Today's Republican Party

[southernhybrid]

I was just a toddler during the Eisenhower administration. I attended a Nixon campaign speech to protest him. I somehow made it through the Reagan administration, when it was beginning to become obvious that something was changing in the Republican Party. I never voted for a Republican, but my vague memories of the party prior to the 80s was something very different from what it has become. By today's standards, Nixon was a liberal, even progressive in some ways.

And, although I think some of the problems began to manifest themselves during the 80s, as funding for public health and mental health was drastically reduced while taxes on the wealthiest began to decrease, and the military industrial complex that Ike had warned about continued to grow, with much of the spending going to insanely, often useless weapons.

But, that's just how I see it from my own perspective, and it still makes me wonder how far into darkness will this party of conservatives go. So, I'm starting this thread to give examples of the insanity and dangers of the current movement or lack of movement being fostered by the Republican Party. We know enough about Trump, but what about all those who have either been influenced by him, or who have simply shown the true colors of their racism and classism and fascism. What do we know about them? And, what about the states governed by Republicans? How far will they do to remain in power?

Let's start with Ron Johnson.

https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/2021/03/13/gop-sen-johnson-says-capitol-rioters-didnt-scare-him-might-have-had-they-been-black-lives-matter-protesters/

Several Democrats have called on Sen. Ron Johnson (R-Wis.) to step down after he said he didn’t feel threatened in the Jan. 6 insurrection at the U.S. Capitol — but would have been concerned if the mob had been made up of Black Lives Matter or antifa protesters.
In an interview Thursday on “The Joe Pags Show,” a conservative news radio show, Johnson said he “never felt threatened” by the pro-Trump mob that stormed the Capitol on Jan. 6 hoping to overturn the results of the election.
The siege left five people dead, including a police officer; two other officers who were on duty that day later died by suicide. More than 100 officers were injured and at least 40 rioters have been charged with assaulting law enforcement officers, who were shown being harassed, beaten and sprayed with gas substances by members of the mob.

The South is often blamed for the most blatant racism in the country and certainly there is no shortage of it here, but much of what's going on these days is spread out through most of the country, so we can't simply say this is a Southern problem. Was Johnson always such a bigot or did Trump make it okay to be openly racist?

“I knew those are people that love this country, that truly respect law enforcement, would never do anything to break the law, so I wasn’t concerned,” Johnson told “The Joe Pags Show,” according to a clip of the interview posted Friday by American Bridge 21st Century, a Democratic group, which blasted Johnson for his “blatant racism.”
In the interview clip, Johnson went on to add that he would have been frightened had Black Lives Matter or antifa protesters overrun the Capitol instead.
“Now, had the tables been turned — now, Joe, this will get me in trouble — had the tables been turned and President Trump won the election and those were tens of thousands of Black Lives Matter and antifa protesters, I might have been a little concerned,” Johnson said.

My my.....He's not the least bit shy about his blatant racism. I guess his mama never told him that some things are better left unsaid.....

I have more, but help me out here if you have some examples or opinions on how this party became what it is today. Can it be fixed, or must it be buried. I can disagree with someone's political views and still respect them as a person. The better Republicans are leaving the party in droves. What will be next? I know the Democratic Party is far from perfect. We're talking about humans, after all. And, even the great FDR locked up Japanense citizens in internment camps, so racism knows no party. But, this is about what's happening in the R party.

 

[southernhybrid]

Of course, no mention of Republican racism would be complete without mentioning Marjorie Taylor Greene. Having been a resident of Georgia for about 25 years, it's amazed me that the state went blue this past year, but one district elected one of the most racist, nutty, unqualified representatives I've ever seen.



https://www.nytimes.com/2021/01/29/us/politics/marjorie-taylor-greene-republicans.html

After avoiding the issue for months in the hope that it would resolve itself, Republicans are now facing calls from Democrats to expel Ms. Greene from Congress, pressure from a prominent group of Jewish Republicans to discipline her, and private consternation from within their own ranks.

