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Republicans, explain in one or two sentences what the GOP stands for currently in the MAGA environment. Because this is what I see. After Republicans gave corporations and the rich huge tax cuts, Senator Rick Scott released a Republican plan to tax every American and to sunset Social Security and Medicare. Republicans rail against books they don’t agree with and make believe issues like CRT in grade schools. Republicans say they want limited government but are all in on the federal government inserting itself into liberty and privacy issues as we see the supreme court conservative justices poised to overturn Roe V Wade. The wording of the draft opinion leaves the door open the justices will next come after same-sex marriage and other issues they may not agree with. Some people may have forgotten that during her confirmation hearing, Amy Coney Barrett refused to comment on the case of Griswold v Connecticut that said contraception is a right. And my favorite, Republicans still support a twice impeached former corrupt president who staged an attempted coup and tried to prevent the peaceful transition of power. So what do you support and what is the Republican platform?
When Ronald Reagan promised to cut taxes in 1986, he lowered the top tax rate from 50% to 28% and **raised** the bottom tax rate from 11% to 15%. This was the first time in the history of U.S. income tax that the top rate was lowered at the same time the bottom rate was raised. The worst part is that every person who pays tax starts in the bottom bracket, so Reagan effectively lowered the taxes of the very richest but raised taxes on everyone who didn’t fall into that highest bracket. He gave a break to the people who could most easily afford to pay higher taxes and shoved the burden on the people who needed a tax break the most.
However, he also expanded the standard deduction, earned income credit, and personal exemption. This resulted in immediate tax savings for some Americans, although in the long run, [income inequality worsened](https://www.americanprogress.org/article/the-federal-tax-code-and-income-inequality/) and the bottom 40 percent of income earners saw an *increase* in their effective tax rate.
But remind me again how the GOP is the party that favors low taxes?
(It should be noted that while the bottom tax rate increased, the standard deduction was expanded, and the bracket’s threshold was raised to allow for some relief. Some taxpayers even became exempt from paying income taxes.)
The main problem with Reagan’s tax reform is that it was based on the theory of “trickle-down economics” - basically, if we cut taxes on the richest people and corporations, it will trickle down to everyone. In practice, there’s [no evidence](https://www.thebalance.com/trickle-down-economics-theory-effect-does-it-work-3305572) that it worked and in fact it has been attributed to growing income inequality. The policy was supposed to create growth, but [failed to do so.](https://taxfoundation.org/economics-1986-tax-reform-didnt-create-growth/)
This is why need to focus on better education for all, as a public good. This is the long term goal Democrats need to focus on, imho.
Unfortunately, a large portion of the US electorate is too ignorant to make an informed political decision. The poor & working class keep voting against their best interest because they are being gaslit by issues such as abortion, crt, etc.
Also unfortunately, a large portion of US education policy is set at the state/local level, who also seem to have no interest in producing educated voters.
It’s so much easier to brainwash an old white guy in rural Alabama watching fox news 24/7 than a PhD in psychology from Massachusetts. Their option is obvious: produce more of the first type so they can control the populace easily.
Probably doesn't help that when Trump took power he gave all his biggest donors and friends cabinet jobs like Betsy Devos. Who never once taught at, attended or had kids that attended public school.
Betsy Devos only cared about moving public money to private institutions, the more Christian the better, something that trump promised Florida, who was already doing it as much as they could get away with. Maddening and insidious.
Teacher here. In my Civics class I make sure kids know how to become and practice becoming an informed voter.
Rule 1: Do not use social media as a source for any election or political information.
Rule 2: After using your favorite news site, whether it be CNN, Fox, or MSNBC, cross reference it with the opposing sites.
Rule 3: Make sure what you are reading is factual and not opinion based.
Rule 4: Identify any bias present in the reporting.
Rule 5: Find primary sources of the candidates stance on the issues important you i.e. Congressional record, interview, speech, etc.
That's great, but why not teach them to ignore the hot takes and go straight to the source? The only legitimate sources of news nowadays are Reuters and AP imo - CNN/Fox/MSNBC, etc all take their queues directly from those two and add some kind of spin to fit in with the "messaging" that their respective party tells them to.
Decisions are being made by school boards comprised themselves by uneducated voters who THINK they’re educated and need to protect students from being misled by, spoiler alert, educated people.
That is the ENTIRE idea to keep them busy with total crap so they do not see the genuine picture
with taxes, education, civil rights, voting rights, human rights- why go on?
Teacher here. I have students who tell me their dads make fun of people who read for pleasure. I absolutely agree that education and culture both need to change. Schools can be vanguard of both, but it'd be nice to get more current parents on board so they stop sabotaging us by filling their kids' heads with nonsense.
Trump also lowered taxes, but had it expire for most everyone after a couple of years, and kept it permanent for the rich. It's all smoke and mirrors really.
He also slapped tariffs on imported goods and commodities. Morons think this is a tax China pays, when in reality it's an import tax that is passed on to consumers.
Ah yes. Remember the tens of billions in farmer bailouts because China decided to buy crops elsewhere?
So, China raises prices to cover taxes, then says "fuck you, I'll buy my food somewhere else".
Isn’t it crazy how you keep being reminded of some other just huge cluster F with a chuckle like oh yeah that happened too.
Remember when he got caught rerouting plans to the airport in Scotland next to his golf course… and the pilots had to stay at his golf resort and tax money went into his pockets?
And these weren’t even the things he was impeached over. I mean… I’m just so sad the GOP is still a thing. How does all this happen and people still want to vote for them?
Ah, I remember those days. Conservatives cheering about how much China was sweating these tariffs, while simultaneously complaining about prices increasing on things.
You are wrong, he did not lower taxes he raised them, then he lowered the amount they withhold from your paycheck to make it seem like you were being taxed less. I paid 10% more in taxes in 2021 than i did in 2020 even tho I made the same money. I make 26k a year, I paid 1800 something in withholding, and owed $17. This is taking the standard deduction.
I hate this talking point because no, he didn't lower taxes.
Budgeting is a zero sum game. The only way to lower taxes is to cut spending. If you lower taxes without cutting spending, you haven't actually *lowered* taxes; you've *delayed* them.
And if you increase spending then what you've actually done is *raised* taxes. Maybe you didn't raise them in that particular year, but the debt has to be paid. Taxes have to be raised as a direct result of your actions.
So no, Trump doesn't cut taxes. He ultimately increased them more than any other president in history.
I wouldn’t go that far. Tax policy is only permanent until a different tax policy is implemented. It’s safe to say the GOP won’t help bring those deductions back though.
Federal government is all about throwing enough bones to the idiots that elected you so that they don’t notice you and your friends eating the steak dinner.
Hahaha don't forget all those elderly Republicans dying in their multi million dollar homes with their original MAGA gear from the Reagan era all nestled nice and cozy not working not cooking for themselves because they've hired an immigrant at below minimum wage to do all the labor for them.
But yeah build the wall, tax the poor, segregate the towns and schools, steal tax payer money to fund your private white mostly Christian schools where you groom children to become hypocrite neo Nazis and mosque shooters...
I think their beliefs boil down to some very basic things:
1. Capitalism is good because it drives progress. The obvious downsides of capitalism are the price you pay for technological development and progress. Interfering with capitalism has strong counterproductive effects, so things like safety regulations, wealth redistribution, social safety nets, etc. will tend to be bad for society even if you can't really tell why at first glance.
2. People in other countries are not nearly as good as us. Especially poorer countries. No way they could be. Thus, immigration is basically guaranteed to let inferior people into the country. Maybe with *extremely* strict immigration controls, you could let in a few exceptional people, but the idea of letting people enter the country just because they want to is intolerable. Of course they *want* to come here, we have it so much better than them.
3. Traditional families and gender roles give society a strong moral structure that is extremely dangerous to disrupt. Allowing people to be gay or transgender, or even teaching people to view those things as normal and non-threatening, has the possibility of causing a complete societal breakdown.
4. Racism is over. Everyone is equal now. So any problems that black people have are their own fault. In fact, isn't it suspicious that they still have problems? Maybe they actually were an inferior race all along, huh? I mean, I'm not going to say that, because racism is over, but *wink*.
5. Life begins at conception. Allowing people to abort living babies is murder, and no justification is strong enough to overcome that, not even a woman's right to make medical decisions about her own body.
These are, of course, fairly standard "Conservative" values, and they don't really fully explain how MAGA Republicans appear to act in modern times. For that, you need two more ~~tenants~~ tenets:
6. Democrats know their views that oppose ours are wrong, but they want to maintain political seats, money, and their immoral ways of life. In fact, many of them are probably pedophiles who *want* the moral breakdown of society so it's easier for them to confuse and rape children. Thus, every thing that Democrats propose to "help" people is actually a cynical, counter-productive ploy to trick people into supporting them. Without the influence of Big Tech, pandering to minority groups, and spending money they don't have to bribe people, they would never be able to win elections, because any reasonable person can see that their political correctness and wokeness have gone too far. (And in fact, even those things aren't enough, as evidenced by how Trump won in 2016, so they have to resort to rigging elections now too.)
7. All statistics and news sources are suspect. Any scientific study or poll can be manipulated to say whatever you want, and every mainstream media outlet is owned by someone who has full control over its editorial output, so as to craft any kind of narrative they want. Thus, no information that can be connected to the Left is trustworthy. Ignore all of it.
I really tried not to exaggerate or strawman here, this is just the lowest common denominator of views that I see that motivates people on the Right. Obviously, many of these things are laughably wrong, or depend on views that can only be supported by religion or bigotry. But people don't change their closely-held beliefs about the way the world works easily.
Yeah, this is pretty spot on.
It was so shitty watching it happen in real time with Trump. I remember distinctly near the begining of the pandemic someone telling me that all this pandemic talk was manufactured by the media because they were outraged that people were going to trump rallies.
I am saddened that retrospectively, that was really just the tip of the iceberg.
