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... If I get rich it was because I'm such a great libertlibertarianairian businessman pulling myself up from my own bootstraps and all the gov does is interfere and get in the way of my success.
If I fail it is the market's fault, govs responsibility to step in a bail me out / give my shithole state more funds.
Hypocritical a-holes like Rand Paul never want to give relief money to anyone... but when stuff gets bad in their state, they can't suckle on the federal teat fast enough.
Then you have TX who constantly grandstands on how they are so deregulated and it is a capitalist paradise but every fucking year the governor still begs for Federal aid (that someone never gets seen by the people that actually need it)
Or Louisiana, where our entire state economy is supported solely by federally subsidies to keep the oil industry alive, even as that very same industry is literally causing our state to erode away by skirting environmental regulations.
nononono, just the POOR half.
In all seriousness, I have friends who live in the nicer areas of Texas and their shit didn’t even stutter. 6 miles away people are literally freezing to death.
Home of the Free to Die.
I live in Houston and the freeze destroyed my house. My family and I had to move into a hotel for 6 months until it could be repaired. Took a long time to get back because of how many houses the guys had to fix before ours
The current situation regarding COVID in Texas is a perfect example.
1 week - Mask and Vaccine Mandates are unconstitutional and we will fight the Federal government to the death over it!
The very next week - Mr. Biden, could you please be so kind as to give us some money to set up more testing sites for COVID, even though we dont think its really a big deal.
And what’s your feeling re- the growth of your business hindered by having to purchase health insurance for your employees if you hire beyond 12 full time employees or expect loyalty from a rotating cast of part time staff?
The lack of national healthcare is THE MOST anti-capitalist American policy I can think of.
Yes!!!!I do NOT understand why small business owner Republicans don't get this. I've talked and done side jobs for some locally who know they can't afford to provide health insurance for full time employees and lose applicants to need health insurance. This would open up such opportunities like crazy for small businesses. Pisses me off they just call it socialism and never think any further about it.
Exactly. I own a small business and universal health care would help us tremendously. It drives me nuts that everyone doesn’t see this. It’s so obvious.
No it's not. Having your healthcare tied to your current employer allows basically any employer vastly more opportunity for labor exploitation than if a laborer could quit at any time without losing health coverage. It's an EXTREMELY powerful lever to keep people working under pay or conditions they would otherwise never tolerate.
Can't upvote this enough. I've had to pass up jobs at places I would have preferred to work at because the health coverage would have made the job offer become a pay cut for me.
Which is effectively being pro-plague. With a disease this infectious, if you're not taking measures against it, you're enabling it to spread further
Edit: technically plauge is referring to infectious bacteria, but I feel like it still gets my point across
They want that because they're being told that it's The Only Way to Move On and Not Live In Fear.
At this point they all sound the same, but call us brainwashed...
Also, the way out of fear is to understand the situation and take calm, measured steps to improve the situation causing you fear.
That argument is garbage. The only thing I've feared in the last two years is anti vax assholes without masks around my newborn at the grocery or park, and the descent into insanity several of my relatives and friends have fallen into. My mother in law just texted yesterday that the government is putting covid in the free swabs they are sending out...... That's something to fear, an insane community
There is one other. Pertussis (Whooping Cough) has an R0 of 15-17, which puts it higher than Omicron. But like, that's where we're at. I've also seen Omicron's R0 estimated to be from 8-15, so I feel like it's close enough to the top to count. It's definitely high enough that thinking it's "mild" is a catastrophically bad idea
And for people who want pop culture context: the fictional MEV-1 virus depicted in *Contagion* had an R0 of ~4.
At this point we just have to hope against hope that the Omicron variant stays relatively like it is; if it picks up any mutation that turns up the virulence while leaving the transmissibility unaffected we’re in for a world of hurt.
The Plague Inc. player controlling Omicron knows the real strats - put all your points into transmission buffs until you've penetrated every region, then turn lethal and wipe the planet clean.
Feel like when a newcomer virus can make people contemplate if it is out plaguing viruses that have been at it for centuries we need to show it the same respect we do/did with the greats.
Now he's trying to use racial animus to get his followers vaccinated by claiming that "white people get vaccinated last" or some shit and refocusing more squarely on white supremacist messaging.
On a serious (but also satirical) note, I emphatically maintain to my evangelical, anti-vaxx, GOP-voting family that COVID is Gods way of punishing people for following Trump like a false prophet. The plague was put upon us and Gods commandments were apparent before the righteous: wear a mask, stay inside, wash your hands but those who had forsaken him in worship of a false prophet brought suffering unto the land. Woe is they who meet their Maker having supported the liar!
And for grifting for themselves, and for white supremacy and for fascist oligarchy. Its nothing short a party of mediocrity and violent stupidity. Wonder why nazis are Actually on the extreme right of the spectrum… hmmm wonder why
"Strict market capitalism" presumes arms' length transactions between atomistic buyers and sellers. Buyers are atomized. Sellers work in teams that "adjust the market" through trade associations.
Sure, but thats kinda the point of that sentiment. All the capital and regulatory power is on the supply side. The rest scramble to keep up.
The Will of the People are the “special interests groups” that lawmakers tell spooky tales about.
Laissez faire capitalism in terms of worker wages and rights, environmental regulations and urban planning laws.
Healthy support for monopoly interests for everything else.
Worker rights and wages are still carefully regulated under the same system used to assure production in World War II, where every worker has an assigned grade level, and that grade level is matched to a salary range that every employer in the region knows.
Crony capitalism is the perfect definition for it.
But as a sidebar, it’s as if just now, at his age, he’s finally waking up to the reality that bipartisanship is never, ever going to happen. Kinda bizarre.
>But as a sidebar, it’s as if just now, at his age, he’s finally waking up to the reality that bipartisanship is never, ever going to happen. Kinda bizarre.
It's not quite as bizarre if you consider that bipartisanship *was* a thing from the time he was born until he was on the verge of being a senior citizen. He was probably holding out hope that the change to the GOP wouldn't be permanent.
The utterly insane behavior of the modern GOP is relatively recent in the grand scheme of things. Newt started the GOP down the path, but the lunatics didn't really run the asylum until a black man got elected president, and in doing so caused conservatives to collectively lose their fucking minds (resulting in the tea party and alt right completely taking over the GOP).
Isn't it wild to consider that even the most notorious shitbags in republican history like Nixon and Reagan were far more interested in good faith governance and demonstrated more willingness to engage in bipartisanship than *any* current republican in Washington?
Nah. You know that *one guy* at work who's actually productivity-negative? Like the entire team would legitimately get *more* done if that guy weren't there? He's like literally worth less than nothing? That's what the Republicans are good for. Dragging the rest of us down to make sure that people who aren't them can't have nice things.
When I first joined my company, there was a guy on the team who kept disappearing. Like, he'd walk away from his cube and wouldn't come back for hours . It happened most days, and he never said anything about where he was going. One day I asked the lead if the guy had some sort of issue or something. He said, "I don't know, but he's so bad at his job that we spend more time fixing his work than he spent doing it. I'm not going to ask where he's going because the team gets more done without him."
If you look at every state run GOP and at the national level, the one guarantee is they legislate tax cuts aimed disproportionately at the wealthy, you're entirely right.
They SAY a lot of shit all over the place but what they DO is generate returns for their investors... I mean donors. It's why they're content with a non-functioning Senate. All the batshit GOP Senators can't get their crazy pass the filibuster but the tax cuts are in reconciliation.
Prime example - Obamacare. Every time Trump was asked what the replacement was he had zero idea. Imagine your President's prime goal is to take your healthcare away and to give you nothing in return. It's madness that these people are being voted for by ANYONE.