Their reticence to take action is yet another example of how Republican leaders have allowed those forces to fester and strengthen. Some leaders have privately said they are eager to move past the fringe movements and the charged messaging used by President Donald J. Trump that fueled the assault on the Capitol on Jan. 6.

Representative Kevin McCarthy, Republican of California and the minority leader, has yet to say anything personally about Ms. Greene’s comments or conduct, even after a week in which a slew of problematic social media posts and videos have surfaced from the years before she was elected. In them, Ms. Greene circulated and endorsed a seemingly endless array of hate speech and conspiracy theories explicitly rooted in Islamophobia, anti-Semitism and the belief that government actors were secretly behind a sweeping range of violence.

The liberal watchdog group Media Matters for America reported last summer on the video in which Ms. Greene questioned a basic fact about the deadliest terrorist attack in history, falsely called Mr. Obama, who is Christian, a Muslim, and hinted that the Clinton family had Mr. Kennedy killed. Since then, much more has emerged about her conspiracy claims.

So, the Party has a person who is not only racist, but believes in the most insane conspiracy theories, yet leadership doesn't dare to criticize her.

Meanwhile, the Democrats, sometimes too soon, as in the case of Al Franken, are quick to criticize their own, which imo, is the way it should be. Apparently, Republicans think as long as you have an R after your name, that's all that matters. I know there have been several other cases over the past decade where when charged with sexual harassment or even assault, Republican leaders were very slow to criticize if they criticized at all.

Again, it was very different when Nixon was president. Both parties united against him and he did the right thing by leaving office. How did the party go from that to the disgraceful entity that it's become?

 

[Harry Bosch]

Of course, no mention of Republican racism would be complete without mentioning Marjorie Taylor Greene. Having been a resident of Georgia for about 25 years, it's amazed me that the state went blue this past year, but one district elected one of the most racist, nutty, unqualified representatives I've ever seen.



https://www.nytimes.com/2021/01/29/us/politics/marjorie-taylor-greene-republicans.html

After avoiding the issue for months in the hope that it would resolve itself, Republicans are now facing calls from Democrats to expel Ms. Greene from Congress, pressure from a prominent group of Jewish Republicans to discipline her, and private consternation from within their own ranks.

Their reticence to take action is yet another example of how Republican leaders have allowed those forces to fester and strengthen. Some leaders have privately said they are eager to move past the fringe movements and the charged messaging used by President Donald J. Trump that fueled the assault on the Capitol on Jan. 6.

Representative Kevin McCarthy, Republican of California and the minority leader, has yet to say anything personally about Ms. Greene’s comments or conduct, even after a week in which a slew of problematic social media posts and videos have surfaced from the years before she was elected. In them, Ms. Greene circulated and endorsed a seemingly endless array of hate speech and conspiracy theories explicitly rooted in Islamophobia, anti-Semitism and the belief that government actors were secretly behind a sweeping range of violence.

The liberal watchdog group Media Matters for America reported last summer on the video in which Ms. Greene questioned a basic fact about the deadliest terrorist attack in history, falsely called Mr. Obama, who is Christian, a Muslim, and hinted that the Clinton family had Mr. Kennedy killed. Since then, much more has emerged about her conspiracy claims.

So, the Party has a person who is not only racist, but believes in the most insane conspiracy theories, yet leadership doesn't dare to criticize her.

Meanwhile, the Democrats, sometimes too soon, as in the case of Al Franken, are quick to criticize their own, which imo, is the way it should be. Apparently, Republicans think as long as you have an R after your name, that's all that matters. I know there have been several other cases over the past decade where when charged with sexual harassment or even assault, Republican leaders were very slow to criticize if they criticized at all.

Again, it was very different when Nixon was president. Both parties united against him and he did the right thing by leaving office. How did the party go from that to the disgraceful entity that it's become?