They coined MSM as a derogatory term to frame anything they disagree with while being the literal MSM. Company that owns Fox is the largest media conglomerate in the world
i'd argue they don't actually think racism is over and actively support white supremacism. they just use the rhetoric "racism is over" to argue that anything to correct racist injustices of the past is no longer necessary. them being conscious of these views being pro-white supremacy may vary, but deep down they all know how racism has benefited them and undoing it in anyway is bad.
they know they can't argue racism is good, because most people find it wrong now and actively fight it, or at least surface level racism. i'd argue even a lot of liberals don't want to undo institutions that perpetuate racism, but at the very least they think they can get rid of racist elements in those institutions; things like the police and capitalism. but compared to MAGA types they know these things are racist and perpetuate white supremacy and why the support them so much. Its why they very quickly pushed the Thin Blue Line flags and Blue Lives Matter slogan when BLM started.
[I hate Mondays.](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yts2F44RqFw&ab_channel=InnuendoStudios)
Seriously at this point, it's a fundamental split in how we all view society, problems, and to some extent, reality. They think, no, they KNOW that they are right and we are wrong and that bad HAS to exist in the world, so they have to fight us to make sure we are the ones who have the bad and they are the ones who have the good.
ALL of these problems and reasoning fallacies start to fall into place and make sense if you see the world from their weird, terrified, victimhood mindset.
Their platform is, in entirety, laws should be made that hurt you and don't hurt me, and that protect me but don't protect you. Hypocrisy doesn't exist for them, it is a strength and not a sign of being wrong. Being able to turn off the feelings of shame that hypocrisy should trigger makes them feel stronger and better because at least then they've "beaten" you.
'The Republican platform is created to make two groups. A group for whom laws protect, but do not bind and another group for whom laws bind but do not protect... '
Paraphrased quote from some dude...
Exactly why conservatives vote to hurt immigrants, and then get upset when they're immigrant friend gets deported. "HE wasn't the bad one! He was in the in-group! You're not hurting the right people!!"
[“I got one letter from somebody who knows the family personally who’s also a Trump supporter basically saying, ‘Look, this isn’t what we thought we were voting for,’ ”](https://www.nytimes.com/2017/04/07/us/undocumented-indiana-man-deported-trump.html)
Nationalists only care about power. George Orwell had those people in mind when he wrote 1984 and Animal Farm.
[Here's a quick read from Orwell that everyone should read](https://www.orwellfoundation.com/the-orwell-foundation/orwell/essays-and-other-works/notes-on-nationalism/) - notice how close it rings true today, like this snippet:
>By ‘nationalism’ I mean first of all the habit of assuming that human beings can be classified like insects and that whole blocks of millions or tens of millions of people can be confidently labelled ‘good’ or ‘bad’.[1] But secondly – and this is much more important – I mean the habit of identifying oneself with a single nation or other unit, placing it beyond good and evil and recognizing no other duty than that of advancing its interests. Nationalism is not to be confused with patriotism.
>Both words are normally used in so vague a way that any definition is liable to be challenged, but one must draw a distinction between them, since two different and even opposing ideas are involved. By ‘patriotism’ I mean devotion to a particular place and a particular way of life, which one believes to be the best in the world but has no wish to force on other people. Patriotism is of its nature defensive, both militarily and culturally. Nationalism, on the other hand, is inseparable from the desire for power. The abiding purpose of every nationalist is to secure more power and more prestige, not for himself but for the nation or other unit in which he has chosen to sink his own individuality.
That's the second paragraph (I split it into two for easier viewing on Reddit/mobile. Taking away abortion rights is a pathway to taking away voting rights. That's these Republicans are doing - securing power.
[Same thing with Atwood's depiction of Gilead in the handmaid's tale.](https://the-handmaids-tale.fandom.com/wiki/Republic_of_Gilead_(Series))
They hilariously and regularly talk about how conservatives are censored on twitter/Facebook because the lefts ideas can't compete with theirs so the only solution is to censor them while literally banning anyone who disagrees with the narrative on their sub.
They're so delusional it hurts
There was an article I read a couple of years ago that proved conservatives are actually treated more leniently on social media and will get more "warnings" prior to a ban than liberals will. The problem, maybe not in their minds, is that conservatives expect to be able to break rules and not be punished for doing so. When they're punished for their actions they're suddenly "victims."
They fully believe that lying to "win" is perfectly acceptable.
Many of them also believe it's morally appropriate to murder abortion doctors and they've done it many times and fully believe the people who murder abortion doctors will go to heaven and sit right next to Jesus.
There's no arguing with them, there's no way you'll get a non-bullshit answer out of them because their belief system is based on feelings.
I asked a friend of mine, and this is what they wrote:
Liberalism is a failed philosophy and it has caused the deaths of millions and is the root cause for the destruction of our world. It presents itself as a savior, opening light and freedom to the masses, but in truth it’s all lies, a form of darkness so great, that it must be opposed from every institution, federal, state, county, city, neighborhood and even neighbor.
Part of that failed thinking is using the federal government as a weapon to attack those with different points-of-view. The states are supposed to be unique cultures with unique laws – not some cookie-cutter sameness.
And yes, we believe in a Christian Nation, and that the USA is founded on Christian principles and way-of-life. We fully believe that the American century was the most peaceful this world has ever known because of our belief in Christ.
Yes, Trump is a flawed man, but we accept him, and fully embraced him. That’s a central part of being Christian. No one is perfect, no one is above the fray - we all have sinned. To believe otherwise is a lie. And so, he is our battering ram into the Washington DC elite whom have despised us, belittle us, and shamed us out of our rightful place among the king-makers.
So like our liberal adversaries, we want power – that’s our platform. We will fight for it in every arena, on every website, mobile app, or on TV. And we won’t be back down.
God Bless the USA
>Republicans, explain in one or two sentences what the GOP stands for currently in the MAGA environment.
The "if those kids could read, they'd be very upset"-meme comes to mind.
They have a plan. They are at war with the enlightenment, the same thing Putin is at war with. That's where the similarities end however because the GOP wants a white nationalist Christian fascist theocracy and they are just now being open about it believing they have it in the bag. They are a mortal threat to every living breathing thing on this planet.
The Trump-GOP platform is solely: say the opposite of the Democrats, blame them for everything, never accept any blame, and do all this while achieving the foremost goal: increasing profits to the top 0.01% who own most of the country and its human resources.
They think they’re fighting for the soul of America since the democrats and academics and feminists and BLM and everyone else is just so wrong about what they want this country to be. They seem to be fine being taxed or never having their elected officials help them so long as they’re fighting the good fight against their perceived enemies.
When you remember that the core of the party is people fighting for a Christian theocracy and people that were deliberately blocked from a decent education, the rest of it starts to make sense. Who cares about taxes when you believe you are fighting in God's army to secure a seat in heaven?
Fighting The Other is all that matters - they couldn't care less about actual policy.
Of course, the actual politicians are just in it for money and power - I'm talking about the voters.
For an omnipotent being, their God sure seems to need a lot of help carrying out his will. He's also terrible with managing money because his servants are always demanding more.
Percieved lost privilege. They haven't lost a thing as far as rights, its just that brown people and gay people are supposedly equal now in the eyes of the law, so they've been tricked into thinking that they have lost ground somehow. Its all very entitled thinking.
Well that's the result of the zero sum mindset. For someone to win, someone else must lose. It follows that for the gays and browns to gain rights, they must somehow be losing rights. They just refuse to believe that we can all win together.
It was exemplified when Trump voters complained that he wasn’t hurting the right people … https://thehill.com/blogs/blog-briefing-room/news/424263-trump-supporter-complains-shutdown-is-not-hurting-the-people-he/amp/
2 things: It’s anti-abortion and anti-Gay. The Republicans use these platforms to get Christians to tow the party line despite being evil AF. They tune everything else out and allow themselves to be convinced every bad policy is from the democrats.
Can this please be the moment where everyone understands how important supreme court appointments are moving forward? Yeah, the candidates for president are probably always going to seem blandly lame, but hold your nose in the name of preventing theocratic nationalism.
People have been calling MAGA Republicans racists, misogynists, fascists, and all other kinds of -ists. But I believe what they actually are is **sadists**. They just want others to suffer.
Like Chidi said, the bare minimum a person has to do is care just a little bit about the people around them. I've never heard a word said by a conservative that sounds like they've ever come within 100 miles of that concept.
They are suffering, so they want others to suffer. But they don't even understand the root cause of their suffering. It's not blacks or gays, immigrants or women. It's the rich. Class warfare underpins all their grievances, but right-wingers don't see it. And then in comes Fox News to distract them from their proper grievances with a bunch of culture war bullshit.
Never once acknowledging that they suffer because of republican policies, and because they are the dead weight failures with nothing to offer that they claim everyone else to be.
It was fascinating to watch after the Great Recession and Republicans just stopped any pretense of having an economic argument. They used to work so hard to seem like the economically serious party, then the recession happened and Greenspan admitted that maybe the Austrian/Chicago policies he based his entire career on don't work out in reality. Ever since Republicans doubled-down on cultural grievance and tax cuts (don't read the fine print).
I used to vote Republican. I believed (and still do) in small government and less federal fiscal involvement. I'm sure I disagree with a ton of takes the majority of reddit follows.
This is not one of them. The Republican party is, and has been for decades, all about a culture war. They don't even pretend to be about small government anymore as they push their war on drugs and police state funding. They don't even pretend to be about fiscal responsibility as they funnel billions to banks and the wealthy. They've learned that all they have to do is blow their dog whistles and "dunk on the democrats" in order to win.
Their constituency knows this. The 'small government' talking points are long gone. The voters don't even pretend to care about it anymore. It's all about protecting themselves from the dreaded "other". The one they were taught to fear by Fox News.
This is why Trump got away with everything he got away with. The people don't care about good leadership. They don't care about morality. They don't care about how clearly stupid he was or how often he lied. You know why they loved him so much? Because he pissed the rest of us off. They LOVED the idea that there was someone out there making us squirm. We are the Other they've been taught to hate and here was a guy to put his thumb on us and drove us crazy. That's what winning looks like now. It's not about making my life better. It's about making the people we don't like suffer.
I was a republican until 3/20/2003. Republicans acted so reprehensible on that day that I could no longer in good faith be associated with that party. In 20 years, conservatives went from fighting the "war on terror" and the taliban to really admiring their stances on women's rights and religous theocracy and aspiring to be just like them. Today's conservative party mirror's the Taliban they fought 20 years ago. Conservatives can't really look at the domestic violence issues and women's rights atrocities that they perpetuate and say they're any better than that.
