You can date the origin to any number of points (New Deal, Great Society, to name a few). Republicans in Washington have (re?)created themselves into a party of opposition. They aren't designed to do the dirt-under-the-fingernails work of governing. They don't want to, and they don't know how.
No accountability over the last 50 years is almost as responsible as supremes approving bribery. They've been planning this for the last 40 years as democrats twiddle their thumbs. Biden is now standing up to them with a stick not a corrupted sycophant, but it needs to be stronger as the voters are being shut out of voting.
The threat is all too real. The reason is that so many of these people on the right are true believers who are quite fascinated by the idea of burning it all down. Scorched earth actions are very appealing to them because they don’t think in terms of fixing things or have hope for the future except for a glorious fantasy future under dear leader or in heaven for eternity. Demagogues flock to the true believers knowing they can hoodwink them and exploit them and motivate them to do their bidding, which includes extreme measures and violence when necessary.
We are dealing with mythologies which are ancient and which run deep (original sin, patriarchy, strict father metaphor, the savior coming soon, etc.). Our risks are compounded by the power and money which has already been accumulated and by the desire to control others and to punish those seen as responsible for corrupting their pure and safe world with libertine and permissive ideas (originating from Satan himself). They live with massive apprehension and fear and suspect all those who are not in their group or camp who they imagine are inferior and secretly hostile. We swim in a sea of ignorance and apathy.
This is going to take a lot of letters to the editor, petitions, rallies, marches, and calls to senators and congresspersons. Good luck with that. Have we got what it takes?
Thom I concur but I separately don't accept that "morbidly rich men who own them. They naively believe that fascist leaders like Trump actually care about “unborn children,” budget deficits, and Drag Queen Story Hour."
They don't care about anything past the bottom line. The only issue that impresses them is whether they will get more gravy if Trump is reinstated.
Wow, it’s Friday pop quiz day on Thom’s post. And it’s multiple choice with multiple right (intended pun) answers.
Q. "Why have Republicans in the House and Senate become so unable or unwilling to do the nation’s business?"
A. Besides Instructor Thom’s proposed answer, there’s even a simpler one: They never had any intention of governing for the good of the people and country once they got to D.C.. Who has time for governance when one can be stroking the ego on a Faux News interview show or watching yourself on C-Span reruns at 3:30 am spew lies on the chamber floor? Then it’s off to a day of fun fund raising at a Hater’s Convention.
Just to repeat something that I have written in other threads, because it is worth saying again, Trump is a man who betrayed everybody who ever trusted him--his workers, his creditors, his investors, his wives. And now he is following habit and trying to stiff his lawyers and throwing anyone who once stood up for him under the bus if that will save him. There is no loyalty here--Pence, Barr, etc. are all good examples of how anything less than total fealty to The Leader, no matter how long they have been together, is met with symbolic (or if were possible actual) death. It's a bad strategy of course because it encourages people to flip on him, but he clearly doesn't care.
It's amazing that his followers keep on trusting him, yet like a friend of mine some still believe he is "for the little guy". And McConnell and his buddies...they must not have read "Frankenstein", where a created monster becomes uncontrollable. It’s Charlie Brown, Lucy and the football. But then Trump really is a good example of the parable of the scorpion and the frog; as they sank together the bug said, "I can't help it, that's just my nature."
Democracy's future, ironically, will depend on its present.
Today, American democracy is threatened by US Congressional Republicans, extremist right-wing media including Fox News, and social media (X and Truth Social,) morbidly rich mega-donors and wealthy Corporations, the former guy, red state congresses and judiciary, SCOTUS majorities, Evangelicals and Christian Nationalists, misogynists, election, vaccine and climate change deniers, anti-abortionists, anti-LGBTQ "patriots," anti-immigrant, anti-Semites and other racists, white supremacists, gun-toting Second Amendment militia, (Proud Boys, Oath Keepers,) red state Governor "banners," (CRT, DEI, SEL, Disney, drag shows, books, trans healthcare,) Moms for Liberty, and Artificial Intelligence-using foreign nationals mis- and disinformation campaigns.