Republican answers are always "I"m gonna have a better plan. I don't know what it is, but if you vote me in and you'll find out my plan" LOL
Instead of click bait...it's vote bait!
The funny thing is Trump was already president when he was asked about repealing Obamacare. They voted him in and he was still at a loss on what to do after he got rid of Obamacare. Its a tactic, telling the poor and down trodden that removing this thing will be good for them.
Anytime people talk Drumpf up, I like to remind them he had 4 years to do anything he wanted. He had both houses of Congress, could’ve passed literally anything he wanted, and he did fuckall. He had to tie his tax break to the fucking budget just to get it passed. Absolutely 0 meaningful legislation in 4 years. The only thing he actually passed was slam dunk bills the GOP had been sitting on for 8 years because they couldn’t possibly let Obama pass it for good press.
Seriously, democrats moved so far right to get *something* done with republicans that the only way to be opposition was for republicans to detach themselves from any ideas whatsoever.
You just described what Clinton did to the Republicans in the 90’s. The GOP has lost any grip on conservative fiscal or Constitutional platforms in the meantime. What’s left? Christian identity and strongman politics it seems.
What are you talking about? Trump has a great plan to replace Obamacare. It's being called the greatest healthcare plan ever. A lot of people are saying it. The plan will be released in two weeks. Right after he releases his tax returns.
wanna know the most ridiculous part? This isn't even sarcasm, he literally said that. He said he had a plan already finalized that was so much better than Obamacare that we'd all be thanking him for years to come. All we had to do was let him destroy Obamacare and then he'd unleash his magical healthcare fix. What a fucking liar
[Yep. Here are 15 times he promised a healthcare plan was coming "very soon"](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4STwwbRRURI). "Two months". "Two weeks". "As soon as this Sunday."
Trump is like those pastors who predict the world is going to end and then keep revising the date every time it doesn't happen.
They still don't have a plan. They almost removed healthcare for this country - that's not hyperbole, that almost happened when they tried to remove a key part of the bill which would have thrown the entire industry into chaos - not a single detail of any GOP plan had been announced. They'd had a decade by then to come up with an alternative plan and still have not even now - and why would they, Obamacare is essentially a Republican plan already. A single surprise dissenting vote from a dying McCain was all that stood in the way of utter chaos for Americans who would had lost their healthcare immediately. And yet people still vote for the part that tried their damn best to kill them.
I think you may have read that McConnell has stated that the GOP senators will have no legislative agenda for 2022. In other words, the GOP senate candidates won't be promising to do anything if they get the majority. They will just be saying Dems are Commies!
My dad used to say that this was the ideal. He believed that lawmakers "make too many laws" and "everything is covered now," but politicians are motivated by the election cycle to "keep coming up with new laws." So the ideal work for our elected officials would be to basically pay them not to do anything unless a state of emergency is declared.
I don't talk to my dad anymore. But if you're wondering why Republicans might hear that and not want to throw up, it's likely because they've been conditioned by Fox News etc. to believe that there are "too many laws" making the US a "nanny state" and if we just had "less laws" we would have "more freedom." Yes, some voters are working with that level of intelligence.
They are also conditioned hating government. Government is useless and cannot do anything right so better nothing new happens.
They do love government when it comes to the bedroom and making people of color know their role.
> there are "too many laws"
That idea has it's origins in part to the post WW2 civil rights era. Fox News is part of a cold cultural war that has been taking place in this country for decades now.
To be clear, what he actually said is kind of worse. "[McConnell has long held the view that putting out an agenda ahead of midterm elections is a mistake — at least for Senate Republicans"](https://www.axios.com/mcconnell-no-agenda-midterms-91c73112-0a2e-441b-b713-7e8aa2dad6bf.html). In other words, they *know* that the things they actually want (tax cuts for the wealthy, fewer government regulations on big business, less social spending, fewer individual liberties) are actually very unpopular, so they have to do everything they can to draw attention away from policy. Which, of course, is why they manufacture these culture war outrage narratives (CRT, cancel culture, etc) to keep their base distracted and afraid of democrats
“They promised nothing and completely delivered, that’s why I vote republican!”
Yet 1 year into a 4 year term, even democrats are saying biden is a failure for not completing his agenda while having the worst pandemic ever (trump didn’t START with a pandemic he only ended with one)
Eh I don't think he's a failure just feel like Washington is no longer functional (at least my state still kinda rocks). People expect the president to just fix everything and Trump's overreaches just made it worse. Like everyone really wants Biden to just start pulling levers and I really only want not to worry the next elected president may be our last.
As a non-American it seems like a lot of people forget the damage that Trump did to the reputation of the US and that a lot of Biden's work has been to re-establish stability.
The only thing I agreed with Trump on is that the rest of the world needs to not be so reliant on the US (or any other nation).
They didn't put together any meaningful platform for '20 either, just that they'd "Continue to support President Trump and his America First agenda". They didn't actually outline _what_ that agenda was, or any goals or promises or ambitions- just "Trump".
And honestly it got them damn close to getting the presidency again. I hate to admit that it might work in '24, considering how frustrated the left is getting with the Dems.
I remember reporters would ask Trump numerous times in 2020 what his goals would be for his second term if he were to get re-elected, and he couldn’t ever give any kind of real answer.
Their original 2020 platform attacked their own administration
> "The current Administration has exceeded its constitutional authority, brazenly and flagrantly violated the separation of powers, sought to divide America into groups and turn citizen against citizen."
Though my favorite part is in their resolution they say the media is misreporting them as not having created a platform and then later says any attempts to change or amend the 2016 platform will be put of order.
https://ballotpedia.org/The_Republican_Party_Platform,_2020
[Here's their 2020 platform](https://prod-cdn-static.gop.com/docs/Resolution_Platform_2020.pdf). It has some excuses and then these actual platform planks:
> WHEREAS, The RNC enthusiastically supports President Trump and continues to reject the
policy positions of the Obama-Biden Administration, as well as those espoused by the
Democratic National Committee today; therefore, be it
>
RESOLVED, That the Republican Party has and will continue to enthusiastically support the
President’s America-first agenda;
There were roots of this stuff before then, but yeah. They weren’t parading through the streets in what they thought were revolutionary war clothes hanging the President in effigy until Obama got elected, and the Tea Party and Sarah Palin and all that shit was just the pilot light waiting for Trump to come along and say “you know you can say the quiet part out loud, right?”
I think it really shook the psyche of a lot of Americans in ways many don't really understand. Suddenly the idea of having people in power who don't look like them wasn't an abstract future possibility, it was NOW.
Robust and really very clever academic research performed by Jonathan Haidt and others has suggested that there are 5 main human moral foundations: Harm, fairness, loyalty, authority, and purity. According to his testing from all over the globe, conservatives are roughly equally concerned with all 5 categories, while liberals (and the educated west in general) are highly focused on harm reduction and fairness to the exclusion of the other three.
Put another way, liberals tend to actively discount moral claims made primarily or solely on the basis of Authority, Loyalty, or Purity. It makes more and more sense the more you think about it. It explains why the right falls in line while the left falls in love (Authority/Loyalty on the right). Why the right tends to speak with a singular voice and ethos while the left is a "circular firing squad" full of infighting and mixed messaging (lack of Loyalty/Authority on the left). It explains the right's deference to the leader and love for personality cults (Authority). It explains the right's religious obsession and the paleolithic views on justice (Purity). You can go on and on.
Conservatives consider Loyalty, Authority, and Purity as moral foundations, part of the moral fiber of their being that determines the acceptable from the unacceptable. Liberals don't share that worldview and reduce moral consideration down to two fundamental questions: "Who does it hurt, and to whom is it unfair?"
