2020, 10:16 AM
Sep 2020

He's just another never-Trumper pining for the "purity" and "ideas" of the Reagan Revolution. He's not fully connecting the dots. Maybe one day he will.

Initech

(100,075 posts)
13. As I said in another thread, Trump is their Surtur.
Thu Sep 10, 2020, 10:18 AM
Sep 2020

Let him strike a flaming sword deep into the heart of that worthless excuse for a political party. It will be their undoing.

LymphocyteLover

(5,644 posts)
17. that's what I've been saying for a while
Thu Sep 10, 2020, 10:43 AM
Sep 2020

I just hope we survive the next 60-120 days and get the shitbeast out and can start the goddamned prosecutions.

Skittles

(153,160 posts)
24. ugh, Reagan voter
Thu Sep 10, 2020, 05:38 PM
Sep 2020

and he still clings to the belief that repukes are for limited government (except not when it involves women's bodies, I suppose).
Fuck these conservatives who act like Trump broke the party - repukes have sucked FOR DECADES

summer_in_TX

(2,738 posts)
28. Yup.
Fri Sep 11, 2020, 12:27 AM
Sep 2020

How no one called that out as anti-American b.s. designed to weaken our country, I don't know.

The weakening of America. Almost makes one wonder if Grover Norquist was a Russian agent, not a loyal American!

BeckyDem

(8,361 posts)
31. Never forget Trump is not the reason Republicans are dangerous.
Fri Sep 11, 2020, 08:54 AM
Sep 2020

Once he is gone McConnell will never ever change, he was his henchman in the Senate. Tom Cotton is a fucking lunatic, never forget that either.

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