JFK60
JFK60's JournalA not-insignificant number of Americans would welcome totalitarian rule.
Because they really care *nothing* about the laws of the land, national debt, healthcare, science, climate change, education, women’s rights, infrastructure, foreign policy, etc., etc.
The ONE thing they want, above all else, is “owning the libs.” If it meant destroying everything in sight, they’d be fine with it, as long as some tinpot dictator is “owning the libs” on their behalf.
Like conditioned lab rats, they will vote against their own interests time after time, as long as it means that women will be denied abortions; that they can keep their military-style weaponry; that persons of color will continue to be “kept in their place”; and that their religious beliefs can steamroller any laws.
Richard Nixon was "patient zero"; Trump is the advanced stage of disease.
And Reagan really spread the infection far and wide. Note that since Nixon took office in 1969, and allowing 45 to finish his term in 2021, America will have had 32 years under Republican administrations, and a mere 20 years of Democratic administrations. Two general elections were thrown to Republicans by the Electoral College and numerous other interferences, including a hostile attack by a foreign power.
I use the assassination of JFK as the lit-match starting point; after that tragedy, we got the phony Gulf of Tonkin Resolution, and then it was all-in for U.S. military contractors in Vietnam. Then comes Nixon, whose leftovers populated the Reagan, Bush I and II administrations.
Trump has added his own mix of overt gangsterism, overt lawlessness, overt fascism, overt old-Soviet-style disinformation, and overt suffocation of democracy.
Since this monster has been growing steadily since the early 1960s, it’ll take decades to recover and rebuild democracy. And it appears that there will ALWAYS be 30%-40% of Americans who will oppose ANYTHING that doesn’t consist of “owning the libs,” which, however infantile, is their most important goal.
More than 45, this insanity rests *entirely* on the Republican Party.
It was the GOP that wanted him, and they defend him to the hilt, even in the face of overt law-breaking, and a general attitude of lawlessness.
Republicans have put party over country, and they’d be happy as pigs in shit if their one-party rule never ended. THEY ARE THE ENEMIES OF DEMOCRACY, and need to be voted OUT.
It will take some time and serious resolve, as Republicans have never taken a break from their compulsive power accumulation, in small offices and large. They’ve been chipping away at bedrock American principles since Richard Nixon’s presidency.
I’ve been a proud Democrat since age 21 (couldn’t vote in a general election until age 23), and in all that time, I’ve realized that Democrats’ major weakness is long-standing: EXPECTATIONS.
Expectations of fair play, transparency, adherence to the law, truthfulness, inclusion, mutual cooperation, etc. Conversely, Republicans want none of this, It’s all-or-nothing with them. There is no gambit, no ploy, no smear, no false accusation that’s too low for them. They are long-standing, masterful practitioners of garbage politics. And sadly, it’s often effective.
Republicans in 2019 are to America as the Nazis were to Germany in 1933; sad to say, there’s no hyperbole in that statement. And that’s why impeachment proceedings NOW are a must, as a free and fair 2020 election (and its aftermath) isn’t a sure thing with the current configuration of power in Washington and Moscow.
First off, they are NOT "conservatives" any more. They're right-wing radicals, or frankly, fascists.
Secondly, their “base” on the internet appears to consist largely of Deep South and Midwest out-of-work poor whites, who fall for every nibble of Russian clickbait dangled in front of them.
Which brings up the other part of their online base ...Russian trolls. You can spot ‘em in your sleep: pantloads of angry eagles, flags, etc. No indication of an actual, single-person, breathing presence.
The biggest reason that right-wing mouth-breathers congregate online: HATE, done anonymously. The worst, soul-killing hatred for anyone not white or Christian. It’s so lowdown, brutal and god-awful, it’s like a distilled essence of pure hate. These “people” thrive on rage, fear, and hate. It’s all they have. They care about NOTHING but “owning the libs” and spreading hated of women and POC. It’s their addiction, and they are hooked.
Check the user comments on Breitbart if ever in need of an efficacious emetic. And “winning these people over”??? It’d be easier to climb a plate glass window with greasy hands.
11 dead in mass shooting; or, as it's known in America, "Friday."
These “events” are now so repugnantly routine that Americans are likely becoming inured to this USA-specific brand of sporadic mass violence, most often with killings in the double digits.