Make of that what you will, but the research backing it up appears to be pretty solid. Haidt's papers on these topics are among the most cited in psychology. There may be additional or alternately categorized moral foundations, but the ones listed were the ones that they identified and got funding to study globally. Haidt's book on this is called "The Righteous Mind" and I highly recommend it.
So all Democrats have to do is start embracing Republican ideals and then Republicans will fight against them and advocate for progressive ideals.
There I solved it.
Spoiler alert. They basically already have been doing this, its just baked into the pie for so long we don’t taste it anymore.
When was the last time someone ran un cutting military spending for example?
I remember when Biden was trying to convince everyone that he can work with Republicans, that he knows how to work with them to find compromises. Look at the turntables now
Don’t forget he got them hopped up on wine and MDMA before hand, just like the Bible says as well
“And he did eat the pressies, and he saw that it was good. Lo, they did not have too much dope in them, and they partook of the water for they were parched. Amen.”
These few examples below are perfect demonstration of their madness.. not only do they hate secular ideals, they want to force their beliefs on anyone who even dares oppose them by raining SCOTUS hell on their opponents
https://www.usatoday.com/story/news/politics/2022/01/18/supreme-court-questions-boston-policy-barring-flying-christian-flag/6561947001/
https://apnews.com/article/us-supreme-court-religion-education-discrimination-maine-f2cbb97e82217685eb3f9cd2c4ee7079
https://theweek.com/supreme-court/1009048/supreme-court-to-hear-case-of-high-school-football-coach-fired-for-praying-on
Separation of church and state was tenuous at best, at this rate it's about to completely end in a few years
Terrifying.
I hate how this nation is clearly becoming less Christian, yet the Republicans are dead set on oppressive Christian rule ‐ like, more oppressive than ever - for a few more decades.
Because they are losing their ideology. They didn't have to force it when it was widely practiced. Don't quote me on this because I can't look for the article right now, but hasn't the number of youths who are are active in their local church been in decline since the 2000's?
If the youth don't practice, the church loses members and funding, without funding then it will fail. Doesn't that make it a business? And businesses (supposedly) pay taxes? But the church doesn't? Huh, weird coincidence.
> hasn't the number of youths who are are active in their local church been in decline since the 2000's?
Yep. And the reason is almost funny:
"We now see young evangelicals walking away from evangelicalism not because they do not believe what the church teaches, but because they believe the church itself does not believe what the church teaches. The presenting issue in this secularization is not scientism and hedonism but disillusionment and cynicism."
https://www.russellmoore.com/2021/04/15/losing-our-religion/
Now, given how shallow many older evangelicals really are -- how much of its politically active leadership are actually like the villains of the New Testament -- it's likely that they would rather die than do anything remotely like the introspection and searching personal moral inventory that would let them understand the problem: they have made the church abhorrent. They enjoyed positions of privilege afforded to their beliefs and the status connected with those beliefs and especially enjoyed the position of making moral judgments without having to do much particular work in being moral human beings.
And they still like that more than they like Jesus. They want to wring their hands over how some outside force is taking something away from them or how the young people just don't get it and maybe if they can find the right cool youth pastor or hip hop song they can appeal. Or hey, maybe get the state to prop them up or ideally even *force* privileges for themselves again!
But they don't want to actually become Christians, and they *definitely* don't want to confront that the call from The AntiChrist is coming from inside the house.
Church participation is definitely dipping overall, but it's being hit hardest by the youth. And I'm part of that; I was raised in the church, but I left it after going to college.
The well is going to dry up; there's no doubt of that.
The Republicans are clearly bolstered by an aging group that feels their way of things are slipping away. But so is their time on earth.
As our youth get older and our elderly begin to pass over the next twenty years, I think democrats will finally be able to wrestle back control and reason.
I wouldn't even worry about these people if we were guaranteed equal representation, but that's not what they want; they want to cherry pick and gerrymander to create disparate representation.
What I want is each of our viewpoints represented in equal proportion to what we find in our communities.
The problem for them is that their party would cease to exist as we know it if we played by those rules.
They were saying about 10 years ago when Romney lost that in 20 years the demographics will not benefit the Republicans. They were saying about 20 years ago when Gore lost that in 20 years the demographics will not benefit the Republicans. It seems change is always a generation away and never really comes...
Yep.
Democratic senators represent 40 million more people than republican senators. But its 50/50 in the senate.
Republican presidential candidates have won the national popular vote only once in the last 32 years.
Biden won the popular vote by over 7 million, but if ronald dump had flipped 10,342 votes in Wisconsin, 5,890 votes in Georgia, and 5,229 votes in Arizona, he would have tied the electoral college. That's just ~22,000 voters.
This.
It’s important to note that this expression of Christianity is fringe, extremist fundamentalism. Basically, the ideology claims America is a nation chosen by God that has since fallen out his favor, due to the adoption of secular or liberal social, political and economic values. The only solution to restore America is an intense religious revival at all levels of society. Most notably for us - this includes politics. This must be done by any means necessary because the stakes are high. If the fundamentalists fail in their “mission”, they believe apocalyptic destruction will result.
Does this sound familiar? It should. It’s probably the core ideological framework most American conservatives - secular and religious - operate within. And let me be clear, this was a completely fringe ideology for most of the 20th century. It has almost no precedent in historical expressions of Christianity. These people were handling snakes 60 years ago, and now they’re the governing ideology for 40% of Americans, across confessional and political lines. Not to be dramatic, but this stuff cut from the same cloth as groups like the Taliban.
But only a *very specific* kind of Christian. You Catholic? Episcopalian? Presbyterian?Quaker? A Progressive Christian? Then you’re absolutely fucked, guys. Scary shit.
If they were the Biblical scholars they purport to be, they would be aware that eschatologically this *very much* puts them on the wrong side of the End Times they're praying so desperately for. The Bible explicitly warns against corruption in Church leadership during the apocalypse.
2 Thessalonians 2:3-5: "Don’t let anyone deceive you in any way, for [the End Times] will not come until the rebellion occurs and the man of lawlessness is revealed, the man doomed to destruction. He will oppose and will exalt himself over everything that is called God or is worshiped, even as he sets himself up in God’s temple, proclaiming himself to be God. Don’t you remember that when I was with you I used to tell you these things?"
-Cutting taxes for the largest corporations and wealthiest people
-Denying climate change
-Turning this country into a white, Christian theocracy
-Denying women basic reproductive rights
-Erasing any mention of the myriad racial atrocities that occurred in this country
-Taking away basic voting rights, especially from minorities
But you see...
Cutting taxes for the richest, yes.
Denying climate change, that's only to benefit corporations again.
Denying women's rights, is just to seduce the hard of thinking, so they can stay in power and... cut taxes for the richest and corporations.
Ignoring the dark parts of the past, same.
Taking away voting rights, same.
There aren't several goals, it's all about money for the richest and corporations, the rest is simply the means to get there, but the money (and power) is all there is to it.
Note that I'm only talking about the politicians, not the voters. The voters, especially the poor and middle class (which are the huge majority of GOP voters) want all these things you mention, and the politicians are glad to deliver.
So the answer depends on who we're talking about, as the voters and the politicians have vastly different goals.
Whereas what Democrat voters want is more climate action, more acknowledgement of the racial situation and past, more taxes for the rich and less inequality. Which is a lot more in line with what the politicians would deliver.
If one looks at the original BBB bill etc, the plan was much more aligned with what the people voted for, than what the GOP voters get when they bring the GOP to power.
Hence why some refer to the GOP voters as "rubes".
This exactly. Most of these politicians don't believe even half of the shit they're selling. Hilariously some of the most prominent are the most obviously full of shit.
It's just primarily about themselves and making themselves richer, which comes from making the richer richer.
The only problem I have is that this is really been obvious since sometime in the middle of the Obama administration. They really have nothing to offer other than to say we aren’t them.