Really good thread and post above. I agree completely. I'm pro-police, pro business, pro economic development, love guns, hunt and fish, worried about the deficit, want a stronger economy that lifts everyone up and I'm a business owner. I should be a republican! But I could never be a party where I had to accept looney theories (Quanon, no climate change, earth 6,000 years old) and accept looney politicians (Trump, Crawley, Greene, and etc.) I'm a proud democrat who can happily disagree with members of my party while still wanting them in. Finally, a very large group of republicans tried to overturn the 2020 election. They did. They have not reconciled this yet.

 

[Politesse]

Former Republican Senator and minority whip Thomas Kuchel, speaking of the rising Conservative movement rearing its head from within the ranks of his Party in 1966, commented that it was "a fanatical neo-fascist political cult in the GOP, driven by a strange mixture of corrosive hatred and sickening fear, who are recklessly determined to either control our party, or destroy it." He's still right; these people will never accept anything other than total control of Party affairs, you cannot forever court their votes without also acceeding to their demands. Kuchel himself fell to betrayal and a fabricated scandal concocted by members of his own Party discontent with his fence-sitting behavior, no doubt one reason for the harsh feelings expressed in the above quote. In any case, there is no true middle ground, no half-fascism. When the country as a whole moves past the fascist ideals that fuel Trumpism, there will be no "other" Republicans left in Washington left to pick up the reigns of the Party, the ranks of the once-moderate wing having long been handily purged from any official role within the government by the actions of their own copartisans.

I think, ultimately, that this iteration of the Republican Party is therefore doomed. Luckily, the Democrats are splitting down the middle, with a large portion embracing what are now called "Progressive" ideals, and another, larger portion urging perpetual continuation of the status quo as understood somewhere in the mid 90s, a position that will be dragged even further to the Right by electoral necessity over the next two decades, as more disgruntled Republicans join their ranks without necessarily conceding their pro-Capitalist and generally bellicose ideals. So, essentially, the usual American balance of power between some version of conservatism and liberalism will still be maintained. The DNC is only being held together, at this point, by the shared threat of Trumpian fascism. With no more credible threat from without, tensions from within will fracture the Party, and the two-Party system will find a new way to endure. To our general detriment, perhaps, but preserving the peace.

 

[Ford]

Again, it was very different when Nixon was president. Both parties united against him and he did the right thing by leaving office. How did the party go from that to the disgraceful entity that it's become?

My first real political memory was watching Nixon's resignation speech on television. If I remember correctly, he was emotional. In fact I'm pretty sure I asked my parents something like "why is the man on TV about to cry?"


I also remember that my father - an Eisenhower Republican - absolutely hated Tricky Dick...which is odd because he was Ike's VP, but anyway, what happened with Trump made me reexamine Nixon and as a result the Republican Party.

There's no argument that Nixon was a crook. Corrupt, racist, vicious towards his enemies real and perceived, but - and this is where the on the verge of tears thing comes in - I think at his core Richard Milhous was a patriot. He spent his entire adult life in public service, first in the military and then as a politician. I don't doubt that he deeply loved his country and wanted to make it better. One of his many flaws was that he was an "end justifies the means" kind of guy. He was also brilliant, and knew it. He figured that he knew what was best for the country, and if he had to break a few eggs to make a better omelet, then he was going to do just that. His ego and lack of moral clarity led him to commit the crimes which drove him out of office and into a post presidency of ill repute, but he thought he was doing it for the benefit of the nation he passionately loved. I remember watching an interview with Nixon on television a couple years before he died. It might have been with Larry King...anyway, it struck me how even at the end of his life and decades after he left the White House, he was still in the game. He clearly had used his resources as an ex-President to keep up to date on world events, his mind was still sharp, and I got the distinct impression that he was sitting there on the sidelines still holding on to hope that maybe someone would come to him and say "Mr. President, we need your help."


Despite everything that had happened, he was still ready to serve.


