Remember When being a Republican Actually Meant Something?

Judging you hard for voting H.W. Bush twice? Wtf.

Gay rights have only been advanced on by Democrats. Not to mention the hugely expensive failed foreign wars. Republicans are a backwards cancer.

OP, the Republican party is responsible for every economic catastrophe United States has ever suffered. They’ve always been the corporate welfare socialist party. They’ve never had a proposal that’s moved the country socially forward. They are not the party of fiscal responsibility or less government. I’m so tired of that bullshit argument.

I miss it. The upper middle class had it better under the GOP. I fucking hate this extractive bullshit. And the big money still pays just capital gains/carried interest.

Funny that now the Republican party base is the working class while the Democratic base is the upper class. We're in the midst of a generational political change.

R1 I voted for H.W. in 1988 because I felt he was a better choice than Dukakis. He had a strong background in foreign policy and the world was falling apart. I do not think Dukakis could have handled the collapse of the Berlin Wall, the restoration of Germany, the crisis's in Latin American and the breakdown of the Soviet Union the way H.W. and Baker did.

I voted for him in 1992 because I felt he (and Baker) adequately cleaned up the messes Reagan left. I was not really suffering during the economic recession and understood that it was temporary if we raise taxes. Btw Clinton raised taxes a helluva lot higher than Bush every would have.

The expensive foreign wars you talk about were under W.

[quote]Remember When being a Republican Actually Meant Something?

It still actually means something...

WHITE POWER!!!!

Well, there were Dems in the KKK...Oboma didn't stop the war in Afghanistan he even bombed more and Biden made racist remarks at one time in his life. They're POLITICIAN NOT GOD!

In America, you get too caught up in partisan polemics, As long as you all see things like this you won't move forward.

No I don’t. It always meant republican

The Republican Party started to go downhill long before Donald Trump. Shallow, vapid, stereotypical, incompetent Ronald Reagan set the bar very low for them in more ways than one, and let's not forget about Richard Nixon who was so bad that he had to resign in disgrace. The Republicans haven't had a good President in decades and now seem incapable of producing one.

^Obama

R9 Gerald Ford was not incompetent. He was simultaneously the right man at the right time and the wrong man at the wrong time. George H.W. Bush seemed to be bored with Americans (I get that lol).

Obama was decent. Most of his first term was a continuation of the Bush plans for the Middle East. Nothing really changed until 2013.

In 1820 California, where gold had just been discovered, would be a free state; While abolitionists exfiltrated slaves who broke their chains, the federal government, held by a hegemonic Democratic party against a decaying Whig party, applied the Fugitive Slave Act rigorously, and paid its marshals $10 per head captured.

So the "white power" narrative is pure hypocrisy. Both parties have made serious mistakes.

What happened is that more and more educated wealthy whites moved to the Democratic party and the Republicans had to move to a more populist position to compete.

[quote]Well, there were Dems in the KKK...

But, they saw the light and became Republicans....

[quote]In America, you get too caught up in partisan polemics,

Since when did wanting equal rights and equal justice under the law become partisan? Why are women bodies subjected to laws whereas men are not? Do you consider that partisan too?

Share with us, R7. What does it mean to you to be a Republican?

According to the most recent poll of presidential historians, both the best and worst presidents of the past 50 years were Republicans: Ronald Reagan at #13 and Donald Trump at #42.

Who was worse than Trump?

Gerald Ford, a Republican, was a decent man when they seemed to be in short supply.

More Republicant trolls 🤮 writing revisionist history. You voted against the interests of gay people for most of your life and you’re here complaining about Twitler? You people are directly responsible for his creation. Remember Reagan’s “welfare queen” and Lee Atwater? GTFO with your Log Cabin bullshit. Republicants are directly responsible for thousands of gay men dying of AIDS. You got some big balls, asshole. I’d shut up and sit down, if I were you. Muriel?

I did not vote for Reagan....

R14 I am not a Republican but I see that you all argue and fight every day on the DL. IMO, It's time to see things differently than through the parties. In Scandinavia, politicians are not paid a lot of money and do not have the privileges that those in America have. They do not come from the bourgeoisie or the elite and when they finish their mandate, they return to civilian life like any other citizen. The result is that there is not all this corruption and the people are not divided like they are in the US. That's why I said that.