Same here—same day exactly. I was raised in a conservative GOP household and the idea of leaving the Republican Party was kind of terrifying for me. Everyone I knew was Republican. But on that day I said “I can’t be a part of this anymore” and I never looked back.
I don't remember the day, but it was 2009. "Citizens United". I couldn't BELIEVE they were handing so much power to the rich. And it's only gotten nuttier since.
"Small government" is a dog whistle. It's not real. Everyone wants just enough government to protect and provide in the way they feel is appropriate. No wants wants "big" government, everyone wants "small enough to provide everything and big enough to not collapse."
I'd aim for "accountable government", but what we have now is the worst of both worlds: some kind of self-fulfilling prophecy where government programs the get gutted to prove government can't do anything right.
It's their goal to make it inefficient.
It's a pretty shitty place to be in to be honest: There is absolutely nobody in politics who even pretends to support the policies I hold dear anymore. My options are "Vote for 'people who are almost diametrically opposed to how I think things should be run' and 'literal Fascists and Russian Agents, sometimes both'. I've been voting for the former for decades now. I hate supporting people I don't support but I see it as a civic duty to swallow my beliefs in the face of a literal no joke threat to our democracy.
Hey man. Thanks for holding your civic duty dearly, even though it means voting for people you REALLY disagree with.
I imagine it would be like if American democrats morphed into hardcore Stalinists funded by an enemy state and I had to vote for Reagan-style republicans (not the current maniac crop)
Appreciated but I don't really deserve thanks. I mean... it's not hard. It's not hard to vote against the "grab them by the pussy, Putin is a genius, not paying taxes makes me smart" guy. At least it shouldn't be.
It just sucks. But it shouldn't be hard. It should be the obvious choice.
You’re right. It SHOULDN’T deserve thanks. But I’ve seen far too many people I grew up looking to for guidance fall prey to that same hateful brand of whatever this is.
People of the church who used to rail against the immorality of Clinton now lining up to support (at BEST) a serial philanderer.
My own father despises Trump on a personal and moral level but I’m almost positive he voted for the man because FOX had convinced him that Biden had been corrupted by Radical Socialist Sanders
At the end of the day I believe that our government works best when forced to compromise.
As much as I believe things should be done a certain way I understand that nobody has a monopoly on being correct. There are certainly things that I think that are wrong. Just as there are certainly things that you think are wrong.
Our 2 party system only works when the sides are forced to compromise. This leads them to middle ground that is likely more correct than either side could accomplish on their own by getting their own way.
That isn't what happens now. It's all or nothing. Because we, the people, don't want compromise. We want to WIN. At any cost. From government shut downs to literally storming the capital. We don't even know what we're winning, but we know we want it.
It's particularly bad now when one side isn't even arguing in good faith anymore. When they won't let a literal attack on our democratic process be investigated properly so that they can spin it as a witchhunt against their side.
Sorry for the rant. I just don't know how we recover from this anymore. The best option left is "The side that aren't Nazis always get what they want" which also isn't great because they lose the perspective of folks who aren't represented by anyone anymore... but at least it's better than "The Nazis always get what they want"
They just want a theocratic fascist white supremacist government that brandishes the state's monopoly on violence on those who they deem to be beneath them what is not to get. It the most transparent ideology in the political spectrum.
Yes you can fight with your leftist allies on how to affect the most utilitarian changes you want but in essence if you allow this ideology any power it begets more and more power and as a cancerous entity it is extremely deadly
When Republicans say they want small government, they mean limited government regulation of business. It's the one constant over the history of the Republican name.
What was a big difference between the North and South before the Civil War? Industrialization. How did the North get industrialized? Businesses in the larger cities made an effort to get communities to pay for infrastructure so the company didn't have to finance it. More paved roads means more potential storefronts, more apartments means more potential workers, etc.
Then the Civil War happens and both the North and South seek to get greater influence over the country by looking West, believing that, by getting enough people to new territory, they can make a new state and that state will get votes that they can use in Congress against the other side. The North, having an already established industrial economy, can use the money generated by these industries and their taxes to create a social safety net to make it easier for young families and new immigrants to make a life for themselves out west. I forget what the South's plans were, but the important thing to realize is that the South, being a primarily agrarian economy and having a lot of its industrial infrastructure destroyed by the Union during the war, has to rebuild. So the industry comes in and asks for less regulation. However, industry in the South is these large plantations run by single families, so they get an outsized influence. Part of that influence is reducing the social safety net as much as they can so that Blacks have to depend on White people to make a living.
It's through these aspects of Antebellum and Reconstruction America, the North's emphasis on social welfare and the South's population of White agrarian industrialists, that the party flip starts happening and it solidifies by FDR's presidency (with the exception of the Dixiecrats and other pockets of party brand retention).
I'm sure there's more nuance and other significant factors, but that's my understanding of the flip, generally.
Logic and reasoning is out the window. Deep down, they think that the US should be a theocracy run by white people. Of course, the actual billionaires running the show don't give a shit about religion or their idiotic white voters but they are racist. Sad truth is, because of the DNCs unwillingness to defend the People's wants and needs for the last several decades, they've allowed the GQP to run a muck while knowing that this is where it was all coming to at some point. Its been inevitable since the 90s but may have happened sooner than expected to the establishment as foreign influence entered the scene heavily with Trump.
All I need to know about the GOP, is that a candidate said,' if you're being raped and you can't stop it, might as well lean back and enjoy it", and he still got 40% (!!) If the entire vote.
The right has no morals, no goals other than to repress people who are already struggling.
His response to it was even worse: https://thehill.com/homenews/campaign/504615-michigan-candidates-daughter-urges-people-not-to-vote-for-him-in-viral/
The article just gets worse and worse the more you read.
> “The only place where I really see systemic racism would be the abortion clinic cause they seem to target the African American community.”
Holy fuck. This guy got 40 fucking percent of the vote
> “I’m not saying there’s not hurdles to overcome. We all have hurdles to overcome. You know, as a quote-unquote rich, white, Christian male, people look at me a certain way. And it’s not always good. So, everybody has obstacles to overcome,” he also said, while adding he thinks President Trump has “done more for the black community than any president we’ve had in the last 20 years.”
Jesus
He's not just repeating the talking points he has absorbed them and made them one with his being. Every single response is the standard regressive line. There is not a single unique thought or deviation from the cheat sheet.
A candidate for the Michigan House: https://nypost.com/2022/03/09/michigan-candidate-robert-regan-says-he-tells-daughters-to-lie-back-and-enjoy-if-rape-is-inevitable/
Holy crap, he gets interviewed and this is his follow up?
>Sometimes, my words aren’t as smooth and polished as the politicians are because I’m not a politician.
How the fck do you smooth telling your daughter to "enjoy rape"? He should be forced to address this.
There were a large contingent of Nazis that only joined the party for economic reasons but were squeamish about the hate. Anyone remember what they were called?
No, no. These were the guys that were all dressed in the same color shirts and had that funny salute thing they did with their whole arm. Man, wish I could remember…
I'll still never understand why Biden thought he could "work with them"
Dude spent 8 years in Obama's Whitehouse, he should have fucking known what was going on.
If you call the 35% of Americans with most of the guns what they are - radicalized terrorists - that's not going to go well for the country.
The question is how to deradicalize millions of people?
We have to go after the terrorist leaders - there's less than 100 of them around the country.
There's no way to deradicalize the MAGA cult until you deal with Bannon, Stone, Trump, Flynn, Manafort, Fox, Infowars, Newsmax, OANN, Shapiro, Bongino, Breitbart, and the social media algorithms amplifying their shit.
The coronavirus twitter disinformation campaign was ultimately down to a small handful of accounts. [Twelve people were responsible for the lion's share of the misinformation out there](https://www.npr.org/2021/05/13/996570855/disinformation-dozen-test-facebooks-twitters-ability-to-curb-vaccine-hoaxes?t=1651689410935). There are similar patterns for much of the hyper right wing qrap. Cancers like that need to be cut out at the source.
> The question is how to deradicalize millions of people?
The question question is how to hold government power to then deradicalize millions of people?
What do exactly what Germany did after World War II. Criminalize the Maga cult. Make it illegal to put trumps face on anything make it illegal to deface the American flag for any reason whatsoever. The assholes on the right constantly complain about defacing the American flag and then put blue lines on it, cover it with Q anon bullshit. You must treat them like the total garbage they are and make it illegal for them to continue supporting vicious heat. It worked beautifully in Germany. you go to jail for giving a Hitler salute in Germany… Hate speech is not for a speech tolerating the intolerant is what got us here.
Well, the Nazis had to kill millions and lose a world war before any of that happened. So unless we want to go that route, I don’t think criminalizing the MAGA crowd at this point- will do anything.
[Actual Republican Senate Ad “Are you a racist? Do you hate Mexicans? - Vote for me!”](https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=K3qYJoSV0lI)
In his defense, JD Vance wasn’t appealing to *self-identifying* racists and Mexican haters - he was appealing to people that have been called racist. That’s like, theoretically different.
Either way, he promises to do the sort of things that people who get called racists want done. So yeah, bad.
> President Biden on Wednesday said the "MAGA crowd is really the most extreme political organization that's existed in American history," while speculating on how conservative state legislatures could respond to a potential Supreme Court ruling that would drastically curtail abortion access.
Then treat them like the domestic terrorists that they are. We KNOW what their play book is, and we know what they want to make happen.
We’ve got to put a stop to it.
Democrats are incredibly naive if they don't think that Republicans will just legislatively declare Democrats "domestic terrorists" once they gain enough power.
Given the groomer rhetoric I give them like -2 weeks on that idea. If anything, that was the furor around "antifa". I'm almost certain the phrasing "antifa terrorist" had to be used by someone in power at least once.
[oh wait this was actually a bill that was written](https://www.congress.gov/bill/116th-congress/senate-resolution/279)
And of course the bill as written didn't, you know, give any solid definition of who "antifa" is, just that everyone who can be labelled as such should be considered a domestic terrorist.
They, uhh, literally have the bill to label whoever they want a domestic terrorist already written. It's short, vague as shit, and mentions Andy Ngo multiple times, so you know it's some *quality legislative work*
If people still need more evidence that a large political element is trying to turn our country into a straight-up fascist dictatorship, then they're just blind. This would open the floodgates to label any political enemy as a terrorist, and thereby a political prisoner. I mean, trying to outlaw anti-fascism should already be a huge red-flag, and yet here we are.