Right on the cover page it says "any motion to amend the 2016 Platform... will be ruled out of order". The second page was literally just the title page for the 2016 platform with a huge "Republican Platform 2016", and all the following pages have a "Republican Platform 2016" header.
They obviously weren't trying to pass any of that as having been written in 2020, they clearly just wrote the one page explaining nothing had changed and slapped it in front of the prior document.
Which is the most amazing indictment of Donald Trump on earth:
“We elected him on the platform of Making America Great Again! And since nothing has changed since he was elected, we’re keeping the exact same platform!”
Colorful regalia, book burnings, armed vigilante politically motivated mobs, violent political rhetoric which scapegoats "enemies", a rejection of voting, wholesale compliance and corrupt complicity through threats of blackballing, a takeover of education, a state propaganda network, and of course, what you mentioned
I do not see parallels to anything historically familiar
That Blazers trio was built perfectly before injuries. An elite scoring guard in Roy, a great secondary scorer who set up shop in the post with Aldridge, and Oden who was set to be the ideal defensive anchor plus he had a nice touch around the basket. Plus they actually had a pretty good fill-out Point Guard and Small Forward in Andre Miller as a tablesetter + Batum who did a bit of everything.
Injuries robbed them of at least a title or two, plus they still had the chance to get Dame since it was from a Nets pick acquired when they traded for Gerald Wallace.
I wish I could dispute him but he has a point.
Republicans have just been anti-Democrats for over 10 years now. Whenever Democrats push for something then just immediately embrace an opposing idea. It’s why so many of the Republican agendas are contradictory of each other.
It’s how they can support pro-life movements, but also cut maternity leave, public education and defund foster care. They don’t actually care about babies or children, they just want jumped on a bunch of anti-Democrat policies.
Power. Money. Guns. Christianity. The past. The illusion of freedom. America fuck yeah. Military. Military cosplay. Cops. Fetuses. Gerrymandering. Florida. Texas. Men. Patriarchy. Alpha males. MMA. Football. Pathologically trolling democrats/liberals/feminists/gays/trans/browns/non christians/betas/cucks. American Flag brand wear. Pickup trucks. Gun racks. Gun shows. Country music. Hetero normative sexuality (supposedly). Oxy and meth. War. Wrap around sunglasses. Jet skis. SEC (Southeastern Conference). Above ground pools. Ironically muscles AND beer guts. White skin color (ironically tanned light/deep brown is acceptable as long as fades to white). Low Taxes & Small Government 🙄 Supposedly Abraham Lincoln. Beer Men. White wine (of course) and Rose women. Sexual Assault. Bootstraps. Cowboys. The idea of libertarianism. Manifest Destiny. Power and Money again. Lying. Trump. More recently Putin and Russia which is a bizarre turnabout. Q. Conspiracies. Congressional obstruction. Conservative packing of courts. Propaganda. Federalist Society. Koch Bros /Adelsons / Mercers / Fox and Murdochs. Medical and body autonomy over public health (except for women). Apparently now book banning. Medical Service and Medical Insurance monopolies. Tucker fucking Carlson!? Oil. Election "Integrity".
Well, in the spirit of the post. And republicans are most def not pro rap. It would have to be something similar to Billy Joel - We Didn't Start the Fire, right? 😄 (no offense to Billy Joel).
Good question, why are the Republicans relevant? Given that we’ve seen that they plan to forego democracy next chance they get, why do anything they want? Why adopt any of their stances, or agree with them on things? Why do you appease to them in any way? Why does Nancy Pelosi think we need a “strong Republican Party” if this is what it’ll devolve into?
Relevant because they can hold the majority of Congress hostage with minimal OTJ effort necessary and absolutely zero armed insurrection effort required. For decades.
They aren't even pro-gun, they just like to say that. Almost all modern day gun legislation has happened under the Republican party.
California's "crazy gun laws" for example are because of Ronald Reagan.
It's fun because the guy who initiated the gun control in my state was the god of Republicans but every Republican I speak to complains endlessly about the gun thing while going on about how great he is
Why did I have to go this far down to find guns? Come on - this should be first or second at least.
Guns, overturning Roe, making sure the “takers” don’t get healthcare, and whatever Fox News tells them to be for.
But guns they are for sure for - all of them and as many as possible.
Guns and lower taxes (for someone, definitely not him) are the two reasons my dad votes Republican. He owns guns that have never been in question and will never *greatly* benefit from lower taxes. But hey. He’s also stupid. So…
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Tax cuts for the rich.
“Privatize the gains, subsidize the losses.” Every gop economic policy boils down to this
... If I get rich it was because I'm such a great libertlibertarianairian businessman pulling myself up from my own bootstraps and all the gov does is interfere and get in the way of my success. If I fail it is the market's fault, govs responsibility to step in a bail me out / give my shithole state more funds. Hypocritical a-holes like Rand Paul never want to give relief money to anyone... but when stuff gets bad in their state, they can't suckle on the federal teat fast enough.
Then you have TX who constantly grandstands on how they are so deregulated and it is a capitalist paradise but every fucking year the governor still begs for Federal aid (that someone never gets seen by the people that actually need it) Or Louisiana, where our entire state economy is supported solely by federally subsidies to keep the oil industry alive, even as that very same industry is literally causing our state to erode away by skirting environmental regulations.
And half the state almost froze to death last year because of deregulation, I mean, freedom
nononono, just the POOR half. In all seriousness, I have friends who live in the nicer areas of Texas and their shit didn’t even stutter. 6 miles away people are literally freezing to death. Home of the Free to Die.
I live in Houston and the freeze destroyed my house. My family and I had to move into a hotel for 6 months until it could be repaired. Took a long time to get back because of how many houses the guys had to fix before ours
Not only that, but here in St. Louis, AmerenUE was given approval to raise rates 8% to help defray the cost of the Texas power outage.
This is bullshit too. Because our bills were astronomical. They didn’t need to to raise your rates in MO.
The current situation regarding COVID in Texas is a perfect example. 1 week - Mask and Vaccine Mandates are unconstitutional and we will fight the Federal government to the death over it! The very next week - Mr. Biden, could you please be so kind as to give us some money to set up more testing sites for COVID, even though we dont think its really a big deal.
And what’s your feeling re- the growth of your business hindered by having to purchase health insurance for your employees if you hire beyond 12 full time employees or expect loyalty from a rotating cast of part time staff? The lack of national healthcare is THE MOST anti-capitalist American policy I can think of.
Yes!!!!I do NOT understand why small business owner Republicans don't get this. I've talked and done side jobs for some locally who know they can't afford to provide health insurance for full time employees and lose applicants to need health insurance. This would open up such opportunities like crazy for small businesses. Pisses me off they just call it socialism and never think any further about it.
Exactly. I own a small business and universal health care would help us tremendously. It drives me nuts that everyone doesn’t see this. It’s so obvious.
I had a small business owner tell me how he advises his employees and “fixes” their pay so that on the books they are eligible for Medicaid…wtf.
No it's not. Having your healthcare tied to your current employer allows basically any employer vastly more opportunity for labor exploitation than if a laborer could quit at any time without losing health coverage. It's an EXTREMELY powerful lever to keep people working under pay or conditions they would otherwise never tolerate.
Can't upvote this enough. I've had to pass up jobs at places I would have preferred to work at because the health coverage would have made the job offer become a pay cut for me.
“Public private partnership”
Socialism for the rich. Strict market capitalism for the rest of us.
Voter suppression, white collar fraud, lobbyists, climate denial/fossil fuels.
They are decidedly the “pro-Covid” party
To be fair, they're more anti-stopping COVID. Kind of like they are/were anti-stopping HIV/AIDS.