And Democrats have become the party of victims and blame Trump. It's thoroughly disgusting how liberals twist and distort.

No Republicans killed any gays. Gays killed themselves and continue to do so. In fact less than 20 antiretrovirals are made by companies that are NOT "Big Pharma." These Republican driven companies are keeping gays alive at a terrible societal cost.

Condoms cost next to nothing and work amazingly yet gays continue to get a disease that's 100% preventable.

Of course to a Democrat, you're a victim. Like the husband that abuses his wife and children, they want to make you a victim so they can control you, think you can't change on your own.

Party identities shift.

Post-Civil War, the GOP was the party of Lincoln and far more liberal and forward-thinking than the Democrats.

During the mid 20th century the parties were not very far apart though the GOP was the party of the socially liberal, fiscally conservative, educated "country club Republicans"

Goldwater started a shift to the right on social issues, which Nixon amplified as part of his Southern strategy

Democrats shifted further to the left.

We are now at a point where, if they can get past Trump, the GOP will become the party of the socially conservative non-college educated working class and the Democrats will be the party of the socially liberal upper middle class Meritocrats. (If they can't get past Trump they are likely to just fall apart and a new party will more conservative social ideas will likely spring up in their wake.)

R11 Gerald Ford was accident prone, was seen as something of a clown, and people laughed at his antics. And when he gave Richard Nixon a Presidential Pardon it doomed his political reputation forever. He was another dodo bird Republican President.

R20, America’s dirty little secret is that we are one of the most corrupt countries on earth. But what we call “corruption” in other countries is called “campaign finance” here.

Ever since the Supreme Court’s “Citizens United” decision, there is essentially no limit to the amount of money that rich individuals and corporations can donate to parties and politicians. Which is why - for example - Joe Manchin votes in the interest of coal companies, not the planet, and why every single Republican favors the interests of the rich over those of the working class. Because the rich, not the working class, are the ones donating to their campaigns and enabling them to saturate Facebook and TV with ads depicting Democrats like Joe Biden as “socialist elitists.”

We joke about politicians being “bought and paid for”, but that is the literal truth.

R24 Oh ok, thanks for explaining me. But regularly, I see articles about corruption in American politics, all parties included, so I thought that was one of the problems.

R23 Gerald Ford played college football, coached college football while attending law school, and was a scratch golfer who could keep up with professional players. The accident prone clown stuck because of Chevy Chase on SNL. Biden also fell down the stairs and no one said anything.

Pardoning Nixon was the right thing to do for the long term benefit of the country. He understood that, even knowing it would cost him the election. He also dropped Nelson Rockefeller in the 1976 election, which was a terrible mistake. He was pushed into putting Bob Dole on the ticket and it ruined his chances. There is no way Reagan would have beaten Ford in the primaries in 1976.

Get these fat, greasy, fascist fucks outta here!

NO!!!!

[quote]Remember When being a Republican Actually Meant Something?

Newp. Not for one single second of my long, long, long, long life.

America was an excuse to colonize a large sparsely populated land area and extract its resources for wealthy white people at the expense of everyone else with Natives and Blacks the most exploited.

Or it was a flawed but idealistic attempt to establish liberty and non-tyrantical government.

Discuss amongst yourselves.

The Democrats used to be for the American worker and equal opportunity. Now they are about immigrants and equal outcomes. So, really, both parties are shells of their former selves. Neither represent the interest of middle-class Americans.

I'm under 40, so no.

Maybe you want to re-read your posting again, R31. Especially, your first two sentences.

The only things they've ever meant in my lifetime are bigotry against everyone who isn't white, straight, christian and male, and financial disaster.

Thanks for the lesson, R22. Really... thank you! But, don't do that. These people know what you have posted already. They know it quite well. But, they choose to remain willfully ignorant.

R22 I think one nuance missing is that while the Democrats may have shifted further to the left on social issues, the party took a hard right turn on economic concerns.

Here's the thing that OP ignores: Trump is the result of decades of those "country club" Republicans using POC as the constant boogeyman for everything they did to benefit themselves.