Trump is of course the polar opposite of Nixon. He's far more corrupt, but he's corrupt in service of himself. There's plenty of talk out there that his run for the White House was really about building his brand, and that he never actually wanted to win, but in any case it's crystal clear that he never got into politics in order to serve the country. Dick Nixon had the decency to resign when he was backed into a corner. Trump held onto his delusion until the end and suggested to his followers that the best course of action was to attack the very democracy he swore to defend.

As for the Republican Party, today's version is also pretty far off from the one that (reluctantly) turned on Nixon. If Gerald Ford is any indication, the 1974 GOP said "wow...that was really uncomfortable. Let's all move on from that unfortunate incident and try to heal the country." 2021 GOP is beyond cynical. They know full well that there was no "widespread voter fraud." They know the election was not "stolen." They know that it was a matter of their President being hopelessly corrupt and incompetent, but they're still dishing out the "well of course there were irregularities" line, giving a wink and a nod to the wild conspiracy theorists, and flat-out refusing to admit that maybe...just maybe...they made a mistake elevating a reality show host to the top of their ticket.


The Republican Party of my youth reluctantly shoved Nixon aside, spent some time in political purgatory, and came back with Reagan. Today's GOP? They're still attached at the hip to Trump. There is no incoming Reagan.

 

[crazyfingers]

The Republican party is backing itself into a shrinking corner. Christian evangelicals are adecline share of the demographic particularly as young people increasingly reject their anti gay racist message and as the religious Nones gain share. The base is getting older. Whites are losing the demographic face to an increasingly diverse population. To hold that shrinking base right wing media and Republican politicians have become more shrill and divorced from reality. At some point gerrymandering will not be enough to win. But it could take 20 bloody years of right wing terrorism for it to finally crash.

I'm not planning to hang around. Once my mom passes my wife and I plan to move to Canada. But I'll vote absentee.

 

[Angry Floof]

And they will become more violent and irrational. They have already traded their humanity for what they thought would give them power, and so conscience and empathy no longer matter to them. There are no principles at play in the GQP. If an R speaks out against Trump or his crazy followers and their crazy beliefs, that's pretty much the end for that R unless they change parties. The remaining Rs, like Lindsey Graham, have gleefully and publicly thrown their conscience out the window for the viral trump hate-power.

Again, there are no principles at play among the GQP. There is no conscience or empathy or humanity left in them. I'm sure they still love their families and in-group, but outside of that, no humanity in them at all. They are a social dominance cult and a social dominance cult values above all else social dominance. What you're seeing in today's GQP are those who do not have the kind of values that would give them pause in how cruel and inhumane and dishonest they will be.

And a message for Lindsey Graham: That magic you speak of? Yes, it's real and it's powerful. It's no wonder you would trade your conscience for it. It has that affect on a lot of people. But Trump is not the source of that power. He just opened it up because he never did have a conscience or sense of humanity in him. So those people like you, who were not able to go against social norms before are now doing what you always dreamed of doing - throwing your conscience to the wind. That's the magic. when you have no qualms about anything, no principles at all, then, yeah, a whole universe of possibilities opens up to you. It's just a universe where you have no humanity, and it is not sustainable, and it will not end well.

 

[ZiprHead]

The Republican party is backing itself into a shrinking corner. Christian evangelicals are adecline share of the demographic particularly as young people increasingly reject their anti gay racist message and as the religious Nones gain share. The base is getting older. Whites are losing the demographic face to an increasingly diverse population. To hold that shrinking base right wing media and Republican politicians have become more shrill and divorced from reality. At some point gerrymandering will not be enough to win. But it could take 20 bloody years of right wing terrorism for it to finally crash.

I'm not planning to hang around. Once my mom passes my wife and I plan to move to Canada. But I'll vote absentee.

I would love to move to Canada. I have many fond memories of vacationing there as a kid. Of course for me it's a two hour drive and cross a bridge, or 3 1/2 hours and cross a bridge for the northern route. Not to mention they're far more sane than many USians.

