Tomorrow, I will get an email from the Colorado Trumpublican Party. They will rant about tonight. They will point fingers mightily, because that is what they do to extract money from the flock. They will scream that the Republicans were "cheated" tonight. Then they will turn on their natural enemies... Republicans, and like Hitler in his bunker will spew about the RINOs costing us tonight's victory. It will be both sad and entertaining. It's entertaining because it's almost like performance art to get these emails: a study in self-delusion. It's sad because these delusional creatures have made their home in the Republican Party.
I am hopeful that after Trump gets "cheated" in 2024 worse than the last time... and "cheated" even worse in 2028, and all his endorsed candidates get "cheated" back to their day jobs, perhaps the GOP will finally wake up and realize that crazy doesn't sell to the public. Oh, it sells like mad to the crazies, but that's not a good thing and it's certainly not a basis upon which to run a political party.
In the meantime, we are reliving the 1970s without a Ronald Reagan. High crime brought on by liberal idiocy is killing people. Hyper inflation brought on by liberal idiocy is pushing people under. Liberal -isms are setting the public at each other's throats. Foreign enemies emboldened by cowardly policies bring the world to the brink of destruction. We need a Reagan to stand up and say, "Enough. It's time for common sense." But we don't have a Reagan. We have a dumbshit whiny little bitch liar who offers only petty spite and narcissism as policy as replacement for those values the GOP likes to think it stands for. Not that he can get elected again anyways.
Tonight is a warning for anyone not too obsessed to hear it. Will anyone listen? Or do we need to go through 8 years of Biden (well, six and two of Harris) and 4 or more years of Newsome before people wake up?
I am hopeful that after Trump gets "cheated" in 2024 worse than the last time... and "cheated" even worse in 2028, and all his endorsed candidates get "cheated" back to their day jobs, perhaps the GOP will finally wake up and realize that crazy doesn't sell to the public. Oh, it sells like mad to the crazies, but that's not a good thing and it's certainly not a basis upon which to run a political party.
In the meantime, we are reliving the 1970s without a Ronald Reagan. High crime brought on by liberal idiocy is killing people. Hyper inflation brought on by liberal idiocy is pushing people under. Liberal -isms are setting the public at each other's throats. Foreign enemies emboldened by cowardly policies bring the world to the brink of destruction. We need a Reagan to stand up and say, "Enough. It's time for common sense." But we don't have a Reagan. We have a dumbshit whiny little bitch liar who offers only petty spite and narcissism as policy as replacement for those values the GOP likes to think it stands for. Not that he can get elected again anyways.
Tonight is a warning for anyone not too obsessed to hear it. Will anyone listen? Or do we need to go through 8 years of Biden (well, six and two of Harris) and 4 or more years of Newsome before people wake up?
22 comments:
I'd even make the argument that we haven't had a truly good Republican president (or candidate) since Reagan. He was the last great GOP president this country knew. The problem is, most of the politicians on the right of the aisle today are either spineless or unhinged with no happy medium in between. Reagan was a classy, polite gentleman, but he had a spine of steel and intelligence to match it. He helped bring down the USSR without shrieking the house down, and guess what? He earned the respect of his enemy, Gorbachev - proof that true strength is respected, not false bravado.
On a side note, are you planning on talking about all the crap going on with the SAG-AFTRA strikes? Everyone is laughing at Hollywood imploding, and the studio heads are actually coming out looking like the good guys in this fight.
At least we have seismic activity under Mt. St. Helen’s
Anon,
Reagan was a man who understood human nature. He got that smaller government meant freer people, which meant happier and more productive people. But he also understood the need for responsibility -- the piece of the puzzle no one (left or right) wants anymore. Without that, we are done as a society.
He got that weakness brings aggression. He would never have abandoned allies or sidled up to a dictator like Putin (see e.g. the right) or monsters like Hamas (see e.g. the left). He understood that the most important thing in any democracy is rule of law. He never would have stood for the Democrats' penchant for witch hunts and he never would have tolerated Trump's bullshit for a minute. He understood you don't win people over at the fringes and you sure as hell don't win the public by playing Russian roulette with their lives. He would never have sanctioned fake shutdowns that only hurt average people but do nothing to actually cut costs. He never abandoned allies. He never would have left 8 idiots upend an entire party.