[quote]Democrats shifted further to the left.

Name one platform policy that has shifted left. You mean being openly pro-gay marriage? Because that is what actually constitutes a shift further left. Or do you just pretend being pro-gay is some standard moderate policy when it actually isn't according to history.

[quote]That Republican Party was the party of dignity, business, country clubs, the economy, and not getting involved in the culture wars.

The big shift in the parties came with the civil rights era circa 1968, when segregationist Dixiecrats ditched the Democrats and ran to the open arms of white supremacist Republican ratfuckers.

What the OP is saying is that he likes the days of white entitlement and was OK with things like very stupid, rich, white kids getting into the Ivy league and being handed everything in life and prefers to bitch about the A-/B+ "colored" low income kid who caught a break.

Good Lord r31. You're a moron.

Yes OP I remember those days fondly. Smoking cigars with other prominent gay country club republicans. We had the best whores too. Oh simpler days.

R40, do you sincerely believe that the Democrats represent the interests of the American middle class?

The old Republicans became modern day Democrats.

Democrats are now free market Republicans, pro immigration , and pro military intervention.

R42, do you sincerely believe that Republicans represent the interests of the American middle class? (Reminder: That category includes many, many people who are not white straight “christian” men.)

I agree with OP and my voting record parallels the OP.

The Dixiecrats, who I say are the deplorables of today, were the final nail in the coffin for the rethugs. After they went rethugican, I wanted nothing to do with my former political party.

Thank you Ronnie for bringing them to the republican party. NOT!

No, r45, I do not. I don't believe the Democrats do, either. Now, can you answer my question?

[quote][R40], do you sincerely believe that the Democrats represent the interests of the American middle class?

They are much more nearer to the needs of the middle class than Republicans. But, here's the thing... what's the old adage? "You get the government you deserve." We can only blame ourselves for the mess that we see and are in right now. These current Republicans did not happen overnight. This environment has been in the making for at least 40 years.

Make that 60 years and I will agree with you r48.

The GOP saw the future in the 1970s when they started to hook up with Jerry Falwell and the evangelical movement. Since then, they've been infusing that movement with Fascists, who have taken it over.

Once a religion has you in its grasp you're a blind follower, even if the dogma changes.

The people praying hardest for Donald Trump to drop dead ASAP are the Republican mainstream. Once he's dead they can rewrite history and safely neuter his memory. If he's still around in 2024 they are screwed.

I agree with you,R50. Even as a person who considers themselves to be religious, rather spiritual now, we have allowed religion to become too much of a powerful influence in our government. Who destroyed the Roman empire? CHRISTIANS!

After Reagan, and especially during GWB, The GOP became about grabbing as much money for themselves as they can.

There was a push to privatize public good so they could reap the profits--pensions and Social Security, public schools, Veteran's services, Medicare Advantage, etc.

Ford and Bush 41 were different types of Republicans. Ford was very vocal post-presidency about gay rights. I think the major reasons he lost were backlash from Watergate/Nixon admin and stagnation. Bush 41 lost, I believe, because he tried too much to appeal to the aggressive, radical religious fundies, and Perot was able to take away the moderates who voted for him in the first place.

If Republicans were like Ford, they would be winning more. But they'll never figure that out, because they're in too deep now.

[quote] That Republican Party was the party of dignity, business, country clubs, the economy, and not getting involved in the culture wars.

The Red Scare. Sit down, tard.

The long festering, drastic downhill slide went full steam with that shit actor Ronald Reagan, and was completely destroyed by that shit actor Donald Trump. Republicans have long been vicious and racist, now they're utterly insane.

[quote] Pardoning Nixon was the right thing to do for the long term benefit of the country.

Jesus Christ.

This was the best marketing that the Republican Party ever received, and they didn't even had to pay for it.

R40 is correct. I don't think there's anything more repugnant than the tiresome "blame immigrants" horseshit pushed by idiots who frankly do subscribe to the bullshit that only white people are really Americans. My God, do some of you assholes leave your homes at all?

It's funny how the states with the fewest immigrants barely have a pot to piss in and are dependent on tax-paying immigrants in blue states who actually work. They're not sitting on their asses waiting for coal to come back like those "real 'muricans."

