Examples of GOP Leadership
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smokinrav
Well-Known Member
It's exactly as you'd expect from the 2020 election cycle
How Marjorie Taylor Greene Won, And Why Someone Like Her Can Win Again
Before Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene set off a metal detector outside the House chamber, lost her committee assignments, or hung a transphobic sign in the halls o…
fivethirtyeight.com
Roger A. Shrubber
Well-Known Member
i'm honestly amazed she and her husband (imagine what a prize he must be...) managed to run a successful business, even if it was handed to them by her parentsIt's exactly as you'd expect from the 2020 election cycle
How Marjorie Taylor Greene Won, And Why Someone Like Her Can Win Again
Before Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene set off a metal detector outside the House chamber, lost her committee assignments, or hung a transphobic sign in the halls o…
captainmorgan
Well-Known Member
printer
Well-Known Member
Just an opinion piece but with some useful observations.
GOP becoming a cult of know-nothings
The Republican Party is becoming a cult. Its leaders are in thrall to Donald Trump, a defeated former president who refuses to acknowledge defeat. Its ideology is MAGA, Trump’s deeply divisive take on what Republicans assume to be unifying American values.
The party is now in the process of carrying out purges of heretics who do not worship Trump or accept all the tenets of MAGA. Conformity is enforced by social media, a relatively new institution with the power to marshal populist energy against critics and opponents.
What’s happening on the right in American politics is not exactly new. To understand it, you need to read a book published 50 years ago by Seymour Martin Lipset and Earl Raab, "The Politics of Unreason: Right-Wing Extremism in America, 1790-1970." Right-wing extremism, now embodied in Trump’s MAGA movement, dates back to the earliest days of the country.
The title of Lipset and Raab’s book was chosen carefully. Right-wing extremism is not about the rational calculation of interests. It’s about irrational impulses, which the authors identify as “status frustrations.” They write that “the political movements which have successfully appealed to status resentments have been irrational in character. [The movements] focus on attacking a scapegoat, which conveniently symbolizes the threat perceived by their supporters.”
The most common scapegoats have been minority ethnic or religious groups. In the 19th century, that meant Catholics, immigrants and even Freemasons. The Anti-Masonic Party, the Know Nothing Party and later the American Protective Association were major political forces. In the 20th century, the U.S. experienced waves of anti-immigrant sentiment. After World War II, anti-communism became the driving force behind McCarthyism in the 1950s and the Goldwater movement in the early 1960s (“Extremism in the defense of liberty is no vice”).
The roots of the current right-wing extremism lie in the late 1960s and 1970s, when Americans began to be polarized over values (race, ethnicity, sex, military intervention). Conflicts of interest (such as business versus labor) can be negotiated and compromised. Conflicts of values cannot.
You see “the politics of unreason” in today’s right-wing extremism. While it remains true, as it has been for decades, that the wealthier you are, the more likely you are to vote Republican (that’s interests), what’s new today is that the better educated you are, the more likely you are to vote Democratic, at least among whites (that’s values, and it’s been driving white suburban voters with college degrees away from Trump’s “know-nothing” brand of Republicanism).
Oddly, religion has become a major force driving the current wave of right-wing extremism. Not religious affiliation (Protestant versus Catholic) but religiosity (regular churchgoers versus non-churchgoers). That’s not because of Trump’s religious appeal (he has none) but because of the Democratic Party’s embrace of secularism and the resulting estrangement of fundamentalist Protestants, observant Catholics and even orthodox Jews.
The Democratic Party today is defined by its commitment to diversity and inclusion. The party celebrates diversity in all its forms — racial, ethnic, religious and sexual. To Democrats, that’s the tradition of American pluralism — “E pluribus unum.” Republicans celebrate the “unum” more than the “pluribus” — we may come from diverse backgrounds, but we should all share the same “American values.”
One reason right-wing extremism is thriving in the Republican Party is that there is no figure in the party willing to lead the opposition to it. Polls of Republican voters show no other GOP figure even close to Trump’s level of support for the 2024 GOP presidential nomination. The only other Republican who seems interested in running is Gov. Larry Hogan of Maryland, who recently criticized “Trump cancel culture.”
If Trump does run in 2024, as he seems inclined to do, can he win?