He also never gave up the chance to move the needle, and certainly never played the all or nothing game that has resulted in an abortion backlash that will reset the law to basically totally legal. 60-40 everywhere...
What's more he understood that to govern meant you need to govern for everyone. You can't divide the country into enemy camps to win votes and you sure as hell don't target your allies. Talk radio would HATE him if he was alive today as they stand against everything he was.
But you know what? Not only was that man the most popular, most successful, most beloved President ever... but he moved the needle further to the right than anyone ever has. And since him, since we've adopted the tactics of talk radio, that needle has done nothing but move steadily back to the left faster and faster and faster. Maybe... just maybe... extremism is not the answer, you think?
Last night was a great example. These last couple elections should have been massive red waves, but they aren't because the right is making itself intolerable to the public. Seriously, how can you be seen as worse than the worst President ever and a party obsessed with starting a racial war and unleashing an army of criminals upon average people. Think about that as the talk radio hosts rail against "RINOs" today and demand we become even more pure!
Andrew
All I took away from Tuesday was:
Anti-marijuana & Anti-Abortion is a loosing issue for Republicans.
Andrew,
Reagan was pretty good in his first term, second term in 1985 I think the Bush era of politicians started taking over.
Trump by modern standards is alright by me: All our politicians in major positions are just blatantly performative actors now (regardless of State or Federal level). There are only a few genuine people in higher up positions. Local level is a different story.
-Kyle
Hi Kyle, It's really the same clear message that's been coming through since the second year of Trump. Four or five losses in a row (depending on how you count it) should be telling people something.
As a conservative, I can't and won't support Trump. He stands in direct opposition to all the foundations of conservatism. He's also working as hard as the fringe left to undermine our society. I can't support that.
I do agree about the lack of genuine people. And troublingly, when they do arise, they get smeared. I mentioned the email. I got it. The election loss was because of "establishment RINOs." They also sent me a thing called "RINO watch" which pretty much smeared every Republican in the state... even though most are so fringe right it's not even funny. Their crimes ranged from worrying that Trump will lose to actually trying to govern.
Andrew
As an aside, something I'm watching, which is interesting, is Joe Manchin. The rumor is that he's not running for re-election because he wants to run as a third party candidate... making him this generation's John Anderson (to add to our 1970s parallels). The Democrats are freaking out that he will steal votes from Biden, which is true, but he will steal as many from Trump (lots of Republicans I know simply will not support him).
He may be the first third party candidate since Ross Perot who stands a chance. Interesting times.
Andrew
Andrew, in regards to this:
"As a conservative, I can't and won't support Trump. He stands in direct opposition to all the foundations of conservatism."
This is a perfectly reasonable rationale, and I understand what your saying. Trump is a nasty character who is provocative & divisive.
What I’m getting at with my comments on "most politicians are performative actors”: All these politicians are at least as bad as Trump, or IMO much worse… I believe these politicians are just putting on an act to appear reasonable, and I don't trust any of them. Its my cope for supporting Trump (better the devil you know, comes to mind).
I personally don't believe Trump is the sole reason for the GOP’s failures. I believe its a combination of many things including Trump.
IMO the real issues with the GOP are multi-fold, including: The MAGA and Neo-con wings of the Republican party are constantly sabotaging each other… combined with poor messaging & poor funding of candidates, and focusing on the wrong issues. These are the real problems with the GOP. Trump's crap pails in comparison to the above issues… at least from my warped point of view.
I'm curious to see where Joe Manchin will fit in to this whole ordeal. If he does mount an independent bid for the Presidency, that will be just another wild card.
New polling, whether accurate or not, will be interesting to analyze if he does enter.