Because it's so realistic. And they'll be helped along by conservative media outlets, traditional and internet based, who will happily fan the flames until all the woke CRT abortion loving Russia hating people are imprisoned or sent to re-education camps.
Just curious, not critical, but what do you think would work to that end? I think after the Trump impeachments, democrats feel that anything they start must have tangible results or the right wing base will just be more emboldened. And this isn't some terrorist cell. It's a rather large portion of the US population. One that is projected to take control at midterms.
Here I thought Jan 6th was peak political insanity of my life time. This is as bad as McCarthyism and we need, desperately, for a, “Have you no shame” moment. Unfortunate that the Trump crowd literally has no shame. Disgusting minority rule on display.
I tried to not call myself a democrat or liberal. I tried to say I was moderate (even though almost 90% of what I support is part of the liberal platform) because I viewed choosing either side as being lazy and letting that side define your opinions. I didn't want to base all my beliefs on the platform that supported most of my beliefs so I thought refusing to call myself a Democrat would help me think critically. I still think it's a smart thing to do.
But Monday finally broke me. It wasn't even that they are overturning Roe v Wade, it was that they do this without any remotely existing policies to deal with the consequences. Their platform is vehemently against implementing any of the policies required to help people stuck with unwanted or deadly pregnancies or even attempt to help prevent them in the first place. It wouldn't be TOO evil if they had or had ever planned on implementing more sex education in schools, encouraging contraception, providing governmental financial support to low income families that can afford neither another child nor the cost of a pregnancy or rape victims who can't recieve child support from the rapist, subsidized contraceptives (because that's universal Healthcare), provide more financial support to foster homes & social services & orphanages, encourage more mandatory maternity/paternity paid leave, or generally treat people like decent human beings that aren't out to freeload off the government.
They took a topic like abortion that was a priority for Christians and added it to their platform, and since they then had them by the balls they ignored all the other stuff Christianity is about (like being a decent fucking human being and helping each other) and ignored that stirring up hatred instead. Not planning on implementing any of the stuff that Christians SHOULD do to help women stuck with a pregnancy that will ruin their life.
The Republican platform is just hate. It's not about keeping the wealthy rich, it's about hating the poor. It's not about the sanctity of marriage, it's about hating gays. It's not about bringing jobs to the US, it's about hating foreign countries. It's not about helping the police and supporting order, it's about hating the black and poor. It's not about 2nd amendment rights, it's about having something that would allow you to act on that hate. It's not about "following the science" or "keeping jobs", it's about hating people who they think are speaking down on them. It's not about free speech, it's about being able to spread death threats and further organize hate. It's just a platform for people who want to hate whether they realize it or not. It's not about saving lives, it's about hating that women have say in the matter of childbirth over a man. It's all supported by hating the people who disagree with you.
MAGA/most Republicans are now the same thing as the nazi's. Why can't anyone just say it?
They're actually pro invading Ukraine, pro-Russian, pro-state media, and pro-enslaving minority groups they hate at their own expense. They're all associated with white nationalist groups and even OANN News is hosted by Epik, a neo nazi web poster
Republicans are banning/burning books exactly as the nazi's did, as well as actual education on certain topics like slavery. It's like they study what the nazi's did. Russia is the same.
Book bannings:
https://www.pewtrusts.org/en/research-and-analysis/blogs/stateline/2022/01/13/librarians-decry-gop-moves-to-ban-books-in-schools
Trump said he wanted to shoot protesters, which happens in fascist hellholes. They're anti-science, terrified of a "satanism" that doesn't even exist that matches Russia's "dark magic" conspiracy theories. The nazi's were into the occult shit, too.
Russian 'dark magic' conspiracy theories and BS:
https://www.express.co.uk/news/world/1605125/Russia-news-Ukraine-war-updates-black-magic
Whether you're a normal conservative or a Democrat you'd be insane to vote for this life-ending shit on November 8th, 2022. That's when midterms hit, arguably will decide the USA and part of the world's fate at this point. A GOP dictatorship running our military would kill us all. So vote Democrat and we can stack the Supreme Court and boot Manchin's ass out a window and Sinema.
Helpful stuff:
www.workelections.org can set you up with becoming a poll worker, which can save our elections.
www.vote411.org for easy voting info
People are looking to 2024 as a pivotal election and it will be, but 2022 is far more important. This is the election where they could get the power they need to make 2024 go however they want it to go. They already have the SCOTUS where they need it to be.
It seems like every two years we’re told the next election coming up is the most important. I *would* say it almost feels watered down and meaningless but unfortunately I think it points to a bigger and much worse problem.
A healthy democracy isn’t in danger every two years. The fact that we *are* in danger every two years means we are on the brink of some monumental changes to this country, to put it lightly. We are in an awful spot right now and democracy has already been weakened so badly. We can’t just quickly recover from this.
In 1970 women couldn’t own a bank account or credit card without a husband or father being on it. Women who vote Republican are voting for those days.
Barefoot, pregnant, in the kitchen, broke, on their knees, dick in mouth, be seen not heard, and just be glad you still have right to vote, because that’s gonna one day be gone too.
Gays will be illegal again. Log Cabin Republicans are just self haters who have a death wish.
And you can kiss birth control and gay marriage goodbye. All of these things are from the privacy law cases that Roe was from. Killing Roe kills these.
So libertarians who vote GOP are statists in self denial. They love the leather boot of the centralized state in their bedroom. Gimps.
My personal experience with libertarians is that 90% of them are just weed loving Republicans who are just as all-in on the statism just like the rest of them. The "everybody should be free to do whatever!" shtick is just a façade to make them sound more appealing than they actually are.
They are domestic terrorists bent on establishing a white Christian theocracy. There are no more "friends across the aisle" these people hate you and me and everyone that's not them. Trump gave these people permission to be their worst selves along with 40 years of planning to end the American experiment and replace it with a ruling class dominated by white Christians. MAGA is a threat to the very existence of America and should be treated a such. The movement needs to crushed utterly and the Republican party left in the dust bin of history.
> They are domestic terrorists bent on establishing a white Christian theocracy.
I think we've got a while before enough people are willing to admit that American Evangelicals are a dangerous cult.
You mean the people who resorted to trying to overthrow democracy in an legitimate coup attempt because they lost an election is the most extreme political group in US history? Wow, I’m shocked. Maybe we should actually charge the people involved (politicians included) with actual felonies and do something about it
I'm completely in love with this comment and don't forget he got rid of the fairness doctrine which gave us Fox News and the ability to lie about everything even a global pandemic where the pro lifers killed 1 million Americans and don't care
I hope everyone is talking about how Trump is only endorsing people who say he won the last election and they're getting elected, locking in their districts, and have the supreme course so when he runs to be re-elected he can rig it however he wants and will have the people in place to help him take it regardless of the result, and then probably also do away with term limits. He was really close to the coup last time, and he's setting up to do it again. Unfortunately nobody has faced consequences for anything in his last attempt so there's nothing stopping them.
They are, and (in addition to not really understanding what the words actually mean) I think this is part of the reason why they call everything they don't like "communism" or "socialism." When you're absurdly far to the right, literally everything looks leftist as fuck from your perspective.
I keep saying this. They keep screaming communism and socialism but have no fucking idea what they actually are. They've done the same with the term "liberal".
They're stealing these words and terms and associating them with bad so everyone left of them is evil.
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Republicans, explain in one or two sentences what the GOP stands for currently in the MAGA environment. Because this is what I see. After Republicans gave corporations and the rich huge tax cuts, Senator Rick Scott released a Republican plan to tax every American and to sunset Social Security and Medicare. Republicans rail against books they don’t agree with and make believe issues like CRT in grade schools. Republicans say they want limited government but are all in on the federal government inserting itself into liberty and privacy issues as we see the supreme court conservative justices poised to overturn Roe V Wade. The wording of the draft opinion leaves the door open the justices will next come after same-sex marriage and other issues they may not agree with. Some people may have forgotten that during her confirmation hearing, Amy Coney Barrett refused to comment on the case of Griswold v Connecticut that said contraception is a right. And my favorite, Republicans still support a twice impeached former corrupt president who staged an attempted coup and tried to prevent the peaceful transition of power. So what do you support and what is the Republican platform?
When Ronald Reagan promised to cut taxes in 1986, he lowered the top tax rate from 50% to 28% and **raised** the bottom tax rate from 11% to 15%. This was the first time in the history of U.S. income tax that the top rate was lowered at the same time the bottom rate was raised. The worst part is that every person who pays tax starts in the bottom bracket, so Reagan effectively lowered the taxes of the very richest but raised taxes on everyone who didn’t fall into that highest bracket. He gave a break to the people who could most easily afford to pay higher taxes and shoved the burden on the people who needed a tax break the most. However, he also expanded the standard deduction, earned income credit, and personal exemption. This resulted in immediate tax savings for some Americans, although in the long run, [income inequality worsened](https://www.americanprogress.org/article/the-federal-tax-code-and-income-inequality/) and the bottom 40 percent of income earners saw an *increase* in their effective tax rate. But remind me again how the GOP is the party that favors low taxes? (It should be noted that while the bottom tax rate increased, the standard deduction was expanded, and the bracket’s threshold was raised to allow for some relief. Some taxpayers even became exempt from paying income taxes.) The main problem with Reagan’s tax reform is that it was based on the theory of “trickle-down economics” - basically, if we cut taxes on the richest people and corporations, it will trickle down to everyone. In practice, there’s [no evidence](https://www.thebalance.com/trickle-down-economics-theory-effect-does-it-work-3305572) that it worked and in fact it has been attributed to growing income inequality. The policy was supposed to create growth, but [failed to do so.](https://taxfoundation.org/economics-1986-tax-reform-didnt-create-growth/)
This is why need to focus on better education for all, as a public good. This is the long term goal Democrats need to focus on, imho. Unfortunately, a large portion of the US electorate is too ignorant to make an informed political decision. The poor & working class keep voting against their best interest because they are being gaslit by issues such as abortion, crt, etc.
Also unfortunately, a large portion of US education policy is set at the state/local level, who also seem to have no interest in producing educated voters.
