Republicans dirty tent to keep it big.

[fromderinside]

Republicans are fond of saying they're the big tent party. The party of Lincoln kept their tent in order this year when they became the party that nominated and seeks out the racist, the hater, the denier.

From the Guardian: Cracks deepen inside troubled marriage of Trump and Republican party https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2016/jun/26/donald-trump-republican-party-mitch-mcconnell

One of the most powerful members of Congress, McConnell has acted as a diplomat between the candidate and lifelong Republicans horrified by Trump’s disregard for facts, support from racist groups and wide deviations from central conservative proposals.

From MSNBC: This Week in God, 6.25.16

http://www.msnbc.com/rachel-maddow-show/week-god-62516

It’s hard to feel bad for this pastor: “A Sacramento, Calif., church whose pastor celebrated the Orlando massacre will not have its lease renewed next year, its landlord said Tuesday. Verity Baptist Church Pastor Roger Jimenez sparked an outcry and rebukes from national Baptist leaders by saying at the pulpit last Sunday that his only problem with Omar Mateen’s killing of 49 people at a gay nightclub is that Mateen ‘didn’t finish the job.’”

...and we all know how famous Republicans are for raising their hands when asked whether they believed the biblical creation story was true and that global climate change is a elitist scientific fraud.

How about getting our teeth into the whats and whys for why republicans are so fanatical this year. I'll start with since republicans won't bring forth an immigration reform bill they need to find ways to re-energize white males. They are doing this by raising fear of everything different from whiteness. The idea is to make them angrier so they will go to the polls this year.

Now we can get to it. race, class hatred, fear, ethnic hatred, social equality hatred, its all fair game to republicans this year.

The question is have they gone over the line Hitler drew in 1933? Are we becoming the new 1000 year Reich?

 

[untermensche]

The ignorant and the hateful and the prejudiced are just what the Republicans have been using the past 35 years to get elected.

There really is nothing new here except these people like Trump.

 

[Bronzeage]

The Republicans are not a big tent party, they are a circus tent party.

The big tent idea was a cute phrase created during the Reagan years to cover moderate Republican Congressmen who needed to keep close to the center on abortion rights and civil rights. It was an attempt to keep religious conservatives and tea partiers(before the term was coined) from backing far right conservatives in primaries and pushing out tenured GOP moderates.

It didn't work. All attempts to placate ultra-conservatives was seen as weakness and they pushed harder.

The traditional cover for GOP moderates was the tried and true "rape, incest, and to save the life of the mother" cut out. It allowed any politician to claim to be against abortion, but also sound reasonable enough on the matter to get moderate votes. In recent years, the talking points for the far right have included things about the rarity of conception from rape, including the fantasy science about a woman's body has to power to prevent a rapist sperm from impregnating her. This was an attempt to force moderate GOP elected officials to either toe the line, or bail out of the party. Most bailed, rather than sign on to back creationist text books, declare Climate Change to be a fraud, or any the other litmus tests.

The result of quashing moderate voices in the GOP are best seen in this year's campaign. There is no one left to respond to Donald Trump, or the far right preachers. The GOP is going to lose, and lose big. The only question to be answered is, how many Senators and Congressmen get washed out on the Trump tide?

 

[fromderinside]

The result of quashing moderate voices in the GOP are best seen in this year's campaign. There is no one left to respond to Donald Trump, or the far right preachers. The GOP is going to lose, and lose big. The only question to be answered is, how many Senators and Congressmen get washed out on the Trump tide?

Communication has put us back in sort of a wild west situation where law and order aren't established enough to keep the vulgar and hating muffled. If it is true that a principled aristocracy or social elite drive mores and behaviors the elites have not yet transitioned from the Hollywood/businessman/MIC model which served us from the second WW until recently. What are on the horizon are a financial elite/tech elite combination with a strong dose of MI component trying to stay in power.

From these we have a much younger model for social behavior, more shades of brown, sexual freedom, woman oriented carrying on from where the Hollywood component served and a more regimented hierarchical financial counter.

Seems this election is using the crudest of all communication tools and the lowest common denominator to forge a new majority for the left and the right. Seems to me that group which captures the MI residual which wants social and governmental order will win the day. One can only hope.

 

[Bronzeage]

The result of quashing moderate voices in the GOP are best seen in this year's campaign. There is no one left to respond to Donald Trump, or the far right preachers. The GOP is going to lose, and lose big. The only question to be answered is, how many Senators and Congressmen get washed out on the Trump tide?

Communication has put us back in sort of a wild west situation where law and order aren't established enough to keep the vulgar and hating muffled. If it is true that a principled aristocracy or social elite drive mores and behaviors the elites have not yet transitioned from the Hollywood/businessman/MIC model which served us from the second WW until recently. What are on the horizon are a financial elite/tech elite combination with a strong dose of MI component trying to stay in power.

From these we have a much younger model for social behavior, more shades of brown, sexual freedom, woman oriented carrying on from where the Hollywood component served and a more regimented hierarchical financial counter.