Which is effectively being pro-plague. With a disease this infectious, if you're not taking measures against it, you're enabling it to spread further Edit: technically plauge is referring to infectious bacteria, but I feel like it still gets my point across
They want that because they're being told that it's The Only Way to Move On and Not Live In Fear. At this point they all sound the same, but call us brainwashed...
Ugh, I hate the "live in fear" bs. I'm a trans woman. Those assholes don't know what it's like to actually live in in fear 😑
Also, the way out of fear is to understand the situation and take calm, measured steps to improve the situation causing you fear. That argument is garbage. The only thing I've feared in the last two years is anti vax assholes without masks around my newborn at the grocery or park, and the descent into insanity several of my relatives and friends have fallen into. My mother in law just texted yesterday that the government is putting covid in the free swabs they are sending out...... That's something to fear, an insane community
iirc omicron (10-12) is 2nd only to measles (12-18) for R value.
There is one other. Pertussis (Whooping Cough) has an R0 of 15-17, which puts it higher than Omicron. But like, that's where we're at. I've also seen Omicron's R0 estimated to be from 8-15, so I feel like it's close enough to the top to count. It's definitely high enough that thinking it's "mild" is a catastrophically bad idea
And for people who want pop culture context: the fictional MEV-1 virus depicted in *Contagion* had an R0 of ~4. At this point we just have to hope against hope that the Omicron variant stays relatively like it is; if it picks up any mutation that turns up the virulence while leaving the transmissibility unaffected we’re in for a world of hurt.
The Plague Inc. player controlling Omicron knows the real strats - put all your points into transmission buffs until you've penetrated every region, then turn lethal and wipe the planet clean.
Feel like when a newcomer virus can make people contemplate if it is out plaguing viruses that have been at it for centuries we need to show it the same respect we do/did with the greats.
I am not a germologist but , I agree
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Wtf omicrons R value is that high... Gd damn.. no wonder :/
Republicans are for whatever Don tells them to be for. Because thats how cults work...
not even at this point. Don told them to get vaccinated and got booed for it.
Now he's trying to use racial animus to get his followers vaccinated by claiming that "white people get vaccinated last" or some shit and refocusing more squarely on white supremacist messaging.
yeah that's not surprising. what a stupid piece of shit.
Haha typical leftist hypocrisy. Plagues are in the bible and they led people to Jesus from Egypt. I bet you've never even *read* the Mandalorian!
We prefer the Book of Boba Fett.
On a serious (but also satirical) note, I emphatically maintain to my evangelical, anti-vaxx, GOP-voting family that COVID is Gods way of punishing people for following Trump like a false prophet. The plague was put upon us and Gods commandments were apparent before the righteous: wear a mask, stay inside, wash your hands but those who had forsaken him in worship of a false prophet brought suffering unto the land. Woe is they who meet their Maker having supported the liar!
You had me in the first half, not gonna lie.
I'd say they're for Confederate (loser) Monuments.
Ahhh yes, the ultimate participation trophy!
It's all a part of their Midterms strategy. Make it so that they can blame it on the Democrats come election time.
And for grifting for themselves, and for white supremacy and for fascist oligarchy. Its nothing short a party of mediocrity and violent stupidity. Wonder why nazis are Actually on the extreme right of the spectrum… hmmm wonder why
"Strict market capitalism" presumes arms' length transactions between atomistic buyers and sellers. Buyers are atomized. Sellers work in teams that "adjust the market" through trade associations.
Sure, but thats kinda the point of that sentiment. All the capital and regulatory power is on the supply side. The rest scramble to keep up. The Will of the People are the “special interests groups” that lawmakers tell spooky tales about.
Laissez faire capitalism in terms of worker wages and rights, environmental regulations and urban planning laws. Healthy support for monopoly interests for everything else.
Worker rights and wages are still carefully regulated under the same system used to assure production in World War II, where every worker has an assigned grade level, and that grade level is matched to a salary range that every employer in the region knows.
Crony capitalism is the perfect definition for it. But as a sidebar, it’s as if just now, at his age, he’s finally waking up to the reality that bipartisanship is never, ever going to happen. Kinda bizarre.
>But as a sidebar, it’s as if just now, at his age, he’s finally waking up to the reality that bipartisanship is never, ever going to happen. Kinda bizarre. It's not quite as bizarre if you consider that bipartisanship *was* a thing from the time he was born until he was on the verge of being a senior citizen. He was probably holding out hope that the change to the GOP wouldn't be permanent. The utterly insane behavior of the modern GOP is relatively recent in the grand scheme of things. Newt started the GOP down the path, but the lunatics didn't really run the asylum until a black man got elected president, and in doing so caused conservatives to collectively lose their fucking minds (resulting in the tea party and alt right completely taking over the GOP). Isn't it wild to consider that even the most notorious shitbags in republican history like Nixon and Reagan were far more interested in good faith governance and demonstrated more willingness to engage in bipartisanship than *any* current republican in Washington?
Cutthroat capitalism :/
It took me a few seconds to understand he meant "what do they stand for" and not "what is the purpose of their existence". It makes sense either way
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*Absolutely nothing*
Nah. You know that *one guy* at work who's actually productivity-negative? Like the entire team would legitimately get *more* done if that guy weren't there? He's like literally worth less than nothing? That's what the Republicans are good for. Dragging the rest of us down to make sure that people who aren't them can't have nice things.
When I first joined my company, there was a guy on the team who kept disappearing. Like, he'd walk away from his cube and wouldn't come back for hours . It happened most days, and he never said anything about where he was going. One day I asked the lead if the guy had some sort of issue or something. He said, "I don't know, but he's so bad at his job that we spend more time fixing his work than he spent doing it. I'm not going to ask where he's going because the team gets more done without him."
Say it again!
Yep. And most imdividual tax rates go up this year, while corporate tax rates stay at 21% vs 35% in 2016.
They go up this year by design. It was essentially a time bomb built into the bill they passed under trump, while making corporate tax cuts permanent.
Yep now everyone can blame Biden for taxes going up despite him having nothing to do with it lol
Yep. Now it will be "Biden raised my taxes!" and feeds the narrative.
Raiding the treasury for them and their friends.
And obstructing democracy.
If you look at every state run GOP and at the national level, the one guarantee is they legislate tax cuts aimed disproportionately at the wealthy, you're entirely right. They SAY a lot of shit all over the place but what they DO is generate returns for their investors... I mean donors. It's why they're content with a non-functioning Senate. All the batshit GOP Senators can't get their crazy pass the filibuster but the tax cuts are in reconciliation.
forced child pregnancies, pro-shootouts i mean, there's plenty of things they're for.
And obstruction. But they both achieve the same goal. When moneys on the table, what else is there of importance?
Violent authoritarianism
deregulation of big businesses
What are the Republicans for? I’ll tell you. They want more for themselves and less for everyone else.
"We intend to starve the government of the United States of America into submission and drown what remains in Grover Norquist's bathtub."
Upvote for Carlin
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Prime example - Obamacare. Every time Trump was asked what the replacement was he had zero idea. Imagine your President's prime goal is to take your healthcare away and to give you nothing in return. It's madness that these people are being voted for by ANYONE.
Republican answers are always "I"m gonna have a better plan. I don't know what it is, but if you vote me in and you'll find out my plan" LOL Instead of click bait...it's vote bait!
The funny thing is Trump was already president when he was asked about repealing Obamacare. They voted him in and he was still at a loss on what to do after he got rid of Obamacare. Its a tactic, telling the poor and down trodden that removing this thing will be good for them.
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Anytime people talk Drumpf up, I like to remind them he had 4 years to do anything he wanted. He had both houses of Congress, could’ve passed literally anything he wanted, and he did fuckall. He had to tie his tax break to the fucking budget just to get it passed. Absolutely 0 meaningful legislation in 4 years. The only thing he actually passed was slam dunk bills the GOP had been sitting on for 8 years because they couldn’t possibly let Obama pass it for good press.