Trump never did a fucking thing for "real Americans." On the contrary, he took advantage his entire life. He broke the laws of this country to do business overseas and was handed everything in life. He got to fail upward like so many "real Americans." He never earned a fucking thing, yet we have people who still can't help trying to blame hard-working immigrants for their own failed lives.

“I’ll tell you what’s at the bottom of it. If you can convince the lowest white man he’s better than the best colored man, he won’t notice you’re picking his pocket. Hell, give him somebody to look down on, and he’ll empty his pockets for you.”

I voted for Nixon. It was the last time I ever voted Republican. Republicans today stand for greed. period. It's all about what's in it for them. This is the politicians and the voters. It is all they stand for.

OP I used to have a pretty black and white approach to D abd R until I traveled and worked in the Midwest and in the south. In their rural areas too. So I think I get where you are coming from.

Mind you, I’m a progressive. But I feel that, because a country needs a responsible opposition, it is time to have a separate Conservative party and leave the current degraded GOP to trump and his neofascist cronies.

Just so as you know, I am also in favor of a Progressive party. Though I think an old liberal like Biden is doing a super job so far, much much better than I ever thought possible.

A Progressive party is not as urgent. But republicans like Cheney and Kinzinger need bolstering immediately.

It's true that prior to the Republican party adopting the Southern strategy of appealing to socially conservative white evangelicals, there was far less of a herd mentality about issues like abortion and gay rights. Nixon was pro-choice, and Barry Goldwater said that he didn't care whether or not a soldier was straight as long as they could shoot straight.

[quote] In 1820 California, where gold had just been discovered.

Gold was discovered in 1849. They even named a football team after the event.

[quote]A Progressive party is not as urgent. But republicans like Cheney and Kinzinger need bolstering immediately.

Yes, bolster those who are anti-gay. It really is amazing how much leeway is given to white conservatives.

[quote]I voted for Bush in 1992 because I am an idiot.

Fixed (though r61 appears to be an even bigger idiot).

R21, It is Republican's that are trying to decide who can marry, are mixing church and state; are pushing outright lies and misinformation to support their agenda and are trying to control women through their reproductive system. They are a party of fascist who are trying to control us all by taking away our rights

r66 I was young when I voted for Nixon and he won every single state except Mass. when he ran in'72

My first vote was for Bush Sr. because I didn't know any better and my parents are conservatives. I haven't voted Republican since. I'm now registered with no party, but definitely lean left.

[quote] it is time to have a separate Conservative party

But, exactly what is that, R62? I'm quite serious with my query. I have no idea of what it means to be Conservative anymore. I similarly had the same confusion not long ago about Republicans. I am a former registered Republican, by the way. But, it was the Obama campaign in 2008 when I witnessed the white sheets being left at the door by far too many Republicans and they were even playing Diana Ross' "I'm Coming Out". It was then that I knew what the party was now all about. It has only worsened since that time.

The Republicans started out as pro-civil rights and pro-public works services. They dropped the latter as soon as the millionaires who ran the party had the public-funded infrastructure they needed (the Progressives, like TR, kept that tradition up a little longer). They abandoned Civil Rights in the 60s as the Democrats took on that cause; by the 80s it was clear that the old-time white Democrats of the south were now at home in the Republican party, and the old socially liberal Republicans weren't. So now the Republicans are basically pro-oligarchy and pro-white supremacy: they've adopted the Confederate-style platform that the Democrats used to espouse, and only the Democrats support democracy, equality, and freedom.

[quote]My first vote was for Bush Sr. because I didn't know any better

President Daddy Bush was okay. I believe that people tend to forget that he had to somehow clean up and/or contain the damage done by Reagan and his team--which is really just coming out now, IMHO.

OP... Liz Cheney called. She asked if you would move to Wyoming and vote for her, so she doesn't get primaried.

Just for healthcare alone Democrats fight for the middle class. And families. I'd love to know anything Republicans do for them except stoke fear and racism.

R68, I was young when you voted for Nixon, too (second time). That didn't make me vote for him, though.

R66

This has caused quite a debate.