Their "Job One" will be to destroy American democracy by encouraging voter suppression and purges, gerrymandering, and voter intimidation, including through violence, (using firearms if necessary,) and stochastic terrorism.
Voting will be very important in '24, to the extent "permitted" by those with power, and their supporters, who'd rather we didn't.
"At first, Thyssen got along with Hitler, even believed he was influencing the man, but when he began to object to some of the Nazi leader’s worse excesses he had to flee the country with his family to avoid being murdered."
Those in the red hats don't get this. The closer to the dictator, the faster they are eliminated once the dictator has achieved his power goals. There are no exceptions in history of which I know.
A political consultant gave a talk at our local Dem. meeting. He said in AZ the "independents" are mostly Libertarian (32.5%) and they think AZ is heading in the right direction probably because public school funding failed in the election this week. They prefer school vouchers where parents get $ 7-100,000 per student to spend on anything they wish to deem "education" with no oversite. This is already gutting the public school budget.
An unrelenting thirst for power and vengeance comes at the expense of perspective.
They crusade onwards - blind to their own mortality - every step more perilous than the last as they venture into a forest of death, all in pursuit of mythical trees of gold.
These people know not what they do. They fight without mind, for the deliverance of a hell they too will certainly inhabit.
When the morbidly rich realized a crazy person could actually win they saw an opportunity. TFG, however, can not win in '24. My guess is they will spend to win the senate, where they can 'Kill it Under the Dome' as they like to say. If senate rules are not adjusted to reflect democracy we're in for more non-governing for years to come. I'm calling on the DNC to prioritize the senate races in play.
Public school funding is all but dead in AZ. Private school vouchers of $7-100,000 per student has already caused millions of debt. Who wouldn't rather fly to Colorado and take a ski lesson than do situps in gym class? All legal.
Why Are Republicans Fiddling with Fascism While the Shutdown is Looming?
Q. "Why have Republicans in the House and Senate become so unable or unwilling to do the nation’s business?"
A. Because, in the terminology of the 1950s, they are fucking traitors.
You can date the origin to any number of points (New Deal, Great Society, to name a few). Republicans in Washington have (re?)created themselves into a party of opposition. They aren't designed to do the dirt-under-the-fingernails work of governing. They don't want to, and they don't know how.
No accountability over the last 50 years is almost as responsible as supremes approving bribery. They've been planning this for the last 40 years as democrats twiddle their thumbs. Biden is now standing up to them with a stick not a corrupted sycophant, but it needs to be stronger as the voters are being shut out of voting.
The threat is all too real. The reason is that so many of these people on the right are true believers who are quite fascinated by the idea of burning it all down. Scorched earth actions are very appealing to them because they don’t think in terms of fixing things or have hope for the future except for a glorious fantasy future under dear leader or in heaven for eternity. Demagogues flock to the true believers knowing they can hoodwink them and exploit them and motivate them to do their bidding, which includes extreme measures and violence when necessary.
We are dealing with mythologies which are ancient and which run deep (original sin, patriarchy, strict father metaphor, the savior coming soon, etc.). Our risks are compounded by the power and money which has already been accumulated and by the desire to control others and to punish those seen as responsible for corrupting their pure and safe world with libertine and permissive ideas (originating from Satan himself). They live with massive apprehension and fear and suspect all those who are not in their group or camp who they imagine are inferior and secretly hostile. We swim in a sea of ignorance and apathy.
This is going to take a lot of letters to the editor, petitions, rallies, marches, and calls to senators and congresspersons. Good luck with that. Have we got what it takes?
Thom I concur but I separately don't accept that "morbidly rich men who own them. They naively believe that fascist leaders like Trump actually care about “unborn children,” budget deficits, and Drag Queen Story Hour."
They don't care about anything past the bottom line. The only issue that impresses them is whether they will get more gravy if Trump is reinstated.
Treasonous Congress persons are trying to save their traitorous asses. If trump wins they will get pardoned.
Wow, it’s Friday pop quiz day on Thom’s post. And it’s multiple choice with multiple right (intended pun) answers.