There will be no safety or control measures taken as long as this country suffers under right-wing minority rule. The Electoral College, gerrymandering, voter suppression, Russian interference, and over-represented-low-population Red States have the entire U.S. chained to the hard-right-wing’s insane, self-destructive addictions: irrational resistance to government as an engine of progress; white supremacy; complete denial of science and distrust in public/higher education; privatization of everything in sight, even if it means monetary losses and feeds corruption; infantile, vengeful religious beliefs; a cult-like, unswerving devotion to their ideological figurehead, and fetus/firearms worship.
Those who wave the flag hardest are those who know the least about their own country, and how it best relates to the world around us.
He's the freest dude in America (right now). He can say anything to anyone...
...and get away with it.
-The goddamned *president of the United States* can sit on his massive butt all day, tweeting while watching Fox, and get away with it.
-He can publicly suck up to the world’s most brutal dictators (often in private) and get away with it.
-He can spout nothing but lies and get away with it. -Video and testimony from his recent past reveals an incredibly reprehensible attitude and behavior toward women, and he can get away with it.
-He can say/tweet the most insane, false, inflammatory shit and get away with it.
-He can deliberately pit Americans against other Americans and get away with it.
-He can make the world markets take a dive with his tariff bullshit and get away with it.
-He can be rude, crude, vulgar and idiotic all day and every day, and get away with it.
There isn’t ONE other person in this entire country who could behave like 45 and not face swift unemployment, or dismissal from all professional societies and organizations, or banishment from family and friends.
The only way to beat Republicans is to use their tactics.
Civility, “taking the high road,” following the rule of law, using fair play, allowing the system to self-correct— these have ALL failed.
America is now entangled in an existential struggle. Republicans, who’ve drunk deeply from the cup of autocracy, are just fine with letting democracy die.
Like any bully, fighting back viciously is the only thing that he/she/it understands. We’ve “waited for Mueller,” and what gains have comes from that?
It’s past time to begin impeachment proceedings.
Thomas Frank's "What's the Matter with Kansas?" diagnosed this insanity back in 2004.
There’s an outstanding excerpt from the book (pages 67-68) posted on Wikipedia:
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/What%27s_the_Matter_with_Kansas%3F
Not long ago, Kansas would have responded to the current situation by making the bastards pay. This would have been a political certainty, as predictable as what happens when you touch a match to a puddle of gasoline. When business screwed the farmers and the workers – when it implemented monopoly strategies invasive beyond the Populists' furthest imaginings – when it ripped off shareholders and casually tossed thousands out of work – you could be damned sure about what would follow. Not these days. Out here the gravity of discontent pulls in only one direction: to the right, to the right, further to the right. Strip today's Kansans of their job security, and they head out to become registered Republicans. Push them off their land, and next thing you know they're protesting in front of abortion clinics. Squander their life savings on manicures for the CEO, and there's a good chance they'll join the John Birch Society. But ask them about the remedies their ancestors proposed (unions, antitrust, public ownership), and you might as well be referring to the days when knighthood was in flower.
Nothing says "No Collusion!" like a junket to Ukraine.
Is it hubris, or weapons-grade stupidity? 45 mouths “no collusion” into any available hot mic, while his senile attorney plans a trip to Kiev. Genius!
My darker side suspects this, however: Giuliani was never really going to go to Ukraine. Just the announcement, and the stated reason— “investigating the investigation” and some phony crap about “dirt” on Biden’s son— was all 45 wanted to put out into the tribal air, so Fox, Breitbart, et al would start spinning the lies that “Biden got help from foreign powers, too” and “did the witch hunt actually start in Ukraine?”
Bomb dropped, no actual trip necessary.
45's perception of fear is likely as primitive & base as the rest of his cognition.
On the level of a lizard running from away from a push-broom (not to denigrate lizards).
He’s spent his entire adult life suing this, that and the other, and being counter-sued as well. He’s also never had to clean up his own messes, someone’s always been there to handle the difficult shit. So there’s this “desensitized addiction” to chaos in his everyday life.
He knows how to torment and hector people, but he can’t take much in return, and once again, he’s marooned in that self-referential loop, wherein he can do no wrong, so there’s no reflection, no learning from mistakes, no forward motion.
Does 45 have any fear the law, or of breaking any law? Consider: 1) he’s never gotten into anything his lawyers and accountants couldn’t fix; 2) he’s the freest person in America (right now). If anyone else acted in their workplace the way he does, they’d be canned on day one.
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Gender: MaleHome country: USA
Member since: 2003 before July 6th
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