Seems this election is using the crudest of all communication tools and the lowest common denominator to forge a new majority for the left and the right. Seems to me that group which captures the MI residual which wants social and governmental order will win the day. One can only hope.

MIC?

 

[Colonel Sanders]

The current American conservative movement as a whole has the feel of an animal that's mortally ill. There's still plenty of fight in it, but it's weakening and its days are numbered. The Democrats, having been pulled to the right by Reagan have still managed to hold onto most of the center and the left while the GOP gorged itself on everything to the right of right-center and now that poisonous diet is killing it.

What do they have to offer to anyone except for special interests? Big insurance companies, the NRA, and who else? The Democrats are pro business too and in that regard reflect a center-right position once owned by the Republicans. What that means is that the GOP/Tea Party doesn't have a lot more to offer big business than the Democrats do.

Despite the noise of the religious right, the gun-nuts, the paranoid, the xenophobes, the blindly loyal, the ignorant, and the utterly misguided who vote against their own interests, they only makeup about a third of the electorate, if that.

And the loyalists are beginning to bail out.

What can conservatives look to since Reagan and proudly claim? Not economics. Not foreign affairs. Not technology. Not innovation. Certainly not the environment. Not quality of life. Their main calling cards are war, economic disparity, deficits, and hatred of The Other.

And what are they saying they will do to make the country better now? They have nothing.

Trump's gonna build a wall?
He's gonna go to war in the ME?
He's gonna start a trade war with China?
He's gonna do what with healthcare?

And the GOP has nothing better to offer either.

They're dying because they do not possess a single policy or idea that would make the quality of life better for Americans.

 

[Rhea]

MIC?

Military Industrial Complex

 

[Cheerful Charlie]

While many think the GOP is breaking apart, it is sobering to note the GOP still runs many states. What is happening is the end of GOP moderates and GOP politicians who are willing to work with the Democrats for a reasonable set of policies. For now, they may lose the presidency, but we may see a resurgence of scorched Earth right wing politics. If Trump loses, no telling where all this will go over the next 4 years. Probably 4 more years of fanatic obstructionism and wedge issues.

 

[fromderinside]

While many think the GOP is breaking apart, it is sobering to note the GOP still runs many states. What is happening is the end of GOP moderates and GOP politicians who are willing to work with the Democrats for a reasonable set of policies. For now, they may lose the presidency, but we may see a resurgence of scorched Earth right wing politics. If Trump loses, no telling where all this will go over the next 4 years. Probably 4 more years of fanatic obstructionism and wedge issues.

As a practicing political party type let me note that among the elderly there is a decided tendency toward religiosity and civic duty of which the Republican party has made very good use in off years. One the left we talk a good game then we go watch TV on election day.

Sure there aren't as many civic duty types on the left. However there are other types of loyalty. The party can attract large amounts of money and its precinct operations can ensure much of that money goes to those who care to vote in off years either directly or through organizations of which leftists are partial like library, senior center, beautification, parks, social services, and the like.

We aren't doing that. Apparently there is an apparent antipathy to organization among democrats that leads them to believe it is unholy to instruct by paying for services rendered.

I certainly don't believe that given what a shambles the democrats are in outside city centers and even there in off year elections.

The only way the left can take back the states is to give to those interests in the states that are beloved by those on the left and for those who do that to ensure every body knows what is happening.

 

[Colonel Sanders]

While many think the GOP is breaking apart, it is sobering to note the GOP still runs many states. What is happening is the end of GOP moderates and GOP politicians who are willing to work with the Democrats for a reasonable set of policies. For now, they may lose the presidency, but we may see a resurgence of scorched Earth right wing politics. If Trump loses, no telling where all this will go over the next 4 years. Probably 4 more years of fanatic obstructionism and wedge issues.

It's true that both the Democratic and GOP have been pronounced as being close to dead many times, but both have always come back. This time feels different though. While a significant portion of the U.S. electorate is rife with Republican party loyalists, our social policies are markedly traveling to the left. Just today, SCOTUS slapped down Texas' idiotic laws meant to make abortion all but impossible in a 5-3 decision. Had Obama been allowed his right to appoint a SCOTUS justice, it would have been 6-3--a landslide in terms of SCOTUS decisions.

And we have millions who now have health insurance who didn't before. Are those people going to vote for a candidate who promises to take it away? And when Hillary appoints the next Justice, it will cement the ACA and provide the opportunity for it to be expanded and more dominant, even more so if the Dems can win a majority in the House or Senate.

Despite the noise, most Americans want nothing to do with war in the middle east. A POTUS candidate advocating for such without good cause stands no chance of getting elected.

So again, what is it American conservatism has to offer the people. There have always been a significant portion who have voted against their interests, and there always be, but it feels like that number is shrinking.

Of course, I could be wrong. With peace, a thriving economy, and a budget surplus, Americans decided they'd had enough of that and elected Dubbya--twice. Well, at least the second time they elected him. But Dubbya/Cheney fucked things so badly they may have caused irreparable harm to the GOP. And what will the GOP do to take back votes from the Democrats? The only thing they can do is become more moderate.