Let me pose this question- if Gerald Ford or George H.W. Bush would be running in 2024, would they be considered a Republican, Democrat, or RINO?

Republicans have always been about racism, economic collapse, and crying about small government...except if you're a woman of childbearing age - then they want the government to be able to shove an ultrasound probe up your vagina at any time.

r75 so you are one of the few that voted for McGovern? who by the way wanted to take us back to the horse and buggy which is why he lost in all the states except one.

[quote]Just for healthcare alone Democrats fight for the middle class. And families. I'd love to know anything Republicans do for them except stoke fear and racism.

Well... let's give them their proper due;

Universal healthcare has been a goal of every President (regardless of party) since FDR. Nixon probably was the first president to make some headway on that initiative. Then we had Reagan who made a little more. Let's not forget that ObamaCare comes out of the think tank the Heritage Foundation and that it was Mitt Romney that actually did the "test run" for the initiative. Now, somewhere in all of this the Republican party lost its mind and we are where we are today.

The only thing Republicans have done for gay rights is when they die.

I like the Republican Party just as it currently is. Railing against vaccines and killing off your own voters is a strategy that helps Democrats.

Here are some things the American middle class needs:

Child care

Health care

Livable wages

Better infrastructure (roads AND public transit)

Quality public education

An end to COVID

One party includes many advocates for the above. The other does not.

Here are some things the American middle class does NOT particularly need right now:

More lenient gun laws

Abortion bans

Lower minimum wages

Voter suppression

Bans on COVID mandates to “own the libs”

One party is totally committed to the above. The other is not.

Now here come the GQP operatives shrieking about immigration. But guess what? Most Americans don’t give a shit about immigration. They care about the issues in the first list above.

R74, exactly. Here's what the enabling DL racists can't explain: Why they feel that white, working class people are *entitled* to more consideration than any other American citizens?

Stop making excuses for why they vote Republican. Stop lying about Democrats turning their backs on them when what you mean is you don't want them to actually have to COMPETE with people who are frankly, more hard-working and far more ambitious - and *actually* believe in capitalism, not just pay lip service to it. The white, working class don't want an even playing field. They also don't believe in education or preparing for the future. We know why they vote Republican. It was perfectly obvious when Obama tried to offer those uneducated coal mining buffoons an opportunity to retrain for jobs that could actually prepare them to live in the 21 century and comprehend that the world isn't going to just stop for them. The rest of the world looks forward while we have an uneducated, mainly white populace too hateful and resentful to accept that they are useless to this country with their current skill-set. And I don't want to hear about "affirmative action" when people like Trump, Palin, Tuberville, Cawthorn, etc etc etc were elected to higher office.

Those white, working class people got healthcare from Obama and they *knew* that they did - and still voted Republican, so spare us the excuses about Dems turning their backs on a bunch of petulant, unskilled racists. You know what the Dems actual problem is? They don't say what I did to their faces. They don't tell them to pull up their fucking bootstraps and stop whining about coal. And stop thinking that Trump would ever even want to be in your presence beyond you worshiping him from below in a crowd.

R83, the GQP has always excelled at persuading white people to vote against their own interests.

I’m a single issue voter. I’ll vote for whichever party leads to less immigration.

Single issue voter = Low information voter

For a country that was founded on immigration, and has grown because of immigration, why do you want to have less immigration, R85?

What many of you (and the GOP for that matter) don't seem to get is that it's just a matter of time until working class POC figure out that their interests are far more closely aligned with the white working class than with the affluent blue state college educated meritocrats who dominate the Democratic party.

We've been lucky thus far that the GOP is so openly racist they they turn off working class POC, but should the Republicans ever figure out that playing to racial fears is ultimately a net negative, the Democrats will be in trouble. Study after study shows that working class black and Hispanic voters tend to be far more socially conservative than the white urban wing of the Democratic party.

[quote]The rest of the world looks forward while we have an uneducated, mainly white populace too hateful and resentful to accept that they are useless to this country with their current skill-set.

My two recent favorite quotes come from women. The first is Mary Trump who said; "Donald's never been held accountable, practically no powerful white men have been held accountable in America," The second comes from Zerlina Maxwell who said; "The problem with the white male of this country is that he believes that the only way that he can help this country is to RUN IT!"