Q. "Why have Republicans in the House and Senate become so unable or unwilling to do the nation’s business?"
A. Besides Instructor Thom’s proposed answer, there’s even a simpler one: They never had any intention of governing for the good of the people and country once they got to D.C.. Who has time for governance when one can be stroking the ego on a Faux News interview show or watching yourself on C-Span reruns at 3:30 am spew lies on the chamber floor? Then it’s off to a day of fun fund raising at a Hater’s Convention.
Just to repeat something that I have written in other threads, because it is worth saying again, Trump is a man who betrayed everybody who ever trusted him--his workers, his creditors, his investors, his wives. And now he is following habit and trying to stiff his lawyers and throwing anyone who once stood up for him under the bus if that will save him. There is no loyalty here--Pence, Barr, etc. are all good examples of how anything less than total fealty to The Leader, no matter how long they have been together, is met with symbolic (or if were possible actual) death. It's a bad strategy of course because it encourages people to flip on him, but he clearly doesn't care.
It's amazing that his followers keep on trusting him, yet like a friend of mine some still believe he is "for the little guy". And McConnell and his buddies...they must not have read "Frankenstein", where a created monster becomes uncontrollable. It’s Charlie Brown, Lucy and the football. But then Trump really is a good example of the parable of the scorpion and the frog; as they sank together the bug said, "I can't help it, that's just my nature."
Democracy's future, ironically, will depend on its present.
Today, American democracy is threatened by US Congressional Republicans, extremist right-wing media including Fox News, and social media (X and Truth Social,) morbidly rich mega-donors and wealthy Corporations, the former guy, red state congresses and judiciary, SCOTUS majorities, Evangelicals and Christian Nationalists, misogynists, election, vaccine and climate change deniers, anti-abortionists, anti-LGBTQ "patriots," anti-immigrant, anti-Semites and other racists, white supremacists, gun-toting Second Amendment militia, (Proud Boys, Oath Keepers,) red state Governor "banners," (CRT, DEI, SEL, Disney, drag shows, books, trans healthcare,) Moms for Liberty, and Artificial Intelligence-using foreign nationals mis- and disinformation campaigns.
Their "Job One" will be to destroy American democracy by encouraging voter suppression and purges, gerrymandering, and voter intimidation, including through violence, (using firearms if necessary,) and stochastic terrorism.
Voting will be very important in '24, to the extent "permitted" by those with power, and their supporters, who'd rather we didn't.
"At first, Thyssen got along with Hitler, even believed he was influencing the man, but when he began to object to some of the Nazi leader’s worse excesses he had to flee the country with his family to avoid being murdered."
Those in the red hats don't get this. The closer to the dictator, the faster they are eliminated once the dictator has achieved his power goals. There are no exceptions in history of which I know.
All the above are correct. If only Biden would have chosen a different attorney general and would use his bully pulpit we might have a chance.
"Burning it all down" is exactly what Israel is doing in Gaza. Could there be a connection?
A political consultant gave a talk at our local Dem. meeting. He said in AZ the "independents" are mostly Libertarian (32.5%) and they think AZ is heading in the right direction probably because public school funding failed in the election this week. They prefer school vouchers where parents get $ 7-100,000 per student to spend on anything they wish to deem "education" with no oversite. This is already gutting the public school budget.
Amen. Exactly.
An unrelenting thirst for power and vengeance comes at the expense of perspective.
They crusade onwards - blind to their own mortality - every step more perilous than the last as they venture into a forest of death, all in pursuit of mythical trees of gold.
These people know not what they do. They fight without mind, for the deliverance of a hell they too will certainly inhabit.
When the morbidly rich realized a crazy person could actually win they saw an opportunity. TFG, however, can not win in '24. My guess is they will spend to win the senate, where they can 'Kill it Under the Dome' as they like to say. If senate rules are not adjusted to reflect democracy we're in for more non-governing for years to come. I'm calling on the DNC to prioritize the senate races in play.
Public school funding is all but dead in AZ. Private school vouchers of $7-100,000 per student has already caused millions of debt. Who wouldn't rather fly to Colorado and take a ski lesson than do situps in gym class? All legal.