 

[prideandfall]

the answer to this is quite simple: starting with nixon's campaign and coming to a head in the mid-late 70s, the republican party began to move away from a party ideology of political conservatism (ie, economic frugality, limited policy expansion, environmental regulation, things that actually go along with the word 'conserve') and moved to an ideology of social conservatism, which really has nothing to do with 'conserving' anything and should be called regressive fascism because what it actually is.

this is due to the party actively courting racists and religious fanatics in order to win elections - it was the start of the GOP move towards having their entire intent for governance to be to acquire and maintain power.
not to use it for anything, not to advance an ideology, not even for their personal gain. simply to have it, and keep it, and stop anyone else from getting it or doing anything with it.

you bring a huge swath of racist authoritarian zealous bigots into your party, and the nature of elections means that within a generation or two your party will be full of racist authoritarian zealous bigots.
what happened with the GOP is as predictable and unsurprising as what happened to the democrats - which is that once the republicans went batshit insane, and they no longer needed to court a differing political or social ideology due to the fact that the extremism of the republicans meant there was no longer an 'independent' or swaying segment of the voting population that would go back and forth based a given election or issue, they just stopped giving a shit about progressive ideals or causes.
the democrats don't need to fight for your vote, because who else are you gonna vote for... the republicans? the dem's aren't obsessed with power for its own sake, so they're perfectly happy to just hang back and let the GOP do whatever bullshit they're gonna do and then slip in now and again to maintain whatever the current status quo is.

the continuing extremism of the right caused a continuing complacency on the left, both conditions being caused by the voters for those respective parties.

 

[Cheerful Charlie]

https://www.thedailybeast.com/the-c...le-so-much-theyre-running-for-office?ref=home

...
The riot and its aftermath have sparked a prodigious boom of would-be candidates for office, from Congress to state legislatures and city councils, largely consisting of liberals channeling their anger and angst over a near-death experience for American democracy into action to try to help it.Seasoned political operatives say they’ve never seen anything like it. Amanda Litman, a top fundraising aide to Hillary Clinton’s 2016 campaign, founded the nonprofit group Run For Something in 2017 to give first-time candidates for local office the tools they need to launch a campaign.

In the last two months, said Litman, roughly 11,000 people have registered with Run For Something to express an interest in a campaign for public office. “We saw January 2021 turn into our best candidate recruitment month yet since launching on inauguration day in 2017,” she said. Their registration total for the first two months of 2021 matched their total for the entirety of 2018—a midterm election year that saw a surge in participation nationwide.

“To me, that in the first two months of 2021, more than 10,000 young people said, ‘Fuck this, I’m going to run for office,’ is quite telling,” said Litman. “We did not think there’d be such a surge in interest, we thought it’d stay at the same scale we were at in 2020.”

Litman also said there’s been an uptick in interest in running for election administration positions, like county clerks, given the “big lie” of a stolen election that swirled around Jan. 6. “We ask folks, what’s your story,” said Litman, “and we’ve seen a substantial number point to election administration or democracy writ large as an issue.”

While Run For Something assists the thousands of young people now interested in local positions, on the congressional level, a wave of Democrats have emerged to challenge the GOP lawmakers most associated with Trump’s election conspiracies and Jan. 6.

In Georgia’s deep-red 14th District, three Democratic candidates have already filed to run against Rep. Marjorie Taylore Greene, who rarely misses an opportunity to spread the myth that the 2020 election was stolen from Trump and that “antifa” and not Trump supporters were responsible for the violence on Jan. 6. In Colorado’s 3rd District eight different Democrats have said they will run against Rep. Lauren Boebert, another election conspiracist, and in North Carolina’s 11th District three Democrats have filed to run against Rep. Madison Cawthorn, who addressed the “Stop the Steal” rally that preceded the Capitol attack.
...

2022 will be an interesting election cycle. We will see the start of a large reaction against GOP crazy, obstructionism and incompetence. Against GOP unpatriotic and unAmerican vote stealing and coddling of extremists. This is going to be interesting to see how this all turns out a week after the next voting day votes are tallied. I feel a great disturbance in the Force.