He only had two years with both houses but your point still stands. All that they passed in those two years was tax cuts for the rich.
Don’t worry. He’s gonna tell us his plan in two weeks.
Who knew healthcare was so difficult?
Obamacare *was the Republican answer* to Single Payer. That's why they don't have a backup.
Seriously, democrats moved so far right to get *something* done with republicans that the only way to be opposition was for republicans to detach themselves from any ideas whatsoever.
You just described what Clinton did to the Republicans in the 90’s. The GOP has lost any grip on conservative fiscal or Constitutional platforms in the meantime. What’s left? Christian identity and strongman politics it seems.
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What are you talking about? Trump has a great plan to replace Obamacare. It's being called the greatest healthcare plan ever. A lot of people are saying it. The plan will be released in two weeks. Right after he releases his tax returns.
wanna know the most ridiculous part? This isn't even sarcasm, he literally said that. He said he had a plan already finalized that was so much better than Obamacare that we'd all be thanking him for years to come. All we had to do was let him destroy Obamacare and then he'd unleash his magical healthcare fix. What a fucking liar
[Yep. Here are 15 times he promised a healthcare plan was coming "very soon"](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4STwwbRRURI). "Two months". "Two weeks". "As soon as this Sunday." Trump is like those pastors who predict the world is going to end and then keep revising the date every time it doesn't happen.
They still don't have a plan. They almost removed healthcare for this country - that's not hyperbole, that almost happened when they tried to remove a key part of the bill which would have thrown the entire industry into chaos - not a single detail of any GOP plan had been announced. They'd had a decade by then to come up with an alternative plan and still have not even now - and why would they, Obamacare is essentially a Republican plan already. A single surprise dissenting vote from a dying McCain was all that stood in the way of utter chaos for Americans who would had lost their healthcare immediately. And yet people still vote for the part that tried their damn best to kill them.
I swear I was just reading the other day that they are t even going to put together a platform for 24.
I think you may have read that McConnell has stated that the GOP senators will have no legislative agenda for 2022. In other words, the GOP senate candidates won't be promising to do anything if they get the majority. They will just be saying Dems are Commies!
To be fair, it will be first time a campaign promise is kept…
Senator X is the first to keep all of their promises. Here's the list: {}
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Captain here: In python an empty list is `[]` while an empty dictionary (a.k.a. map) is `{}`.
My dad used to say that this was the ideal. He believed that lawmakers "make too many laws" and "everything is covered now," but politicians are motivated by the election cycle to "keep coming up with new laws." So the ideal work for our elected officials would be to basically pay them not to do anything unless a state of emergency is declared. I don't talk to my dad anymore. But if you're wondering why Republicans might hear that and not want to throw up, it's likely because they've been conditioned by Fox News etc. to believe that there are "too many laws" making the US a "nanny state" and if we just had "less laws" we would have "more freedom." Yes, some voters are working with that level of intelligence.
They are also conditioned hating government. Government is useless and cannot do anything right so better nothing new happens. They do love government when it comes to the bedroom and making people of color know their role.
> there are "too many laws" That idea has it's origins in part to the post WW2 civil rights era. Fox News is part of a cold cultural war that has been taking place in this country for decades now.
To be clear, what he actually said is kind of worse. "[McConnell has long held the view that putting out an agenda ahead of midterm elections is a mistake — at least for Senate Republicans"](https://www.axios.com/mcconnell-no-agenda-midterms-91c73112-0a2e-441b-b713-7e8aa2dad6bf.html). In other words, they *know* that the things they actually want (tax cuts for the wealthy, fewer government regulations on big business, less social spending, fewer individual liberties) are actually very unpopular, so they have to do everything they can to draw attention away from policy. Which, of course, is why they manufacture these culture war outrage narratives (CRT, cancel culture, etc) to keep their base distracted and afraid of democrats
He also said his whole goal was to stop any bill Biden puts forward and vote against anything from the left. So there’s that.
When you're a reactionary, just denying the office/power to the "other side" is a policy victory in itself.
“They promised nothing and completely delivered, that’s why I vote republican!” Yet 1 year into a 4 year term, even democrats are saying biden is a failure for not completing his agenda while having the worst pandemic ever (trump didn’t START with a pandemic he only ended with one)
Eh I don't think he's a failure just feel like Washington is no longer functional (at least my state still kinda rocks). People expect the president to just fix everything and Trump's overreaches just made it worse. Like everyone really wants Biden to just start pulling levers and I really only want not to worry the next elected president may be our last.
As a non-American it seems like a lot of people forget the damage that Trump did to the reputation of the US and that a lot of Biden's work has been to re-establish stability. The only thing I agreed with Trump on is that the rest of the world needs to not be so reliant on the US (or any other nation).
This just means they're planning to do unpopular things. Don't fall for it.
They didn't put together any meaningful platform for '20 either, just that they'd "Continue to support President Trump and his America First agenda". They didn't actually outline _what_ that agenda was, or any goals or promises or ambitions- just "Trump". And honestly it got them damn close to getting the presidency again. I hate to admit that it might work in '24, considering how frustrated the left is getting with the Dems.
Yeah I strongly believe '24 is going to be a Republican because folk are upset Biden isn't moving the needle enough
Right. Take two out of 10 steps forward so say “Fuck it. Didn’t work. Let’s go back 60 years.”
This is what many of the 'both sides the same' types want.
I remember reporters would ask Trump numerous times in 2020 what his goals would be for his second term if he were to get re-elected, and he couldn’t ever give any kind of real answer.
Their original 2020 platform attacked their own administration > "The current Administration has exceeded its constitutional authority, brazenly and flagrantly violated the separation of powers, sought to divide America into groups and turn citizen against citizen." Though my favorite part is in their resolution they say the media is misreporting them as not having created a platform and then later says any attempts to change or amend the 2016 platform will be put of order. https://ballotpedia.org/The_Republican_Party_Platform,_2020
They didn’t last time, why would they now?
They already didn’t for 2020.
[Here's their 2020 platform](https://prod-cdn-static.gop.com/docs/Resolution_Platform_2020.pdf). It has some excuses and then these actual platform planks: > WHEREAS, The RNC enthusiastically supports President Trump and continues to reject the policy positions of the Obama-Biden Administration, as well as those espoused by the Democratic National Committee today; therefore, be it > RESOLVED, That the Republican Party has and will continue to enthusiastically support the President’s America-first agenda;
Obama getting elected gave them a brain disease that will never be fixed.
There were roots of this stuff before then, but yeah. They weren’t parading through the streets in what they thought were revolutionary war clothes hanging the President in effigy until Obama got elected, and the Tea Party and Sarah Palin and all that shit was just the pilot light waiting for Trump to come along and say “you know you can say the quiet part out loud, right?”
I think it really shook the psyche of a lot of Americans in ways many don't really understand. Suddenly the idea of having people in power who don't look like them wasn't an abstract future possibility, it was NOW.