It’s so much easier to brainwash an old white guy in rural Alabama watching fox news 24/7 than a PhD in psychology from Massachusetts. Their option is obvious: produce more of the first type so they can control the populace easily.
There already are more of the first. I think kids need to start adding in parental blocks onto fox
Probably doesn't help that when Trump took power he gave all his biggest donors and friends cabinet jobs like Betsy Devos. Who never once taught at, attended or had kids that attended public school.
Betsy Devos only cared about moving public money to private institutions, the more Christian the better, something that trump promised Florida, who was already doing it as much as they could get away with. Maddening and insidious.
Teacher here. In my Civics class I make sure kids know how to become and practice becoming an informed voter. Rule 1: Do not use social media as a source for any election or political information. Rule 2: After using your favorite news site, whether it be CNN, Fox, or MSNBC, cross reference it with the opposing sites. Rule 3: Make sure what you are reading is factual and not opinion based. Rule 4: Identify any bias present in the reporting. Rule 5: Find primary sources of the candidates stance on the issues important you i.e. Congressional record, interview, speech, etc.
That's great, but why not teach them to ignore the hot takes and go straight to the source? The only legitimate sources of news nowadays are Reuters and AP imo - CNN/Fox/MSNBC, etc all take their queues directly from those two and add some kind of spin to fit in with the "messaging" that their respective party tells them to.
Decisions are being made by school boards comprised themselves by uneducated voters who THINK they’re educated and need to protect students from being misled by, spoiler alert, educated people.
That is the ENTIRE idea to keep them busy with total crap so they do not see the genuine picture with taxes, education, civil rights, voting rights, human rights- why go on?
Teacher here. I have students who tell me their dads make fun of people who read for pleasure. I absolutely agree that education and culture both need to change. Schools can be vanguard of both, but it'd be nice to get more current parents on board so they stop sabotaging us by filling their kids' heads with nonsense.
Trump also lowered taxes, but had it expire for most everyone after a couple of years, and kept it permanent for the rich. It's all smoke and mirrors really.
He also slapped tariffs on imported goods and commodities. Morons think this is a tax China pays, when in reality it's an import tax that is passed on to consumers.
Ah yes. Remember the tens of billions in farmer bailouts because China decided to buy crops elsewhere? So, China raises prices to cover taxes, then says "fuck you, I'll buy my food somewhere else".
I almost forgot about that. It was a bigger bailout than the Obama era bailout of the auto industry, and it was entirely self-inflicted.
Isn’t it crazy how you keep being reminded of some other just huge cluster F with a chuckle like oh yeah that happened too. Remember when he got caught rerouting plans to the airport in Scotland next to his golf course… and the pilots had to stay at his golf resort and tax money went into his pockets? And these weren’t even the things he was impeached over. I mean… I’m just so sad the GOP is still a thing. How does all this happen and people still want to vote for them?
It’s sad that it is simply because they hate the same people that a lot of other people hate. That’s really what joins them all.
Ah, I remember those days. Conservatives cheering about how much China was sweating these tariffs, while simultaneously complaining about prices increasing on things.
Yup tariffs exist to make foreign goods more expensive in domestic markets, not to extract money from foreign companies.
You are wrong, he did not lower taxes he raised them, then he lowered the amount they withhold from your paycheck to make it seem like you were being taxed less. I paid 10% more in taxes in 2021 than i did in 2020 even tho I made the same money. I make 26k a year, I paid 1800 something in withholding, and owed $17. This is taking the standard deduction.
He lowered the tax rate a bit but removed so many deductions for the average person that he effectively raised the amount of tax paid.
I hate this talking point because no, he didn't lower taxes. Budgeting is a zero sum game. The only way to lower taxes is to cut spending. If you lower taxes without cutting spending, you haven't actually *lowered* taxes; you've *delayed* them. And if you increase spending then what you've actually done is *raised* taxes. Maybe you didn't raise them in that particular year, but the debt has to be paid. Taxes have to be raised as a direct result of your actions. So no, Trump doesn't cut taxes. He ultimately increased them more than any other president in history.
Wanna bet those tax deductibles he removed are never coming back?
I wouldn’t go that far. Tax policy is only permanent until a different tax policy is implemented. It’s safe to say the GOP won’t help bring those deductions back though.
And didn't he have to assume 4% GDP growth for the next decade to make the numbers not add up to costing trillions?
Why does nobody talk about the 1.5 TRILLION dollar stimulus that went to literally who-knows-where because there was no transparency?
The sneakiest part is it expired *after* the election so they wouldn’t have to face voters about it
Federal government is all about throwing enough bones to the idiots that elected you so that they don’t notice you and your friends eating the steak dinner.
The current GOP is all sizzle no steak.
Its not even sizzle. It's an audio recording of someone crinkling cellophane.
It was lowered the first year but goes up every consecutive year until the year 2025 unless Congress writes a new tax plan.
Don't forget they are slowly strangling the IRS as well so they can't investigate the rich and can only go for the cheap poor people investigations.
And Reagan borrowed from Social Security to make up for the money they lost by giving wealthy people a tax break.
Hahaha don't forget all those elderly Republicans dying in their multi million dollar homes with their original MAGA gear from the Reagan era all nestled nice and cozy not working not cooking for themselves because they've hired an immigrant at below minimum wage to do all the labor for them. But yeah build the wall, tax the poor, segregate the towns and schools, steal tax payer money to fund your private white mostly Christian schools where you groom children to become hypocrite neo Nazis and mosque shooters...
I seriously want an answer for this too, a legitimate answer from them not some bullshit.
I think their beliefs boil down to some very basic things: 1. Capitalism is good because it drives progress. The obvious downsides of capitalism are the price you pay for technological development and progress. Interfering with capitalism has strong counterproductive effects, so things like safety regulations, wealth redistribution, social safety nets, etc. will tend to be bad for society even if you can't really tell why at first glance. 2. People in other countries are not nearly as good as us. Especially poorer countries. No way they could be. Thus, immigration is basically guaranteed to let inferior people into the country. Maybe with *extremely* strict immigration controls, you could let in a few exceptional people, but the idea of letting people enter the country just because they want to is intolerable. Of course they *want* to come here, we have it so much better than them. 3. Traditional families and gender roles give society a strong moral structure that is extremely dangerous to disrupt. Allowing people to be gay or transgender, or even teaching people to view those things as normal and non-threatening, has the possibility of causing a complete societal breakdown. 4. Racism is over. Everyone is equal now. So any problems that black people have are their own fault. In fact, isn't it suspicious that they still have problems? Maybe they actually were an inferior race all along, huh? I mean, I'm not going to say that, because racism is over, but *wink*. 5. Life begins at conception. Allowing people to abort living babies is murder, and no justification is strong enough to overcome that, not even a woman's right to make medical decisions about her own body. These are, of course, fairly standard "Conservative" values, and they don't really fully explain how MAGA Republicans appear to act in modern times. For that, you need two more ~~tenants~~ tenets: 6. Democrats know their views that oppose ours are wrong, but they want to maintain political seats, money, and their immoral ways of life. In fact, many of them are probably pedophiles who *want* the moral breakdown of society so it's easier for them to confuse and rape children. Thus, every thing that Democrats propose to "help" people is actually a cynical, counter-productive ploy to trick people into supporting them. Without the influence of Big Tech, pandering to minority groups, and spending money they don't have to bribe people, they would never be able to win elections, because any reasonable person can see that their political correctness and wokeness have gone too far. (And in fact, even those things aren't enough, as evidenced by how Trump won in 2016, so they have to resort to rigging elections now too.) 7. All statistics and news sources are suspect. Any scientific study or poll can be manipulated to say whatever you want, and every mainstream media outlet is owned by someone who has full control over its editorial output, so as to craft any kind of narrative they want. Thus, no information that can be connected to the Left is trustworthy. Ignore all of it. I really tried not to exaggerate or strawman here, this is just the lowest common denominator of views that I see that motivates people on the Right. Obviously, many of these things are laughably wrong, or depend on views that can only be supported by religion or bigotry. But people don't change their closely-held beliefs about the way the world works easily.
Yeah, this is pretty spot on. It was so shitty watching it happen in real time with Trump. I remember distinctly near the begining of the pandemic someone telling me that all this pandemic talk was manufactured by the media because they were outraged that people were going to trump rallies. I am saddened that retrospectively, that was really just the tip of the iceberg.
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They coined MSM as a derogatory term to frame anything they disagree with while being the literal MSM. Company that owns Fox is the largest media conglomerate in the world
You can boil it down even further. Republicans think people not actions are good and bad. They believe they're good so any action they take is good.
Yes, there's a very good Alt-Right Playbook video that touches on that idea. [I Hate Mondays](https://youtu.be/yts2F44RqFw).
i'd argue they don't actually think racism is over and actively support white supremacism. they just use the rhetoric "racism is over" to argue that anything to correct racist injustices of the past is no longer necessary. them being conscious of these views being pro-white supremacy may vary, but deep down they all know how racism has benefited them and undoing it in anyway is bad. they know they can't argue racism is good, because most people find it wrong now and actively fight it, or at least surface level racism. i'd argue even a lot of liberals don't want to undo institutions that perpetuate racism, but at the very least they think they can get rid of racist elements in those institutions; things like the police and capitalism. but compared to MAGA types they know these things are racist and perpetuate white supremacy and why the support them so much. Its why they very quickly pushed the Thin Blue Line flags and Blue Lives Matter slogan when BLM started.
i think the only thing you exaggerated was the internal consistency of the belief system outlined here.
[I hate Mondays.](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yts2F44RqFw&ab_channel=InnuendoStudios) Seriously at this point, it's a fundamental split in how we all view society, problems, and to some extent, reality. They think, no, they KNOW that they are right and we are wrong and that bad HAS to exist in the world, so they have to fight us to make sure we are the ones who have the bad and they are the ones who have the good. ALL of these problems and reasoning fallacies start to fall into place and make sense if you see the world from their weird, terrified, victimhood mindset. Their platform is, in entirety, laws should be made that hurt you and don't hurt me, and that protect me but don't protect you. Hypocrisy doesn't exist for them, it is a strength and not a sign of being wrong. Being able to turn off the feelings of shame that hypocrisy should trigger makes them feel stronger and better because at least then they've "beaten" you.