R89, and it's true.

They are also the reason a woman's choice and gay rights are constantly under threat. And it doesn't help that many (white) gays constantly make excuses for them while endlessly shitting on minorities.

Republicans, most of them anyway, are pro legal immigration. But that's not what is happening. We are importing scores of low skilled laborers during a transitional economy. Democrats are for increasing the minimum wage but meanwhile they continue to degrade and devalue working class jobs by importing more unvetted immigrants. Anti immigration advocates have been labeled as racist yet immigrants also come from white countries, so what the hell is that all about? Birthrates continue to plummet, people are deferring purchasing a home, ownership is at an all time low, sounds to me like the "market" has already spoken. But those greedy fucks don't want to see an end to their record profits. They refer to immigrants as "human infrastructure" since they are literally built on the backs of the middle class. Rapid globaliziton has helped crater the economy and absolve the ruling class from having to serve those in their communities, cities, and states. Democrats have weaponized the surveliance state, are in favor Mark Milley circumventing the president's legal authority, promoting endless warfare, and stripping millions of working class Americans of their dignity by paying them slave wages and then say they are lazy. They suck up to the PRC. They are old school Republicans through and through.

R72, but Clinton was better, so that's why I regret my vote. I first voted in '92.

[quote]more unvetted immigrants

You are a LIAR. No legal immigrant is unvetted.

[quote]What many of you (and the GOP for that matter) don't seem to get is that it's just a matter of time until working class POC figure out that their interests are far more closely aligned with the white working class than with the affluent blue state college educated meritocrats who dominate the Democratic party.

WHAT???? First of all, I notice how you give the white working class superiority over the working class POC...

NOW! This is nothing new. Just look back to history. Look at and study the Reconstruction period and the former Black slaves. You know who aligned with them and therefore found even more strength in numbers? It was the poor whites. Former slaves were demanding schools, land, running and getting elected to public office, etc. All of this within just a 10 year time span. Poor whites saw this and said; "Maybe we need to get on board with them!" and then they did. Of course, this did not sit well with the wealthy whites. So... as someone quoted LBJ above, that's exactly the attitude that was implanted.

[quote] My parents were Rockefeller Republicans who lost faith in the party after Gerald Ford lost in 1976.

So your parents were just peachy with all the criminal activity of Nixon the lies about having a secret plan to end the war, but Ford losing was too much. Oh brother.

[quote]Republicans, most of them anyway, are pro legal immigration.

Bull shit! That's what is said publicly. Privately, something else is said.

OP I'm so old I actually remember when being President, Vice-President, senator, mayor, governor actually meant something

I love Republican policies!

[quote] Republicans, most of them anyway, are pro legal immigration.

He is right, except to Republicans immigrants should be white, preferably Nordic, German, or English stock, none of those dark skinned people are wanted by Republicans.

Behind closed doors, affluent blue state white people who otherwise support progressive politics are more than a bit freaked out about how quickly Indian and Chinese immigrants seem to have risen to upper middle class status and moved into their leafy suburban enclaves.

Reaction is not negative per se--if anything, the new residents make the schools even more competitive and thus raise property values--and the conventional wisdom seems to be that most of them buy the houses with money from wealthy relatives back home who see US real estate as a solid investment.

That said, if the economy sours, I would not be surprised to see resentment take off and loyalty to the US questioned.

[quote] I notice how you give the white working class superiority over the working class POC...

Where did he say that?

[quote]What many of you (and the GOP for that matter) don't seem to get is that it's just a matter of time until working class POC figure out that their interests are far more closely aligned with the white working class than with the affluent blue state college educated meritocrats who dominate the Democratic party.

The problem with that is that Republicans do absolutely nothing to help the white working class. They fight against health care coverage, they work to cut education spending, they fight against raising wages, and they work to make workplaces and schools as unsafe as possible.

R85 DeJure is Boris. His single issue is pro-Fascism 24/7

What R102 said. The poster above is cleverly twisting around the fact that the college-educated oligarchs who dominate the Republican party live to exploit the votes of their white base, whose buying power shrinks with every new Republican administration (and, sadly, there's no hope that more than a small number of those voters will ever "figure that out").