It all depends on President Biden’s record. Right now, Biden’s popularity is not very high. In fact, Biden and Trump are about equally unpopular (Biden’s job approval is 52 to 43 percent negative, while Trump’s favorability is 54 to 41.5 percent negative). Biden will be 82 years old in 2024. If he doesn’t run, the Democrats will very likely nominate Vice President Harris. When a president doesn’t run for reelection, his party almost always nominates its most recent vice president, assuming they run (Richard Nixon in 1960, Hubert Humphrey in 1968, Walter Mondale in 1984, George H.W. Bush in 1988, Al Gore in 2000, Joe Biden in 2020). Democrats would be unlikely to deny a black woman the nomination. There is also some talk of Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg running if Biden doesn’t.
The 2024 election could be a rematch between Trump and Biden. Or a race between Trump and a black woman. Or between Trump and a gay man with a husband and children. Lee Drutman, a political scientist at the New America think tank, recently told The New York Times, “I have a hard time seeing how we have a peaceful 2024 election after everything that’s happened now. I don’t see the rhetoric turning down. I don’t see the conflicts going away. ... It’s hard to see how it gets better before it gets worse.”
thehill.com
GOP becoming a cult of know-nothings
The Republican Party is becoming a cult. Its leaders are in thrall to Donald Trump, a defeated former president who refuses to acknowledge defeat. Its ideology is MAGA, Trump’s deeply divisive take on what Republicans assume to be unifying American values.
The party is now in the process of carrying out purges of heretics who do not worship Trump or accept all the tenets of MAGA. Conformity is enforced by social media, a relatively new institution with the power to marshal populist energy against critics and opponents.
What’s happening on the right in American politics is not exactly new. To understand it, you need to read a book published 50 years ago by Seymour Martin Lipset and Earl Raab, "The Politics of Unreason: Right-Wing Extremism in America, 1790-1970." Right-wing extremism, now embodied in Trump’s MAGA movement, dates back to the earliest days of the country.
The title of Lipset and Raab’s book was chosen carefully. Right-wing extremism is not about the rational calculation of interests. It’s about irrational impulses, which the authors identify as “status frustrations.” They write that “the political movements which have successfully appealed to status resentments have been irrational in character. [The movements] focus on attacking a scapegoat, which conveniently symbolizes the threat perceived by their supporters.”
The most common scapegoats have been minority ethnic or religious groups. In the 19th century, that meant Catholics, immigrants and even Freemasons. The Anti-Masonic Party, the Know Nothing Party and later the American Protective Association were major political forces. In the 20th century, the U.S. experienced waves of anti-immigrant sentiment. After World War II, anti-communism became the driving force behind McCarthyism in the 1950s and the Goldwater movement in the early 1960s (“Extremism in the defense of liberty is no vice”).
The roots of the current right-wing extremism lie in the late 1960s and 1970s, when Americans began to be polarized over values (race, ethnicity, sex, military intervention). Conflicts of interest (such as business versus labor) can be negotiated and compromised. Conflicts of values cannot.
You see “the politics of unreason” in today’s right-wing extremism. While it remains true, as it has been for decades, that the wealthier you are, the more likely you are to vote Republican (that’s interests), what’s new today is that the better educated you are, the more likely you are to vote Democratic, at least among whites (that’s values, and it’s been driving white suburban voters with college degrees away from Trump’s “know-nothing” brand of Republicanism).
Oddly, religion has become a major force driving the current wave of right-wing extremism. Not religious affiliation (Protestant versus Catholic) but religiosity (regular churchgoers versus non-churchgoers). That’s not because of Trump’s religious appeal (he has none) but because of the Democratic Party’s embrace of secularism and the resulting estrangement of fundamentalist Protestants, observant Catholics and even orthodox Jews.
The Democratic Party today is defined by its commitment to diversity and inclusion. The party celebrates diversity in all its forms — racial, ethnic, religious and sexual. To Democrats, that’s the tradition of American pluralism — “E pluribus unum.” Republicans celebrate the “unum” more than the “pluribus” — we may come from diverse backgrounds, but we should all share the same “American values.”