 

[fromderinside]

Never, ever, minimize the power of unreasoning fear to sway otherwise disinterested voters - animatedly pointing eastward.

 

[Sarpedon]

It's true that both the Democratic and GOP have been pronounced as being close to dead many times, but both have always come back. This time feels different though. While a significant portion of the U.S. electorate is rife with Republican party loyalists, our social policies are markedly traveling to the left. Just today, SCOTUS slapped down Texas' idiotic laws meant to make abortion all but impossible in a 5-3 decision. Had Obama been allowed his right to appoint a SCOTUS justice, it would have been 6-3--a landslide in terms of SCOTUS decisions.

And we have millions who now have health insurance who didn't before. Are those people going to vote for a candidate who promises to take it away? And when Hillary appoints the next Justice, it will cement the ACA and provide the opportunity for it to be expanded and more dominant, even more so if the Dems can win a majority in the House or Senate.

Despite the noise, most Americans want nothing to do with war in the middle east. A POTUS candidate advocating for such without good cause stands no chance of getting elected.

So again, what is it American conservatism has to offer the people. There have always been a significant portion who have voted against their interests, and there always be, but it feels like that number is shrinking.

Of course, I could be wrong. With peace, a thriving economy, and a budget surplus, Americans decided they'd had enough of that and elected Dubbya--twice. Well, at least the second time they elected him. But Dubbya/Cheney fucked things so badly they may have caused irreparable harm to the GOP. And what will the GOP do to take back votes from the Democrats? The only thing they can do is become more moderate.

There will always be an opposition party. American election laws are written in such a way that two parties are inevitable. (and this Brexit fiasco has made me even more skeptical of the alternative, parlimentary scheme). In absense of this pressure, the GOP would have broken up years ago. The only thing that the GOP factions can agree on is their opposition to the DFL. They will continue to wrangle about their platform, and perhaps one or another faction might split off and join the DFL or try to eke out an independent existence until they whither away like so many other third parties, but the essential fact of their remaining an opposition will remain. The lack of a unified platform that they can agree on will hinder them, but isn't as important as merely not being part of the DFL.

 

[Shadowy Man]

So again, what is it American conservatism has to offer the people.

I assume it's racism and homophobia.

 

[Elixir]

So again, what is it American conservatism has to offer the people.

Fear.
An overriding xenophobic terror of that which kills almost a tenth as many Americans every year as do honey bees.
Don't underestimate the power of fear.

ETA: Apology to fromderinside, who already made that point

 

[ideologyhunter]

Demographics are against our hard righties, in the long run -- and the long run may only be another generation -- but their think tanks are working overtime to squeeze every hard-knuckle advantage to keep their grip for as long as possible -- how shabby to make limiting the voter turnout and extreme gerrymandering your ticket to power.

 

[Colonel Sanders]

So again, what is it American conservatism has to offer the people.

Fear.
An overriding xenophobic terror of that which kills almost a tenth as many Americans every year as do honey bees.
Don't underestimate the power of fear.

Well yeah, but what programs and/or policies do they have that people can look to and want? I supposed if blowing the 2nd Amendment was a thing that equated to better quality of life, then okay.

But what education, health care, wages---fucking anything???

"Lower taxes" is one they push, I guess. But it didn't work when Reagan tried it, and was so obviously disastrous under W. that no one can possibly buy it as something that makes our lives better.

I'm really trying to think of something here... something that a person could look at and say, "Yeah, that would be good if they did that."

 

[Cheerful Charlie]

Every time the GOP runs things, we get economic disasters, deficits and bad economies. Yet GOP voters think the GOP is better than the Democrats at running an economy. Why. Plain old, fashioned ignorance and right wing propaganda. And here is the secret of why the GOP hasn't utterly disappeared. Americans listen to the GOP and are ignorant of the sad facts.

 

[fromderinside]

I'm really trying to think of something here... something that a person could look at and say, "Yeah, that would be good if they did that."

One thing I learned as a scientist in a business environment was that face validity is everything. Think of it as calling a spade a space, looking strong by appearance, and the like.

......

.... works like a charm ................. until the chickens come home to roost. Remember Ozymandias? ... all that remains .....

..... fits republicans like a straight jacket.

 

[Elixir]

Fear.
An overriding xenophobic terror of that which kills almost a tenth as many Americans every year as do honey bees.
Don't underestimate the power of fear.

Well yeah, but what programs and/or policies do they have that people can look to and want?
...
I'm really trying to think of something here... something that a person could look at and say, "Yeah, that would be good if they did that."

They don't need no steenkin programs! If they had one they'd be offering it. But they seem convinced that if they can sufficiently terrify the general populace, they can ram almost anything - including an egotistical megalomaniac - down their throats in the name of KEEPING YOU SAFE.

 

[fromderinside]

But they seem convinced that if they can sufficiently terrify the general populace, they can ram almost anything - including an egotistical megalomaniac - down their throats in the name of KEEPING YOU SAFE.

There you go. So here I sit in a small town on the coast, almost no doors are locked, but, they vote republican anyway because they revile democrtats as communists who want to take away their religion and guns.

Life in the no stoplight village.