Talk about hegemony…. The Deplorables and Boris are clueless.

The faction of the Republican Party you see defining the party, now, always existed. Social media and personal agendas have allowed them to take over and expose themselves in the process. It’s no different than Bernie-bots on the Democrat side. Politics to a large degree has always been about smoke and mirrors and optics. Social media and the 24-hour news cycle has changed that.

[quote]The faction of the Republican Party you see defining the party, now, always existed. Social media and personal agendas have allowed them to take over and expose themselves in the process.

[quote]"In the end, we will remember not the words of our enemies, but the silence of our friends." "Our lives begin to end the day we become silent about things that matter." "The ultimate tragedy is not the oppression and cruelty by the bad people but the silence over that by the good people." "There comes a time when silence is betrayal." -- Martin Luther King

Carly Fiorina gave a good criticism of the Republican on "The View" this morning

And, R107, the Republicans as a whole seem resigned to letting the likes of MTG, Cawthorne, Boebert, et al run roughshod over the party because they’re either in agreement or they don’t care. Or they’re happy for the distraction so they can go about doing their own shitty things. I don’t think the Republican Party like Carly Forina describes exists anymore. And they probably don’t want to split into different parties because it’s too many lost votes.

The Republicans haven’t been shit since McKinley was in office.

Or not R108

Sounds like a lot of pissed off Republicans in the comments to this WSJ story.

If radical Trumpist candidates manage to lose a lot of what should have been safe seats in 22, because they've turned off independents and less crazy Republicans, a distinct possibility, look for even more backlash.

Fuck you, R109!

R110 I read that article this morning. If you notice, a lot of the Senate Republicans are not commenting or flat out saying no. They do not want Trump to run again.

Gerald Ford pardoned Patty Hearst. For that he is miles above most other politicians.

Fuck Ford! I sent away for, but never received by WIN button!!!!

Trumps just pushing Mitch to give him a pardon. He's so dumb he thinks it'll work

Classic Republicans were racists but they kept quiet about.

White supremacy has been the base of Repukes for decades. I would guess this got worse and more embraced by straight whites (mostly male) got all into that Top Gun bullshit with Reagan. But now they have come clean at least and have revealed their true selves and their true motives.. They have always been about white supremacy. Maybe they lent sone respect to WHITE females because they remain the greatest benefactors of feminism in general. However, do not be fooled! They are all about white power. Straight white male power!

R117 and Republicans of Color are...?

R112, the racists used to be part of the Democratic party. Ronnie brought them over to the rethugs to gain more votes.

That is when the Republicans became rethugs and Deplorables were born

Those praising Bush Sr. as being a decent president because of his foreign policy know-how and willingness to "clean up Reagan's mess" are basically saying it's fine to invade countries and kill people on flimsy pretexts to get one's ratings up (Panama, Iraq), while letting the American economy go down the tubes. He was ultimately just an opportunist, a liar, and a failure, just like his son(s).

I'm sorry, I know it was hours ago, but...

[quote] crisis's

Seriously?

[quote][R117] and Republicans of Color are...?

Mostly idiots and grifters.

Look... the Republican party has a long history with our Black folk. There will be Black people who will remain Republican because their daddy, grand daddy, great grand daddy, and great great grand daddy, were Republicans. They will not change out of respect and for their ancestors and what the Republican party did for them at that time. Then you have the Black folk that truly do believe in the ideology of the Republican party ie Walter E. Williams, etc. Finally, you have the idiots and grifters like the Larry Elders. the Candice Owens, Satin & Shine, etc

R120 the president is really not responsible for economic cycles. It is the Federal Reserves responsibility. After ten years of an economic boom, of course there was going to be a contraction. People casting the blame on a president is irresponsible.

This comment would only find a home on DL, but it’s very sad what spectacle the party has become. There is a place for conservatism, and it doesn’t come from increased funding of police departments and questioning democracy when the results don’t go your way in a free and fair elections. Can someone please tell me how creating laws for abortion or dictating school curricula is a conservative principle? Didn’t think so!