 

[Jimmy Higgins]

The GOP has definitely derailed. They, the Party and a large portion of the base are clamoring to kiss the ring of a non-politician, who hiked up the deficit (pre Covid), enacted tariff trade restrictions, got the US out of TPP, and was romancing with a despot. This is the political equivalent of Revelations and the Christians worshiping the Anti-Christ. Pro deficit, anti-free trade, pro North Korea?!

He is the king of the trolls. He'll troll the left, conspire to commit election fraud, but that is fine, he fulfilled his promise to troll the left. He didn't ax ACA despite having majorities, he didn't get Mexico to pay for a portion of wall that was built, no real trade deal with China, and the jobs certainly didn't come back.

 

[Swammerdami]

I think most of the posts in the thread are right-on. Those who speak of history repeating itself, that lying corrupt politicians have been the norm for centuries, are way off base.

Ford's post discussed Nixon, a crooked President who nevertheless was trying to govern America as best he could for American citizens. LBJ and JFK also had severe personal failings, but were very successful and inspirational as leaders. LBJ signed the Civil Rights Act even knowing it would cost the Democratic Party the South. He made mistakes in Vietnam, but evidence shows that these were sincere mistakes, not about corruptly helping munitions manufacturers or anything like that.

But the present GOP has no sincerity at all, no concern for the benefit of Americans nor Mankind; every news event has to be spun as propaganda. Telling gigantic lies and inciting hatreds are the GOP's only guiding principles. America has never seen anything like this; one would have to look to brutal communist or fascist regimes to find anything like today's Republicans.

Thinking Americans weep to learn that many tens of millions of Americans are so hateful and/or gullible.

 

[southernhybrid]

Thank you all for the input. It would be interesting to have an opinion from someone who recently voted Republican, but it's hard to deny what's going on in the R party right now. I can certainly understand not wanting to attempt to defend their party, since there's nothing to defend.

We all know, if we are honest, that the Republicans in power are working desparately to suppress the vote.


https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/2021/03/13/arizona-quality-votes-kavanagh/

Amid a contentious hearing over proposed restrictions on Arizona’s vote-by-mail system, a Republican state lawmaker argued that voters who hadn’t participated in recent elections should no longer automatically have absentee ballots mailed to them. The reasoning, said state Rep. John Kavanagh (R), is that Republicans care more about alleged voter fraud than Democrats — and that “everybody shouldn’t be voting.”
“Democrats value as many people as possible voting, and they’re willing to risk fraud. Republicans are more concerned about fraud, so we don’t mind putting security measures in that won’t let everybody vote — but everybody shouldn’t be voting,” he told CNN this week.

So, this Republican even admits that voter suppression is okay because "everybody shouldn't be voting."

“Not everybody wants to vote, and if somebody is uninterested in voting, that probably means that they’re totally uninformed on the issues,” Kavanagh said to the outlet. “Quantity is important, but we have to look at the quality of votes, as well.”
His comments have drawn the ire of voting rights experts and critics who accused the Republican of using rhetoric “straight out of Jim Crow,” as author Ari Berman said, at a time when GOP-controlled legislatures are advocating stricter voting measures across the United States. The push from Republicans comes on the heels of former president Donald Trump promoting baseless claims of voter fraud without evidence for months.

I wonder how this man feels about all the poorly informed, poorly educated people who voted for Trump. It's as if this Republican lawmaker in Arizona thinks only those who vote for Republicans are well informed. WTF is wrong with this person, who blatantly says that "we have to look at quality of votes as well?" He actually said that!

The bill to protect voter rights has passed in the House, thanks to the Democrats, but unless the filibuster is ended, or changed in some circumstances, so far, not a single Republican supports the bill to protect voting rights that has already passed in the House.

I am so sick of the false claims in regards to voter fraud, as there has never been evidence that it's a problem. In fact, the tiny number of fraudulent voting has never been enough to change the outcome of an election. It's just another lie used to make voter more difficult for those who tend to vote for Democrats. Since over 90% of Black voters vote for Democrats, it's easy to target that demographic.