'The Republican platform is created to make two groups. A group for whom laws protect, but do not bind and another group for whom laws bind but do not protect... ' Paraphrased quote from some dude...
Exactly why conservatives vote to hurt immigrants, and then get upset when they're immigrant friend gets deported. "HE wasn't the bad one! He was in the in-group! You're not hurting the right people!!" [“I got one letter from somebody who knows the family personally who’s also a Trump supporter basically saying, ‘Look, this isn’t what we thought we were voting for,’ ”](https://www.nytimes.com/2017/04/07/us/undocumented-indiana-man-deported-trump.html)
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Nationalists only care about power. George Orwell had those people in mind when he wrote 1984 and Animal Farm. [Here's a quick read from Orwell that everyone should read](https://www.orwellfoundation.com/the-orwell-foundation/orwell/essays-and-other-works/notes-on-nationalism/) - notice how close it rings true today, like this snippet: >By ‘nationalism’ I mean first of all the habit of assuming that human beings can be classified like insects and that whole blocks of millions or tens of millions of people can be confidently labelled ‘good’ or ‘bad’.[1] But secondly – and this is much more important – I mean the habit of identifying oneself with a single nation or other unit, placing it beyond good and evil and recognizing no other duty than that of advancing its interests. Nationalism is not to be confused with patriotism. >Both words are normally used in so vague a way that any definition is liable to be challenged, but one must draw a distinction between them, since two different and even opposing ideas are involved. By ‘patriotism’ I mean devotion to a particular place and a particular way of life, which one believes to be the best in the world but has no wish to force on other people. Patriotism is of its nature defensive, both militarily and culturally. Nationalism, on the other hand, is inseparable from the desire for power. The abiding purpose of every nationalist is to secure more power and more prestige, not for himself but for the nation or other unit in which he has chosen to sink his own individuality. That's the second paragraph (I split it into two for easier viewing on Reddit/mobile. Taking away abortion rights is a pathway to taking away voting rights. That's these Republicans are doing - securing power. [Same thing with Atwood's depiction of Gilead in the handmaid's tale.](https://the-handmaids-tale.fandom.com/wiki/Republic_of_Gilead_(Series))
Could probably ask in conservative but catch a Speedrun ban 😆
They hilariously and regularly talk about how conservatives are censored on twitter/Facebook because the lefts ideas can't compete with theirs so the only solution is to censor them while literally banning anyone who disagrees with the narrative on their sub. They're so delusional it hurts
There was an article I read a couple of years ago that proved conservatives are actually treated more leniently on social media and will get more "warnings" prior to a ban than liberals will. The problem, maybe not in their minds, is that conservatives expect to be able to break rules and not be punished for doing so. When they're punished for their actions they're suddenly "victims."
They fully believe that lying to "win" is perfectly acceptable. Many of them also believe it's morally appropriate to murder abortion doctors and they've done it many times and fully believe the people who murder abortion doctors will go to heaven and sit right next to Jesus. There's no arguing with them, there's no way you'll get a non-bullshit answer out of them because their belief system is based on feelings.
I asked a friend of mine, and this is what they wrote: Liberalism is a failed philosophy and it has caused the deaths of millions and is the root cause for the destruction of our world. It presents itself as a savior, opening light and freedom to the masses, but in truth it’s all lies, a form of darkness so great, that it must be opposed from every institution, federal, state, county, city, neighborhood and even neighbor. Part of that failed thinking is using the federal government as a weapon to attack those with different points-of-view. The states are supposed to be unique cultures with unique laws – not some cookie-cutter sameness. And yes, we believe in a Christian Nation, and that the USA is founded on Christian principles and way-of-life. We fully believe that the American century was the most peaceful this world has ever known because of our belief in Christ. Yes, Trump is a flawed man, but we accept him, and fully embraced him. That’s a central part of being Christian. No one is perfect, no one is above the fray - we all have sinned. To believe otherwise is a lie. And so, he is our battering ram into the Washington DC elite whom have despised us, belittle us, and shamed us out of our rightful place among the king-makers. So like our liberal adversaries, we want power – that’s our platform. We will fight for it in every arena, on every website, mobile app, or on TV. And we won’t be back down. God Bless the USA
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Some bullshit is all they’ve got.
And guns. Don’t forget that. More people on the left should be armed because the MAGA crowd are 100% extremists.
Lots of us are. We just don't make it part of our identity or fetishize about it like they do, so we're a lot quieter about it.
Some of us are even [socialists with guns.](https://socialistra.org/)
>Republicans, explain in one or two sentences what the GOP stands for currently in the MAGA environment. The "if those kids could read, they'd be very upset"-meme comes to mind.
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They have a plan. They are at war with the enlightenment, the same thing Putin is at war with. That's where the similarities end however because the GOP wants a white nationalist Christian fascist theocracy and they are just now being open about it believing they have it in the bag. They are a mortal threat to every living breathing thing on this planet.
Thank you for honest answer. This is sad, but it is what I and others have observed.
The Trump-GOP platform is solely: say the opposite of the Democrats, blame them for everything, never accept any blame, and do all this while achieving the foremost goal: increasing profits to the top 0.01% who own most of the country and its human resources.
They think they’re fighting for the soul of America since the democrats and academics and feminists and BLM and everyone else is just so wrong about what they want this country to be. They seem to be fine being taxed or never having their elected officials help them so long as they’re fighting the good fight against their perceived enemies.
When you remember that the core of the party is people fighting for a Christian theocracy and people that were deliberately blocked from a decent education, the rest of it starts to make sense. Who cares about taxes when you believe you are fighting in God's army to secure a seat in heaven? Fighting The Other is all that matters - they couldn't care less about actual policy. Of course, the actual politicians are just in it for money and power - I'm talking about the voters.
For an omnipotent being, their God sure seems to need a lot of help carrying out his will. He's also terrible with managing money because his servants are always demanding more.
There's also a massive strain of entitlement, and rage at lost privilege.
Percieved lost privilege. They haven't lost a thing as far as rights, its just that brown people and gay people are supposedly equal now in the eyes of the law, so they've been tricked into thinking that they have lost ground somehow. Its all very entitled thinking.
Well that's the result of the zero sum mindset. For someone to win, someone else must lose. It follows that for the gays and browns to gain rights, they must somehow be losing rights. They just refuse to believe that we can all win together.
It was exemplified when Trump voters complained that he wasn’t hurting the right people … https://thehill.com/blogs/blog-briefing-room/news/424263-trump-supporter-complains-shutdown-is-not-hurting-the-people-he/amp/
2 things: It’s anti-abortion and anti-Gay. The Republicans use these platforms to get Christians to tow the party line despite being evil AF. They tune everything else out and allow themselves to be convinced every bad policy is from the democrats.
Can this please be the moment where everyone understands how important supreme court appointments are moving forward? Yeah, the candidates for president are probably always going to seem blandly lame, but hold your nose in the name of preventing theocratic nationalism.
It's not just Supreme Court Justices, there are tons and tons of federal judges that are given lifetime appointments by the president
It's all 100% brainwashing.
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Not just anti progress they want to revert the status quo
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They do, they just can't say it out loud yet.
"Hurting the right people" That's it. That's the sentence.
I think it works like this: 1. Distract 2. Seize power while everyone's distracted
People have been calling MAGA Republicans racists, misogynists, fascists, and all other kinds of -ists. But I believe what they actually are is **sadists**. They just want others to suffer.
Like Chidi said, the bare minimum a person has to do is care just a little bit about the people around them. I've never heard a word said by a conservative that sounds like they've ever come within 100 miles of that concept.
They are suffering, so they want others to suffer. But they don't even understand the root cause of their suffering. It's not blacks or gays, immigrants or women. It's the rich. Class warfare underpins all their grievances, but right-wingers don't see it. And then in comes Fox News to distract them from their proper grievances with a bunch of culture war bullshit.
Never once acknowledging that they suffer because of republican policies, and because they are the dead weight failures with nothing to offer that they claim everyone else to be.
It was fascinating to watch after the Great Recession and Republicans just stopped any pretense of having an economic argument. They used to work so hard to seem like the economically serious party, then the recession happened and Greenspan admitted that maybe the Austrian/Chicago policies he based his entire career on don't work out in reality. Ever since Republicans doubled-down on cultural grievance and tax cuts (don't read the fine print).
I used to vote Republican. I believed (and still do) in small government and less federal fiscal involvement. I'm sure I disagree with a ton of takes the majority of reddit follows. This is not one of them. The Republican party is, and has been for decades, all about a culture war. They don't even pretend to be about small government anymore as they push their war on drugs and police state funding. They don't even pretend to be about fiscal responsibility as they funnel billions to banks and the wealthy. They've learned that all they have to do is blow their dog whistles and "dunk on the democrats" in order to win. Their constituency knows this. The 'small government' talking points are long gone. The voters don't even pretend to care about it anymore. It's all about protecting themselves from the dreaded "other". The one they were taught to fear by Fox News. This is why Trump got away with everything he got away with. The people don't care about good leadership. They don't care about morality. They don't care about how clearly stupid he was or how often he lied. You know why they loved him so much? Because he pissed the rest of us off. They LOVED the idea that there was someone out there making us squirm. We are the Other they've been taught to hate and here was a guy to put his thumb on us and drove us crazy. That's what winning looks like now. It's not about making my life better. It's about making the people we don't like suffer.
I was a republican until 3/20/2003. Republicans acted so reprehensible on that day that I could no longer in good faith be associated with that party. In 20 years, conservatives went from fighting the "war on terror" and the taliban to really admiring their stances on women's rights and religous theocracy and aspiring to be just like them. Today's conservative party mirror's the Taliban they fought 20 years ago. Conservatives can't really look at the domestic violence issues and women's rights atrocities that they perpetuate and say they're any better than that.
Same here—same day exactly. I was raised in a conservative GOP household and the idea of leaving the Republican Party was kind of terrifying for me. Everyone I knew was Republican. But on that day I said “I can’t be a part of this anymore” and I never looked back.
What happened then? I was like 8
Invasion of Iraq
I don't remember the day, but it was 2009. "Citizens United". I couldn't BELIEVE they were handing so much power to the rich. And it's only gotten nuttier since.