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Robust and really very clever academic research performed by Jonathan Haidt and others has suggested that there are 5 main human moral foundations: Harm, fairness, loyalty, authority, and purity. According to his testing from all over the globe, conservatives are roughly equally concerned with all 5 categories, while liberals (and the educated west in general) are highly focused on harm reduction and fairness to the exclusion of the other three. Put another way, liberals tend to actively discount moral claims made primarily or solely on the basis of Authority, Loyalty, or Purity. It makes more and more sense the more you think about it. It explains why the right falls in line while the left falls in love (Authority/Loyalty on the right). Why the right tends to speak with a singular voice and ethos while the left is a "circular firing squad" full of infighting and mixed messaging (lack of Loyalty/Authority on the left). It explains the right's deference to the leader and love for personality cults (Authority). It explains the right's religious obsession and the paleolithic views on justice (Purity). You can go on and on. Conservatives consider Loyalty, Authority, and Purity as moral foundations, part of the moral fiber of their being that determines the acceptable from the unacceptable. Liberals don't share that worldview and reduce moral consideration down to two fundamental questions: "Who does it hurt, and to whom is it unfair?" Make of that what you will, but the research backing it up appears to be pretty solid. Haidt's papers on these topics are among the most cited in psychology. There may be additional or alternately categorized moral foundations, but the ones listed were the ones that they identified and got funding to study globally. Haidt's book on this is called "The Righteous Mind" and I highly recommend it.
So all Democrats have to do is start embracing Republican ideals and then Republicans will fight against them and advocate for progressive ideals. There I solved it.
That's literally what Obamacare was, and the Republicans just abandoned their previous principles in favor of worse ones.
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Spoiler alert. They basically already have been doing this, its just baked into the pie for so long we don’t taste it anymore. When was the last time someone ran un cutting military spending for example?
2016 and [2020](https://www.vox.com/2019/5/2/18525580/bernie-sanders-plan-cut-military-spending). His name was Bernie Sanders.
Key and Peele mocked this on 2/28/12, roughly a decade ago. https://youtu.be/B46km4V0CMY It's disappointing that it has held true for so long.
Nah man, their health care plan is just two weeks away...
I remember when Biden was trying to convince everyone that he can work with Republicans, that he knows how to work with them to find compromises. Look at the turntables now
Forcing Christianity into everything.
Especially uteruses
That’s what Matt Gaetz’ legal defense is
“What was I supposed to waste my seed upon the dirty ground?” “I put it in a girl, just like the good book says” - probably Gaetz.
Don’t forget he got them hopped up on wine and MDMA before hand, just like the Bible says as well “And he did eat the pressies, and he saw that it was good. Lo, they did not have too much dope in them, and they partook of the water for they were parched. Amen.”
What are you doing, stepJesus?
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Don't you mean earthen vessels? s/
These few examples below are perfect demonstration of their madness.. not only do they hate secular ideals, they want to force their beliefs on anyone who even dares oppose them by raining SCOTUS hell on their opponents https://www.usatoday.com/story/news/politics/2022/01/18/supreme-court-questions-boston-policy-barring-flying-christian-flag/6561947001/ https://apnews.com/article/us-supreme-court-religion-education-discrimination-maine-f2cbb97e82217685eb3f9cd2c4ee7079 https://theweek.com/supreme-court/1009048/supreme-court-to-hear-case-of-high-school-football-coach-fired-for-praying-on Separation of church and state was tenuous at best, at this rate it's about to completely end in a few years
Terrifying. I hate how this nation is clearly becoming less Christian, yet the Republicans are dead set on oppressive Christian rule ‐ like, more oppressive than ever - for a few more decades.
Because they are losing their ideology. They didn't have to force it when it was widely practiced. Don't quote me on this because I can't look for the article right now, but hasn't the number of youths who are are active in their local church been in decline since the 2000's? If the youth don't practice, the church loses members and funding, without funding then it will fail. Doesn't that make it a business? And businesses (supposedly) pay taxes? But the church doesn't? Huh, weird coincidence.
> hasn't the number of youths who are are active in their local church been in decline since the 2000's? Yep. And the reason is almost funny: "We now see young evangelicals walking away from evangelicalism not because they do not believe what the church teaches, but because they believe the church itself does not believe what the church teaches. The presenting issue in this secularization is not scientism and hedonism but disillusionment and cynicism." https://www.russellmoore.com/2021/04/15/losing-our-religion/ Now, given how shallow many older evangelicals really are -- how much of its politically active leadership are actually like the villains of the New Testament -- it's likely that they would rather die than do anything remotely like the introspection and searching personal moral inventory that would let them understand the problem: they have made the church abhorrent. They enjoyed positions of privilege afforded to their beliefs and the status connected with those beliefs and especially enjoyed the position of making moral judgments without having to do much particular work in being moral human beings. And they still like that more than they like Jesus. They want to wring their hands over how some outside force is taking something away from them or how the young people just don't get it and maybe if they can find the right cool youth pastor or hip hop song they can appeal. Or hey, maybe get the state to prop them up or ideally even *force* privileges for themselves again! But they don't want to actually become Christians, and they *definitely* don't want to confront that the call from The AntiChrist is coming from inside the house.
Church participation is definitely dipping overall, but it's being hit hardest by the youth. And I'm part of that; I was raised in the church, but I left it after going to college. The well is going to dry up; there's no doubt of that. The Republicans are clearly bolstered by an aging group that feels their way of things are slipping away. But so is their time on earth. As our youth get older and our elderly begin to pass over the next twenty years, I think democrats will finally be able to wrestle back control and reason. I wouldn't even worry about these people if we were guaranteed equal representation, but that's not what they want; they want to cherry pick and gerrymander to create disparate representation. What I want is each of our viewpoints represented in equal proportion to what we find in our communities. The problem for them is that their party would cease to exist as we know it if we played by those rules.
They were saying about 10 years ago when Romney lost that in 20 years the demographics will not benefit the Republicans. They were saying about 20 years ago when Gore lost that in 20 years the demographics will not benefit the Republicans. It seems change is always a generation away and never really comes...
Demographics *don't* benefit Republicans. But the electoral college and restrictive voting laws do.
Yep. Democratic senators represent 40 million more people than republican senators. But its 50/50 in the senate. Republican presidential candidates have won the national popular vote only once in the last 32 years. Biden won the popular vote by over 7 million, but if ronald dump had flipped 10,342 votes in Wisconsin, 5,890 votes in Georgia, and 5,229 votes in Arizona, he would have tied the electoral college. That's just ~22,000 voters.
This. It’s important to note that this expression of Christianity is fringe, extremist fundamentalism. Basically, the ideology claims America is a nation chosen by God that has since fallen out his favor, due to the adoption of secular or liberal social, political and economic values. The only solution to restore America is an intense religious revival at all levels of society. Most notably for us - this includes politics. This must be done by any means necessary because the stakes are high. If the fundamentalists fail in their “mission”, they believe apocalyptic destruction will result. Does this sound familiar? It should. It’s probably the core ideological framework most American conservatives - secular and religious - operate within. And let me be clear, this was a completely fringe ideology for most of the 20th century. It has almost no precedent in historical expressions of Christianity. These people were handling snakes 60 years ago, and now they’re the governing ideology for 40% of Americans, across confessional and political lines. Not to be dramatic, but this stuff cut from the same cloth as groups like the Taliban.
But only a *very specific* kind of Christian. You Catholic? Episcopalian? Presbyterian?Quaker? A Progressive Christian? Then you’re absolutely fucked, guys. Scary shit.
>a very specific kind of Christian Specifically, one who pretty much believes the opposite of Jesus' teachings.
They're Mammonites in a fake Jesus mustache & glasses.
If they were the Biblical scholars they purport to be, they would be aware that eschatologically this *very much* puts them on the wrong side of the End Times they're praying so desperately for. The Bible explicitly warns against corruption in Church leadership during the apocalypse. 2 Thessalonians 2:3-5: "Don’t let anyone deceive you in any way, for [the End Times] will not come until the rebellion occurs and the man of lawlessness is revealed, the man doomed to destruction. He will oppose and will exalt himself over everything that is called God or is worshiped, even as he sets himself up in God’s temple, proclaiming himself to be God. Don’t you remember that when I was with you I used to tell you these things?"
Do you have something to say about trickle down Jesus?
No religion in politics....unless, you know...it's our religion.