-Kyle
Kyle,
I agree completely that the other politicians are just as bad. They are actors or nutjobs. Most are idiots who don't even begin to understand things like governance, economics and human nature. They are either tools of lobbyists or fringe crazies. In fact, the GOP's biggest twin headaches have been (1) the Religious Right, who see politics as a crusade to push beliefs the public does not share upon an unwilling public and they have deluded themselves with living-in-a-bubble ideas like "once we do it, the public will flock to us" and a fetish for martyrdom. They are all super shocked now to see their bubble burst and the public vote 2-1 against them, and are freaked out that all their progress is being reversed right back to the 1960s in the course of about 2 years. In fact, it was ironic to see them call for "a consensus on abortion" to try to save the progress they'd made when they had no interest in consensus before. Abortion will be legal and largely unregulated within 5-10 years across the country because of them.
AND (2) the blind, knee-jerk support of Big Business, which seeks to control their competitors and dominate the public through legislation that lets them engage in unethical ways and abuse monopoly power over consumers. All they had to say was "free market" and these guys would fall all over themselves to adopt whatever abuse of power was wanted.
The neocons were (are) another problem because they think they can arrange the world through American military power. That's again not something the public wants and it's not something that can be done. They are adventurers in a world that needs more restraint (but not isolationism) and more focus.
But Trump is a genuine danger, and that's not hyperbole. And I mean this genuinely.... please consider this: Trump is promoting incredibly destructive conspiracy theories fed by lies, tribalism, and a cult of personality. He is undermining rule of law and the constitution itself to serve himself and he's destroying the GOP through witch hunts and purges. What he's doing is trying to reinvent the US as a third world crackpot government... undoing 200 years of hard work to create a stable, mostly clean government. And what he's doing to his followers is what the black race movement has done to most blacks in this country -- he's poisoning his followers with paranoia and self-serving lies that are destroying them personally and making the right unpalatable to the rest of the country. The result will be a generational shift to the left resulting in freak-show-rights, the end of freedom of speech, the banning of anything environmentalists don't like, crime waves and oppressive tech companies because there will be no credible alternative.
If you want a really good discussion of the kind of practical problems he's causing (this is apart from the perception problems he's creating), read this: LINK. This talks about the way MAGA-dominated state parties are collapsing. It's happened in Colorado too, by the way, where the party apparatus had become all about attacking Republicans and nothing else. Colorado, by the way, is a center right state that's moving further and further left because the GOP made itself intolerable and keeps getting worse. That's the national future on the present course.
Andrew
Manchi will be interesting. The way the election looks right now (forget the polls, they are misleading)...
The progressives hate Biden and want him gone, but will likely vote for him to stop Trump.
Liberals will likely support Biden.
The unaligned/moderates are undecided but won't go for Trump. They don't like Biden though, and can be swayed by Manchin.
The "old" GOP right now, based on the ones I know, are not planning to vote. They hate Biden and won't support Trump. They could be swayed by Manchin.
The Trump people will vote Trump unless Kennedy wins them over.
Makes for an interesting election. I don't know if Manchin can get enough votes to beat Biden or not (likely not, but maybe). Trump cannot win. I don't think Kennedy can win either, but I could be mistaken on that. He would need to win over Progressives as well as Trumpers.
Andrew
Andrew,
From an Independent point of view, I agree in regards to MAGA being destructive to the Republicans: it's a circular firing squad of puritans, who accuse anyone that doesn't do exactly what they want as uni-partyist.
They are strategically illiterate to say the least, resulting in a lack of progress during campaigning... and ultimately it leads to failures to gain traction to win elections. I do however agree with about 70% of what most of MAGA represents.
I do not agree that Trump will usher in a third world crackpot government. As far as him attempting to undermine the rule of law; that's what every president and most politicians have done over the last 50 years IMO.
I made my peace about Trump. Short of him croaking or being barred from running; I don't see any viable alternatives at this time. As you know from my previous comments, I was hoping for Desantis to turn out. However his campaign self sabotaged one too many times and I don't see him recovering. Other than Vivek, all the other candidates are a no for me. Were a year out so a lot can change.