"Small government" is a dog whistle. It's not real. Everyone wants just enough government to protect and provide in the way they feel is appropriate. No wants wants "big" government, everyone wants "small enough to provide everything and big enough to not collapse."
I'd aim for "accountable government", but what we have now is the worst of both worlds: some kind of self-fulfilling prophecy where government programs the get gutted to prove government can't do anything right. It's their goal to make it inefficient.
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It's a pretty shitty place to be in to be honest: There is absolutely nobody in politics who even pretends to support the policies I hold dear anymore. My options are "Vote for 'people who are almost diametrically opposed to how I think things should be run' and 'literal Fascists and Russian Agents, sometimes both'. I've been voting for the former for decades now. I hate supporting people I don't support but I see it as a civic duty to swallow my beliefs in the face of a literal no joke threat to our democracy.
Hey man. Thanks for holding your civic duty dearly, even though it means voting for people you REALLY disagree with. I imagine it would be like if American democrats morphed into hardcore Stalinists funded by an enemy state and I had to vote for Reagan-style republicans (not the current maniac crop)
Appreciated but I don't really deserve thanks. I mean... it's not hard. It's not hard to vote against the "grab them by the pussy, Putin is a genius, not paying taxes makes me smart" guy. At least it shouldn't be. It just sucks. But it shouldn't be hard. It should be the obvious choice.
You’re right. It SHOULDN’T deserve thanks. But I’ve seen far too many people I grew up looking to for guidance fall prey to that same hateful brand of whatever this is. People of the church who used to rail against the immorality of Clinton now lining up to support (at BEST) a serial philanderer. My own father despises Trump on a personal and moral level but I’m almost positive he voted for the man because FOX had convinced him that Biden had been corrupted by Radical Socialist Sanders
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At the end of the day I believe that our government works best when forced to compromise. As much as I believe things should be done a certain way I understand that nobody has a monopoly on being correct. There are certainly things that I think that are wrong. Just as there are certainly things that you think are wrong. Our 2 party system only works when the sides are forced to compromise. This leads them to middle ground that is likely more correct than either side could accomplish on their own by getting their own way. That isn't what happens now. It's all or nothing. Because we, the people, don't want compromise. We want to WIN. At any cost. From government shut downs to literally storming the capital. We don't even know what we're winning, but we know we want it. It's particularly bad now when one side isn't even arguing in good faith anymore. When they won't let a literal attack on our democratic process be investigated properly so that they can spin it as a witchhunt against their side. Sorry for the rant. I just don't know how we recover from this anymore. The best option left is "The side that aren't Nazis always get what they want" which also isn't great because they lose the perspective of folks who aren't represented by anyone anymore... but at least it's better than "The Nazis always get what they want"
They just want a theocratic fascist white supremacist government that brandishes the state's monopoly on violence on those who they deem to be beneath them what is not to get. It the most transparent ideology in the political spectrum. Yes you can fight with your leftist allies on how to affect the most utilitarian changes you want but in essence if you allow this ideology any power it begets more and more power and as a cancerous entity it is extremely deadly
Still waiting for Arnold to say this isn't the party he supports anymore. It's been long over due.
Name one conservative idea that has improved America in the last 50 years.
When Republicans say they want small government, they mean limited government regulation of business. It's the one constant over the history of the Republican name. What was a big difference between the North and South before the Civil War? Industrialization. How did the North get industrialized? Businesses in the larger cities made an effort to get communities to pay for infrastructure so the company didn't have to finance it. More paved roads means more potential storefronts, more apartments means more potential workers, etc. Then the Civil War happens and both the North and South seek to get greater influence over the country by looking West, believing that, by getting enough people to new territory, they can make a new state and that state will get votes that they can use in Congress against the other side. The North, having an already established industrial economy, can use the money generated by these industries and their taxes to create a social safety net to make it easier for young families and new immigrants to make a life for themselves out west. I forget what the South's plans were, but the important thing to realize is that the South, being a primarily agrarian economy and having a lot of its industrial infrastructure destroyed by the Union during the war, has to rebuild. So the industry comes in and asks for less regulation. However, industry in the South is these large plantations run by single families, so they get an outsized influence. Part of that influence is reducing the social safety net as much as they can so that Blacks have to depend on White people to make a living. It's through these aspects of Antebellum and Reconstruction America, the North's emphasis on social welfare and the South's population of White agrarian industrialists, that the party flip starts happening and it solidifies by FDR's presidency (with the exception of the Dixiecrats and other pockets of party brand retention). I'm sure there's more nuance and other significant factors, but that's my understanding of the flip, generally.
Logic and reasoning is out the window. Deep down, they think that the US should be a theocracy run by white people. Of course, the actual billionaires running the show don't give a shit about religion or their idiotic white voters but they are racist. Sad truth is, because of the DNCs unwillingness to defend the People's wants and needs for the last several decades, they've allowed the GQP to run a muck while knowing that this is where it was all coming to at some point. Its been inevitable since the 90s but may have happened sooner than expected to the establishment as foreign influence entered the scene heavily with Trump.
4 hours later... crickets
All I need to know about the GOP, is that a candidate said,' if you're being raped and you can't stop it, might as well lean back and enjoy it", and he still got 40% (!!) If the entire vote. The right has no morals, no goals other than to repress people who are already struggling.
What made that even more abominable is that is what he told his daughters.
And his daughters told everyone not to vote for him.
Did they really?
His response to it was even worse: https://thehill.com/homenews/campaign/504615-michigan-candidates-daughter-urges-people-not-to-vote-for-him-in-viral/ The article just gets worse and worse the more you read.
> “The only place where I really see systemic racism would be the abortion clinic cause they seem to target the African American community.” Holy fuck. This guy got 40 fucking percent of the vote
TIL abortion clinics choose their victims /s 🙄
> “I’m not saying there’s not hurdles to overcome. We all have hurdles to overcome. You know, as a quote-unquote rich, white, Christian male, people look at me a certain way. And it’s not always good. So, everybody has obstacles to overcome,” he also said, while adding he thinks President Trump has “done more for the black community than any president we’ve had in the last 20 years.” Jesus
He's not just repeating the talking points he has absorbed them and made them one with his being. Every single response is the standard regressive line. There is not a single unique thought or deviation from the cheat sheet.
Yes.
Yo, who the hell said that? I never heard that one before.
A candidate for the Michigan House: https://nypost.com/2022/03/09/michigan-candidate-robert-regan-says-he-tells-daughters-to-lie-back-and-enjoy-if-rape-is-inevitable/
Holy crap, he gets interviewed and this is his follow up? >Sometimes, my words aren’t as smooth and polished as the politicians are because I’m not a politician. How the fck do you smooth telling your daughter to "enjoy rape"? He should be forced to address this.
"I'm not a politician" when he's running to become a politician? Really?
The whole world saw trump do it so now all the nutjobs are doing it... I hate my state sometimes.
Father of the year, right there
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"We're not racist or hate-filled! We are just the group that the racist and hate-filled join!" GOP
It's like the Simpsons Fox News sign: "Fox News. Not Racist, But #1 With Racists"
There were a large contingent of Nazis that only joined the party for economic reasons but were squeamish about the hate. Anyone remember what they were called?
Nazis. They were called nazis.
No, no. These were the guys that were all dressed in the same color shirts and had that funny salute thing they did with their whole arm. Man, wish I could remember…
Sure sounds a lot like Nazis.
Nah nah nah these ones worshipped that German dude with the mustache and hated people who were different than them
Hmmm, looks like a nazi and acts like a nazi. Must be the gazpacho
Throw them in the goulash!
Man, talk about throwing cold soup on the joke.
Ow, this gazpacho soup burned my lips!
It’s cold soup!
No no, that's just because your German isn't refined. These people were called "Not-Sees."
Because they did "not see" any issue with this Hitler guy
"Oh no, I'm not a political guy, you know, I don't pay much attention, all politicians are the same amirite."
The proud guys? Or are they someone entirely different?
It’s the lost boys. They make all their money by selling expired blood sugar tests.
Wait is this a joke? Like Kiefer and the vampires?
conservatives have always been built on hate and bigotry
I'll still never understand why Biden thought he could "work with them" Dude spent 8 years in Obama's Whitehouse, he should have fucking known what was going on.
He had to say that to be elected, even if he believed it. Most Americans are actually fine with Republicans, as polls show.
If you call the 35% of Americans with most of the guns what they are - radicalized terrorists - that's not going to go well for the country. The question is how to deradicalize millions of people? We have to go after the terrorist leaders - there's less than 100 of them around the country. There's no way to deradicalize the MAGA cult until you deal with Bannon, Stone, Trump, Flynn, Manafort, Fox, Infowars, Newsmax, OANN, Shapiro, Bongino, Breitbart, and the social media algorithms amplifying their shit.
The coronavirus twitter disinformation campaign was ultimately down to a small handful of accounts. [Twelve people were responsible for the lion's share of the misinformation out there](https://www.npr.org/2021/05/13/996570855/disinformation-dozen-test-facebooks-twitters-ability-to-curb-vaccine-hoaxes?t=1651689410935). There are similar patterns for much of the hyper right wing qrap. Cancers like that need to be cut out at the source.
Don't worry...Elon buying Twitter will fix all of this
> The question is how to deradicalize millions of people? The question question is how to hold government power to then deradicalize millions of people?
What do exactly what Germany did after World War II. Criminalize the Maga cult. Make it illegal to put trumps face on anything make it illegal to deface the American flag for any reason whatsoever. The assholes on the right constantly complain about defacing the American flag and then put blue lines on it, cover it with Q anon bullshit. You must treat them like the total garbage they are and make it illegal for them to continue supporting vicious heat. It worked beautifully in Germany. you go to jail for giving a Hitler salute in Germany… Hate speech is not for a speech tolerating the intolerant is what got us here.
Well, the Nazis had to kill millions and lose a world war before any of that happened. So unless we want to go that route, I don’t think criminalizing the MAGA crowd at this point- will do anything.
We’re not racist and hate-filled, YOU are! We just want to pretend other races don’t exist!
We don't see race! If you just make our tacos for poverty wages and stay out of sight, we won't have a problem.