Sure, R123. I'm sure it's just a coincidence that when a Republican takes over, the economy goes to shit and then bounces back under a Dem. Yeah, it was a coincidence that Clinton left Dubya with a surplus that suddenly disappeared when Obama came in.

R118. They are self-loathing and delusional….they are the equivalent of gay Republicans.

Ross Douthat has an interesting column today on how in a sane world, it would be conservatives pushing for government to enforce lockdowns, mask mandates and similar restrictions and liberals claiming that this is government overreach.

But Trump

HISSSS!!!!

I hate that Ross Douthat!!

I am not going to actually read the article but I will hiss like a wildcat about how awful he is!!!

HISSSSS!!

HISSSSSS!!!!

r127, I can't read the column due to it being paywalled, but I have been thinking about the fact that the politics of the past decade have turned liberals -- once the counterculture -- into the mainstream elites demanding conformity and turned conservatives -- once the mainstream elites demanding conformity -- into the counterculture.

Strange days indeed.

R127, that's a dumb take because liberals have always actually believed in science.

[quote] that's a dumb take because liberals have always actually believed in science.

Yeah, like the idea that people can change their biological sex.

Republicans have always been racist, elitist trash.

[quote]Yeah, like the idea that people can change their biological sex.

No, liberals don't believe that. Liberals believe that if you want to change what you identify as, that is your right - not that it is *science* based.

Sadly, you really have to go back to Eisenhower to find a decent Republican president.

No, I will throw Ford in there as well, but he was an anomaly after the Nixon presidency blew up and showed how shitty the party had become. Even Cheney and Rumsfeld seemed like decent people in the Ford Administration, but apparently they were just biding time before the standard Republican crazy could come out.

Most of them have always deluded themselves into believing they are higher on the food chain than they actual are. They have that Joe the Plumber mentality where they base their votes on the lies they tell themselves about who they are vs the reality of who they are. Joe the plumber votes Republican because he thinks he's a self-employed, successful plumber. Reality: Samuel is an unemployed plumber who doesn't even have a license and is in debt.

[quote] Liberals believe that if you want to change what you identify as, that is your right

Which is still absurd. I want to identify as Napoleon III, it should be respected by law?

No, laws should be based on reality, not on a fantasy, whether that be the religionists of the right or the delusionists of the left.

R136, look, I personally have some issues with the trans movement based on science, but if someone wants to be transgendered, that is their right. And no real liberal believes you can biologically change your sex.

My issue is when they want to compete as women in sports because biology does come into play. I also have an issue with this nonsense about transwomen going to see a gynecologist.

[quote] And no real liberal believes you can biologically change your sex.

If this is true, r137, why are liberal governments allowing transgender individuals to change their biological sex markers on official identification forms like birth certificates, driver's licenses, etc.?

I agree that if a person wants to identify as something that are not, fine, have at it. But don't make me legally required to indulge in that fantasy.

R129 This seems accurate.

There is no point in arguing with the anti-trans idiot. He is also the person saying the Democrats have abandoned the middle class. He is either unreachable or a troll or both. Ignore him and move on.

So what are you now r139? Trump Cult? Cause that's some sad shit.

[quote] Why are women bodies subjected to laws whereas men are not?

Because men do not gestate new life.

Another thread ruined by the anti-trans jihadi.

[quote] Another thread ruined by the anti-trans jihadi.

Which, of course, is intentional because they are Trumpist Republicans who want to distract from their insanity.

People who engage with obvious trolls will be assumed to be a sock puppet because we don’t argue with trolls. It’s a waste of energy.

R138, I agree with you on the documentation. Trangendered people need to legally be identified by their birth sex because if they end up needing medical treatment and they are unconscious, it does need to be known to treat them. But let's be honest: With most, you can tell on sight anyway.

This is not a thread about trans-people. Stop letting the troll change the subject.

I'm not a troll and I'm not anti-trans. I already said that I believe transgendered people have every right to identify as they please. I just took issue with the idea that liberals ignore the science. Biology is biology.

This is a thread about politics. Stop letting the troll at r147 demand conformity to his beliefs.

Example of those ever so tolerant Republicans?