One reason right-wing extremism is thriving in the Republican Party is that there is no figure in the party willing to lead the opposition to it. Polls of Republican voters show no other GOP figure even close to Trump’s level of support for the 2024 GOP presidential nomination. The only other Republican who seems interested in running is Gov. Larry Hogan of Maryland, who recently criticized “Trump cancel culture.”
If Trump does run in 2024, as he seems inclined to do, can he win?
It all depends on President Biden’s record. Right now, Biden’s popularity is not very high. In fact, Biden and Trump are about equally unpopular (Biden’s job approval is 52 to 43 percent negative, while Trump’s favorability is 54 to 41.5 percent negative). Biden will be 82 years old in 2024. If he doesn’t run, the Democrats will very likely nominate Vice President Harris. When a president doesn’t run for reelection, his party almost always nominates its most recent vice president, assuming they run (Richard Nixon in 1960, Hubert Humphrey in 1968, Walter Mondale in 1984, George H.W. Bush in 1988, Al Gore in 2000, Joe Biden in 2020). Democrats would be unlikely to deny a black woman the nomination. There is also some talk of Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg running if Biden doesn’t.
The 2024 election could be a rematch between Trump and Biden. Or a race between Trump and a black woman. Or between Trump and a gay man with a husband and children. Lee Drutman, a political scientist at the New America think tank, recently told The New York Times, “I have a hard time seeing how we have a peaceful 2024 election after everything that’s happened now. I don’t see the rhetoric turning down. I don’t see the conflicts going away. ... It’s hard to see how it gets better before it gets worse.”
GOP becoming a cult of know-nothings
The party is now in the process of carrying out purges of heretics who do not worship Trump or accept all the tenets of MAGA.
thehill.com
captainmorgan
Well-Known Member
Marjorie Taylor Greene rallies Republicans to shut down OSHA over 'communist tactics' on work safety
Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene (R-GA) has called on Republicans to defund the Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) after she accused them of using "communist tactics" to mandate vaccines.In a tweet on Sunday, Greene lashed out at President Joe Biden's attempt to use OSHA to...
www.rawstory.com
captainmorgan
Well-Known Member
Republican caught denouncing vaccines to Fox News then supporting them to CNN just hours later
Rep. Nancy Mace (R-SC) was caught trying to pretend she's both for and against vaccines. In an interview with Fox News on Sunday, Mace told Jason Chaffetz she believed in "natural immunity." But just hours later, she had another story for CNN. "One of the things that the CDC has not done and no...
www.rawstory.com
captainmorgan
Well-Known Member
The escaped mental patient known as Lin Wood is now attacking Matt Gaetz and MTG, this qtard civil war could turn out to be quite entertaining.
Roger A. Shrubber
Well-Known Member
i wonder if there aren't some democratic influencers out there now, spreading real information, disguised as republican bullshit, to open a few eyes. the truth, couched in the right language, designed to appeal to magat conspiracy theorists, could do more damage to the republicans than an atomic bomb. "reveal" that key democrats are only pretending to believe in trumps bullshit, to "ride his coat tails"...."discover" that key pieces of disinformation are actually propaganda designed to milk more money out of gullible trump supporters...spread a rumor that the reason they don't want you to get the vaccine is that covid turns people into mindless, easily manipulated zombies, and that is exactly what the republicans want, followers who will do as told, when told...
turn their own weapons against them...
DIY-HP-LED
Well-Known Member
Former Pentagon chief Mark Esper sues to publish material in memoir
Esper and Trump were sharply divided over the use of the military during civil unrest in June 2020 following the killing of George Floyd.
Former Pentagon chief Mark Esper sues to publish material in memoir
Esper and Trump were sharply divided over the use of the military during civil unrest in June 2020 following the killing of George Floyd.
WASHINGTON — Former Defense Secretary Mark Esper claims in a lawsuit against the Defense Department that material is being improperly withheld from his use as he seeks to publish an “unvarnished and candid memoir” of his time in President Donald Trump’s Cabinet.
The lawsuit, which was filed Sunday in U.S. District Court in Washington, describes the memoir, “A Sacred Oath,” as an account of Esper’s tenure as Army secretary from 2017 to 2019 and his 18 months as defense secretary, which ended when Trump fired him in a tweet just days after the president lost his reelection bid.