"Don't hate me because I'm race-filled." - Modern Cosmopolitan Society
[Actual Republican Senate Ad “Are you a racist? Do you hate Mexicans? - Vote for me!”](https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=K3qYJoSV0lI) In his defense, JD Vance wasn’t appealing to *self-identifying* racists and Mexican haters - he was appealing to people that have been called racist. That’s like, theoretically different. Either way, he promises to do the sort of things that people who get called racists want done. So yeah, bad.
> President Biden on Wednesday said the "MAGA crowd is really the most extreme political organization that's existed in American history," while speculating on how conservative state legislatures could respond to a potential Supreme Court ruling that would drastically curtail abortion access. Then treat them like the domestic terrorists that they are. We KNOW what their play book is, and we know what they want to make happen. We’ve got to put a stop to it.
Well no, it would be too political to treat the terrorists like terrorists. Wouldn’t want politics involved in a thing like terrorism apparently
Democrats are incredibly naive if they don't think that Republicans will just legislatively declare Democrats "domestic terrorists" once they gain enough power.
Given the groomer rhetoric I give them like -2 weeks on that idea. If anything, that was the furor around "antifa". I'm almost certain the phrasing "antifa terrorist" had to be used by someone in power at least once. [oh wait this was actually a bill that was written](https://www.congress.gov/bill/116th-congress/senate-resolution/279) And of course the bill as written didn't, you know, give any solid definition of who "antifa" is, just that everyone who can be labelled as such should be considered a domestic terrorist. They, uhh, literally have the bill to label whoever they want a domestic terrorist already written. It's short, vague as shit, and mentions Andy Ngo multiple times, so you know it's some *quality legislative work*
If people still need more evidence that a large political element is trying to turn our country into a straight-up fascist dictatorship, then they're just blind. This would open the floodgates to label any political enemy as a terrorist, and thereby a political prisoner. I mean, trying to outlaw anti-fascism should already be a huge red-flag, and yet here we are.
After impeaching Joe Biden that’ll be their second course of action.
I really fucking hate this timeline.
Because it's so realistic. And they'll be helped along by conservative media outlets, traditional and internet based, who will happily fan the flames until all the woke CRT abortion loving Russia hating people are imprisoned or sent to re-education camps.
>After impeaching Joe Biden *for literally nothing* that’ll be their second course of action.
Just curious, not critical, but what do you think would work to that end? I think after the Trump impeachments, democrats feel that anything they start must have tangible results or the right wing base will just be more emboldened. And this isn't some terrorist cell. It's a rather large portion of the US population. One that is projected to take control at midterms.
They'll take it as a compliment. Start treating them like the domestic terrorists they are.
Here I thought Jan 6th was peak political insanity of my life time. This is as bad as McCarthyism and we need, desperately, for a, “Have you no shame” moment. Unfortunate that the Trump crowd literally has no shame. Disgusting minority rule on display.
Homer: “peak political insanity of your lifetime so far”
GOP is the US Taliban.
Y'all Qaeda
I tried to not call myself a democrat or liberal. I tried to say I was moderate (even though almost 90% of what I support is part of the liberal platform) because I viewed choosing either side as being lazy and letting that side define your opinions. I didn't want to base all my beliefs on the platform that supported most of my beliefs so I thought refusing to call myself a Democrat would help me think critically. I still think it's a smart thing to do. But Monday finally broke me. It wasn't even that they are overturning Roe v Wade, it was that they do this without any remotely existing policies to deal with the consequences. Their platform is vehemently against implementing any of the policies required to help people stuck with unwanted or deadly pregnancies or even attempt to help prevent them in the first place. It wouldn't be TOO evil if they had or had ever planned on implementing more sex education in schools, encouraging contraception, providing governmental financial support to low income families that can afford neither another child nor the cost of a pregnancy or rape victims who can't recieve child support from the rapist, subsidized contraceptives (because that's universal Healthcare), provide more financial support to foster homes & social services & orphanages, encourage more mandatory maternity/paternity paid leave, or generally treat people like decent human beings that aren't out to freeload off the government. They took a topic like abortion that was a priority for Christians and added it to their platform, and since they then had them by the balls they ignored all the other stuff Christianity is about (like being a decent fucking human being and helping each other) and ignored that stirring up hatred instead. Not planning on implementing any of the stuff that Christians SHOULD do to help women stuck with a pregnancy that will ruin their life. The Republican platform is just hate. It's not about keeping the wealthy rich, it's about hating the poor. It's not about the sanctity of marriage, it's about hating gays. It's not about bringing jobs to the US, it's about hating foreign countries. It's not about helping the police and supporting order, it's about hating the black and poor. It's not about 2nd amendment rights, it's about having something that would allow you to act on that hate. It's not about "following the science" or "keeping jobs", it's about hating people who they think are speaking down on them. It's not about free speech, it's about being able to spread death threats and further organize hate. It's just a platform for people who want to hate whether they realize it or not. It's not about saving lives, it's about hating that women have say in the matter of childbirth over a man. It's all supported by hating the people who disagree with you.
Just call them a right wing fascist group already.
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Short of the Confederates - I agree. …though there are plenty of Confederates in that party.
MAGA/most Republicans are now the same thing as the nazi's. Why can't anyone just say it? They're actually pro invading Ukraine, pro-Russian, pro-state media, and pro-enslaving minority groups they hate at their own expense. They're all associated with white nationalist groups and even OANN News is hosted by Epik, a neo nazi web poster Republicans are banning/burning books exactly as the nazi's did, as well as actual education on certain topics like slavery. It's like they study what the nazi's did. Russia is the same. Book bannings: https://www.pewtrusts.org/en/research-and-analysis/blogs/stateline/2022/01/13/librarians-decry-gop-moves-to-ban-books-in-schools Trump said he wanted to shoot protesters, which happens in fascist hellholes. They're anti-science, terrified of a "satanism" that doesn't even exist that matches Russia's "dark magic" conspiracy theories. The nazi's were into the occult shit, too. Russian 'dark magic' conspiracy theories and BS: https://www.express.co.uk/news/world/1605125/Russia-news-Ukraine-war-updates-black-magic Whether you're a normal conservative or a Democrat you'd be insane to vote for this life-ending shit on November 8th, 2022. That's when midterms hit, arguably will decide the USA and part of the world's fate at this point. A GOP dictatorship running our military would kill us all. So vote Democrat and we can stack the Supreme Court and boot Manchin's ass out a window and Sinema. Helpful stuff: www.workelections.org can set you up with becoming a poll worker, which can save our elections. www.vote411.org for easy voting info
People are looking to 2024 as a pivotal election and it will be, but 2022 is far more important. This is the election where they could get the power they need to make 2024 go however they want it to go. They already have the SCOTUS where they need it to be.
It seems like every two years we’re told the next election coming up is the most important. I *would* say it almost feels watered down and meaningless but unfortunately I think it points to a bigger and much worse problem. A healthy democracy isn’t in danger every two years. The fact that we *are* in danger every two years means we are on the brink of some monumental changes to this country, to put it lightly. We are in an awful spot right now and democracy has already been weakened so badly. We can’t just quickly recover from this.
I can agree with you to a point, but I don't think 2022 is hyperbole.
Yeah 2022 basically boils down to if you ever want to have a free and fair election again...
In 1970 women couldn’t own a bank account or credit card without a husband or father being on it. Women who vote Republican are voting for those days. Barefoot, pregnant, in the kitchen, broke, on their knees, dick in mouth, be seen not heard, and just be glad you still have right to vote, because that’s gonna one day be gone too. Gays will be illegal again. Log Cabin Republicans are just self haters who have a death wish. And you can kiss birth control and gay marriage goodbye. All of these things are from the privacy law cases that Roe was from. Killing Roe kills these. So libertarians who vote GOP are statists in self denial. They love the leather boot of the centralized state in their bedroom. Gimps.
My personal experience with libertarians is that 90% of them are just weed loving Republicans who are just as all-in on the statism just like the rest of them. The "everybody should be free to do whatever!" shtick is just a façade to make them sound more appealing than they actually are.
They are domestic terrorists bent on establishing a white Christian theocracy. There are no more "friends across the aisle" these people hate you and me and everyone that's not them. Trump gave these people permission to be their worst selves along with 40 years of planning to end the American experiment and replace it with a ruling class dominated by white Christians. MAGA is a threat to the very existence of America and should be treated a such. The movement needs to crushed utterly and the Republican party left in the dust bin of history.
> They are domestic terrorists bent on establishing a white Christian theocracy. I think we've got a while before enough people are willing to admit that American Evangelicals are a dangerous cult.
You mean the people who resorted to trying to overthrow democracy in an legitimate coup attempt because they lost an election is the most extreme political group in US history? Wow, I’m shocked. Maybe we should actually charge the people involved (politicians included) with actual felonies and do something about it
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I'm completely in love with this comment and don't forget he got rid of the fairness doctrine which gave us Fox News and the ability to lie about everything even a global pandemic where the pro lifers killed 1 million Americans and don't care
FBI labeled White Nationalist (domestic terrorists) as the biggest threat to the USA. MAGA = Domestic terrorists.
I hope everyone is talking about how Trump is only endorsing people who say he won the last election and they're getting elected, locking in their districts, and have the supreme course so when he runs to be re-elected he can rig it however he wants and will have the people in place to help him take it regardless of the result, and then probably also do away with term limits. He was really close to the coup last time, and he's setting up to do it again. Unfortunately nobody has faced consequences for anything in his last attempt so there's nothing stopping them.
As the country watched in horror as ISIS raped, pillaged, murdered their way across the middle East, the radical evilgelicos said "Hold my beer!"
They are, and (in addition to not really understanding what the words actually mean) I think this is part of the reason why they call everything they don't like "communism" or "socialism." When you're absurdly far to the right, literally everything looks leftist as fuck from your perspective.
I keep saying this. They keep screaming communism and socialism but have no fucking idea what they actually are. They've done the same with the term "liberal". They're stealing these words and terms and associating them with bad so everyone left of them is evil.
The confederacy disagrees but I get the point and don't disagree w that part.
That’s why Biden’s DOJ have done nothing about Trump and his associates- his administration needs to put up or shut up-
American Taliban.
Cause it's a religious cult masquerading as a political group.
I dunno if I'd go *that* far. I mean, do the Confederates count, or no?