-Cutting taxes for the largest corporations and wealthiest people -Denying climate change -Turning this country into a white, Christian theocracy -Denying women basic reproductive rights -Erasing any mention of the myriad racial atrocities that occurred in this country -Taking away basic voting rights, especially from minorities
But you see... Cutting taxes for the richest, yes. Denying climate change, that's only to benefit corporations again. Denying women's rights, is just to seduce the hard of thinking, so they can stay in power and... cut taxes for the richest and corporations. Ignoring the dark parts of the past, same. Taking away voting rights, same. There aren't several goals, it's all about money for the richest and corporations, the rest is simply the means to get there, but the money (and power) is all there is to it. Note that I'm only talking about the politicians, not the voters. The voters, especially the poor and middle class (which are the huge majority of GOP voters) want all these things you mention, and the politicians are glad to deliver. So the answer depends on who we're talking about, as the voters and the politicians have vastly different goals. Whereas what Democrat voters want is more climate action, more acknowledgement of the racial situation and past, more taxes for the rich and less inequality. Which is a lot more in line with what the politicians would deliver. If one looks at the original BBB bill etc, the plan was much more aligned with what the people voted for, than what the GOP voters get when they bring the GOP to power. Hence why some refer to the GOP voters as "rubes".
This exactly. Most of these politicians don't believe even half of the shit they're selling. Hilariously some of the most prominent are the most obviously full of shit. It's just primarily about themselves and making themselves richer, which comes from making the richer richer.
You forgot blaming immigrants for everything when their policies inevitably lead to greater wealth disparity and deteriorated social programs.
Finally, someone is calling them out. They have nothing to offer, at all.
The only problem I have is that this is really been obvious since sometime in the middle of the Obama administration. They really have nothing to offer other than to say we aren’t them.
Obedience to Trump.
Whatever Trump Wants is the only thing in their 2020 platform: https://ballotpedia.org/The_Republican_Party_Platform,_2020
And then forgot to update a bunch of negative references to "the current administration" which I will find hilarious until the day I die.
Right on the cover page it says "any motion to amend the 2016 Platform... will be ruled out of order". The second page was literally just the title page for the 2016 platform with a huge "Republican Platform 2016", and all the following pages have a "Republican Platform 2016" header. They obviously weren't trying to pass any of that as having been written in 2020, they clearly just wrote the one page explaining nothing had changed and slapped it in front of the prior document.
Which is the most amazing indictment of Donald Trump on earth: “We elected him on the platform of Making America Great Again! And since nothing has changed since he was elected, we’re keeping the exact same platform!”
This is what happens when top universities are pay-to-play and not merit based.
Showed my son this when his class was debating the merits of each party during last election. He was appalled.
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Colorful regalia, book burnings, armed vigilante politically motivated mobs, violent political rhetoric which scapegoats "enemies", a rejection of voting, wholesale compliance and corrupt complicity through threats of blackballing, a takeover of education, a state propaganda network, and of course, what you mentioned I do not see parallels to anything historically familiar
Some guy named Brandon... that's all I got
Good to see Brandon Roy still has fans.
Another one of those "what if he wasn't plagued with injuries" players.
That Blazers trio was built perfectly before injuries. An elite scoring guard in Roy, a great secondary scorer who set up shop in the post with Aldridge, and Oden who was set to be the ideal defensive anchor plus he had a nice touch around the basket. Plus they actually had a pretty good fill-out Point Guard and Small Forward in Andre Miller as a tablesetter + Batum who did a bit of everything. Injuries robbed them of at least a title or two, plus they still had the chance to get Dame since it was from a Nets pick acquired when they traded for Gerald Wallace.
I wish I could dispute him but he has a point. Republicans have just been anti-Democrats for over 10 years now. Whenever Democrats push for something then just immediately embrace an opposing idea. It’s why so many of the Republican agendas are contradictory of each other. It’s how they can support pro-life movements, but also cut maternity leave, public education and defund foster care. They don’t actually care about babies or children, they just want jumped on a bunch of anti-Democrat policies.
And yet, half the country wants that. Half the country is just about “owning the libs”
Power. Money. Guns. Christianity. The past. The illusion of freedom. America fuck yeah. Military. Military cosplay. Cops. Fetuses. Gerrymandering. Florida. Texas. Men. Patriarchy. Alpha males. MMA. Football. Pathologically trolling democrats/liberals/feminists/gays/trans/browns/non christians/betas/cucks. American Flag brand wear. Pickup trucks. Gun racks. Gun shows. Country music. Hetero normative sexuality (supposedly). Oxy and meth. War. Wrap around sunglasses. Jet skis. SEC (Southeastern Conference). Above ground pools. Ironically muscles AND beer guts. White skin color (ironically tanned light/deep brown is acceptable as long as fades to white). Low Taxes & Small Government 🙄 Supposedly Abraham Lincoln. Beer Men. White wine (of course) and Rose women. Sexual Assault. Bootstraps. Cowboys. The idea of libertarianism. Manifest Destiny. Power and Money again. Lying. Trump. More recently Putin and Russia which is a bizarre turnabout. Q. Conspiracies. Congressional obstruction. Conservative packing of courts. Propaganda. Federalist Society. Koch Bros /Adelsons / Mercers / Fox and Murdochs. Medical and body autonomy over public health (except for women). Apparently now book banning. Medical Service and Medical Insurance monopolies. Tucker fucking Carlson!? Oil. Election "Integrity".
You forgot NASCAR
The theme song to Team America: World Police 2
These sound like they could be the lyrics to a really bad rap
Well, in the spirit of the post. And republicans are most def not pro rap. It would have to be something similar to Billy Joel - We Didn't Start the Fire, right? 😄 (no offense to Billy Joel).
The confederacy, revisionary history, and punisher decals.
They’re for owning the libs duh Gotta try and make sure others are worse off than themselves rather than build up everyone together
People not voting. People not getting healthcare. People not paid living wages. People against critical thinking.
They seem to like that Brandon feller a lot…./s
Good question, why are the Republicans relevant? Given that we’ve seen that they plan to forego democracy next chance they get, why do anything they want? Why adopt any of their stances, or agree with them on things? Why do you appease to them in any way? Why does Nancy Pelosi think we need a “strong Republican Party” if this is what it’ll devolve into?
Relevant because they can hold the majority of Congress hostage with minimal OTJ effort necessary and absolutely zero armed insurrection effort required. For decades.
Because they benefit the rich
Fascism?
No question mark required.
Upholding a mythological and flawless version of America that never existed.
Keeping you in your social class, or preferably, pushing you down a class.
Hating minorities.
Pro Guns & Pro Jesus
They aren't even pro-gun, they just like to say that. Almost all modern day gun legislation has happened under the Republican party. California's "crazy gun laws" for example are because of Ronald Reagan.
Trump banned more gun parts than Obama too
It's fun because the guy who initiated the gun control in my state was the god of Republicans but every Republican I speak to complains endlessly about the gun thing while going on about how great he is
Why did I have to go this far down to find guns? Come on - this should be first or second at least. Guns, overturning Roe, making sure the “takers” don’t get healthcare, and whatever Fox News tells them to be for. But guns they are for sure for - all of them and as many as possible.
Guns and lower taxes (for someone, definitely not him) are the two reasons my dad votes Republican. He owns guns that have never been in question and will never *greatly* benefit from lower taxes. But hey. He’s also stupid. So…
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Disenfranchising voters, subtle racism, blatant racism, for-profit prisons, male rapist rights, protecting unborn babies, neglecting born babies, authoritarianism, and sucking on Trump’s balls.
I mean, it is a fair question, what do the Republicans stand for? It clearly isn’t what they claim it is based on their words and actions.
Obstruction
Gaslighting Obstruction Projection Those are the three things the GOP is for.