-Kyle
Trump advocates and the squad followers seem to run the two parties these days. I will vote for Nikki Haley who seems to have an understanding of Roe. It will get me nowhere, of course. The fact both parties get donations from business that benefits from cheap imported labor is sickening.
I saw a glimmer of hope today for the GOP. Not just in Johnson working with the Democrats to circumvent the idiot caucus (the only choice available) but in the response of many in the GOP to the threats of retaliation after. We shall see.
Andrew
Anon, I agree completely. Both parties have fallen to their fringes. The problem is the Democrats are better situated to benefit from that, so we drift left. And I agree 100% about the import of foreign labor. It's a serious problem and it's sickening how amoral and "unpatriotic" (meaning: anti-community) business is about this.
I like Nikki Haley a lot. She is my favorite at the moment. I plan to vote for her.
Andrew
Kyle,
We can agree to disagree and still be friends :)
I agree with a lot of what the MAGA people say they want. The problem is that (1) you can't get it if you scare the public away and (2) Trump stands for little of what they want... he stands for self-aggrandizement in every manner.
Honestly, I've made my peace with him too. The party wants him, they can have him. I'll work to pick up the pieces when the fever breaks and they are looking to finally start winning elections again.
Andrew
As an aside, on the mention of the squad, the Democrats are going through a very interesting moment as fault lines have appeared and their have turned their usual hate on each other. It's been fascinating to watch them tear each other apart over Israel.
Andrew
It's alright Andrew, I'm not gonna go full magachud on you lol.
A lot will happen over the next year. We have to keep an eye on both sides of the aisle... and keep an open mind.
In regards to Speaker Johnson, I'm hoping he can make some progress. He seems like a decent man, time will tell.
The Hamas caucus in-fighting is interesting to say the least. It has caused a lot of issues for the Dems, and will continue to get worse as the war escalates.
-Kyle
Andrew and Kyle - sorry it was Jed commenting and I forgot to mention it. Sad times we are living in
Jed and Andrew, it’s a pessimistic time. The economy alone has really screwed up my family's lives. Compared to the horrors happening abroad, it pails in comparison. However as the saying goes: It’s always darkest before dawn.
It will take a ground up movement of men & women working and self improving to “Right the West”.
I honestly believe that with time, society will get better… so long as we all try to individually make things better. I do not believe there will be any top down solutions, at least not from our government. That's for sure lol.
Sad to see Rosalynn Carter has passed away at 96 years old. She was big into helping people with mental health issues. Presidency aside, The Carter family are some of the last decent liberal politicians to come out of the Democratic party. I cant say the same for the neo-liberal Clinton/Obama/Biden era of Dems.
I'm curious to see how Argentina does under Javier Milei, as he just won in a landslide. I wish the Argentinian people the best, hopefully they can course-correct from the socialism that has turned their once great society into a borderline third world nation. If you have time, look up photos of how beautiful the cities were in Argentina back in the 1920’s. Socialism and top down government really is a no-win scenario for a functioning society.
-Kyle
Kyle, I agree, the Carter’s were good people. Jimmy was not up to the job, but he was a good person, for certain. Same with Roselyn.
Jed
Happy Thanksgiving to all of you.
-Kyle
Hi everybody! I hope you all had a great Thanksgiving. We had family over. It was nice!
I agree about Carter and Roselyn. They seemed like good people, but Carter was definitely out of his league.
Andrew
Kyle,
I'm a good deal more pessimistic because right now the majority of people in society are wallowing in arrogance, narcissism and paranoia and they are determined to make things worse rather than better because it suits them -- the "vices" are running unchecked. At the same time, the elites have become utterly without any virtues - I honestly trust China more than Silicon Valley, for example, and China wants to destroy us.
So I'm not sure how things get better, especially with no movement out there pushing in the right direction. In the past, you could rely upon at least one political party, churches, business, unions or media to push the others in the right direction. All those are pushing wildly in the wrong direction now. I'm not sure how that gets reversed.
Argentina is interesting. I will be curious.
Andrew
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