The period in which Esper was Pentagon chief was “an unprecedented time of civil unrest, public health crises, growing threats abroad, Pentagon transformation, and a White House seemingly bent on circumventing the Constitution,” the lawsuit says.
Esper and Trump were sharply divided over the use of the military during civil unrest in June 2020 following the killing of George Floyd. Other issues led the president to believe Esper was not sufficiently loyal while Esper believed he was trying to keep the department apolitical. Firing a defense secretary after an election loss was unprecedented, but the opening allowed Trump to install loyalists in top Pentagon positions as he continued to dispute his election loss.
The lawsuit contends that “significant text” in the memoir, scheduled for publication by William Morrow in May, is being improperly held under the guise of classification and that Esper maintains it contains no classified information. The suit notes that Esper is restricted by his secrecy agreements from authorizing publication without Pentagon approval, or face possible civil and criminal liability.
The lawsuit quotes from a letter Esper sent to Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin criticizing the review process. He wrote that he had been asked not to quote Trump and others in meetings, not to describe conversations he had with Trump, and not to use certain verbs or nouns when describing historical events.
The letter describes other problematic subjects and says some 60 pages of the manuscript contained redactions at one point. Agreeing to all of those redactions would result in “a serious injustice to important moments in history that the American people need to know and understand,” Esper wrote.
hanimmal
Well-Known Member
I really hope so.
It wouldn't be that hard to do. But at the same time I wish the Democrats would just step up and go to war against the propaganda spewing right wing media empires in full view. Just scorched earth shit anytime some news talking head starts going down the 'Democrats are in turmoil' shit or 'inflation'. They should just light them up about how those idiots are choosing the narratives, and spin it back on them with the reality of why the Democratic party is doing the right thing by not following the right wing playbook of causing a severe economic recession to beat back inflation like Reagan/Republicans and that there are currently 50+210 or so in congress actively trying to harm our nation. And point out (in real time) that by spamming the words 'inflation' nonstop they scaremonger instead they could be talking about how the Saudi's and Russians are once again attacking Americans' wallets by screwing with prices.
But that would take the Democrats not only being serious people (which most are) but also understanding the art of trolling, which is not something they really as a group seem able to do.
captainmorgan
Well-Known Member
Jared Kushner’s Saudi Ass-Kissing and Murder-Excusing Is About to Pay Off
The former first son-in-law is poised to receive a very large check from his Saudi pals, and all he had to do was let them get away with murder.
DIY-HP-LED
Well-Known Member
Maybe they will offer him asylum too, but I figure he's been ratting out Trump and everybody in sight, Jarred would be first in the door if anybody would. He's got Abby Lowe for a lawyer, he's no dummy and he knows how this is gonna end.Jared Kushner’s Saudi Ass-Kissing and Murder-Excusing Is About to Pay Off
The former first son-in-law is poised to receive a very large check from his Saudi pals, and all he had to do was let them get away with murder.www.vanityfair.com
injinji
Well-Known Member
Oh no. Not taking advantage of your father being in politics.Jared Kushner’s Saudi Ass-Kissing and Murder-Excusing Is About to Pay Off
The former first son-in-law is poised to receive a very large check from his Saudi pals, and all he had to do was let them get away with murder.
does this mean he made the top of Trumps 'Enemies List'?Jared Kushner’s Saudi Ass-Kissing and Murder-Excusing Is About to Pay Off
The former first son-in-law is poised to receive a very large check from his Saudi pals, and all he had to do was let them get away with murder.
It's exactly as you'd expect from the 2020 election cycle
How Marjorie Taylor Greene Won, And Why Someone Like Her Can Win Again
Before Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene set off a metal detector outside the House chamber, lost her committee assignments, or hung a transphobic sign in the halls o…
CatHedral
Well-Known Member
Our very own peace brokerJared Kushner’s Saudi Ass-Kissing and Murder-Excusing Is About to Pay Off
The former first son-in-law is poised to receive a very large check from his Saudi pals, and all he had to do was let them get away with murder.
DIY-HP-LED
Well-Known Member
A word from Joe and MBS would literally deliver Jared's head on a silver platter. He should be worried about what the CIA might do to him for fucking with Uncle Sam, there are many princes in SA who can replace him and MBS is widely despised.