 

[Worldtraveller]

More on the side of 'what the gqp has become:

WaPo: https://www.washingtonpost.com/poli...witter&utm_campaign=wp_main&utm_medium=social

Amid a contentious hearing over proposed restrictions on Arizona’s vote-by-mail system, a Republican state lawmaker argued that voters who hadn’t participated in recent elections should no longer automatically have absentee ballots mailed to them. The reasoning, said state Rep. John Kavanagh (R), is that Republicans care more about alleged voter fraud than Democrats — and that “everybody shouldn’t be voting.”

“Democrats value as many people as possible voting, and they’re willing to risk fraud. Republicans are more concerned about fraud, so we don’t mind putting security measures in that won’t let everybody vote — but everybody shouldn’t be voting,” he told CNN this week.

IMO, they have always been this way, at least since the 'southern strategy' switch. But while progress had beat them back into the proverbial closet, the internet, and the orange shitgibbon, as brought them out, loud and proud.

 

[southernhybrid]

It amazes me how easily evangelicals have been manipulated by the Republican Party. I'm happy to say that my own mother, who is an evangelical, or was prior to her late stage dementia, was one of the small percentage of people in her church who never fell for the scheme. She despised Trump and was well aware that he was a pathological liar and was unfit to hold office, yet my one friend, who is also a Republican, and a conservative Christian, was easily manipulated by the party that she, for some reason that I will never understand, continues to support.

The woman is an RN, who continues to work while approaching age 70. She can barely pay her bills and yet she's a proud Republican. I don't understand how a decent person can support these people. Is it possible to convince people like her, that they are supporting a party that offers them nothing? Or, are social conservatives too easily manipulated by the promise of making it harder for women to have safe abortions, or being fearful of having their guns taking away. Yes. My friend ( and we aren't very close ) has a concealed carry permit and never leaves home without her gun. Nobody is going to take her gun away, although it does concern me that a 70 year old woman with multiple health problems, who sometimes requires a cane to walk, thinks that she would be able to use her gun to stop somebody who threatened her.

There are plenty of good people who vote for Republicans. Why is that? Is it possible to help them understand they are being used by a party that cares more about the ultra wealthy and large corporations than it does about people like them? But, I'm getting a bit off topic, so I'll just leave it at that.

Back to voter suppression. There are 43 states and 250 bills pending that will make it harder to vote. Everyone of them is being pushed by Republicans.

 

[southernhybrid]

More on the side of 'what the gqp has become:

WaPo: https://www.washingtonpost.com/poli...witter&utm_campaign=wp_main&utm_medium=social

Amid a contentious hearing over proposed restrictions on Arizona’s vote-by-mail system, a Republican state lawmaker argued that voters who hadn’t participated in recent elections should no longer automatically have absentee ballots mailed to them. The reasoning, said state Rep. John Kavanagh (R), is that Republicans care more about alleged voter fraud than Democrats — and that “everybody shouldn’t be voting.”

“Democrats value as many people as possible voting, and they’re willing to risk fraud. Republicans are more concerned about fraud, so we don’t mind putting security measures in that won’t let everybody vote — but everybody shouldn’t be voting,” he told CNN this week.

IMO, they have always been this way, at least since the 'southern strategy' switch. But while progress had beat them back into the proverbial closet, the internet, and the orange shitgibbon, as brought them out, loud and proud.

We both posted the same thing within minutes of each other, but I'm glad I'm not the only one who has noticed this.

 

[southernhybrid]

And, apparently Indiana has an awful lot of Republican lawmakers with racist and sexist points of view. Some do apologize after they are caught, but I seriously doubt those apologies are sincere.

https://www.indystar.com/story/news/politics/2021/03/04/indiana-lawmakers-have-made-offensive-remarks-social-media/4562081001/

Some Black lawmakers characterized their colleagues' actions as racist after two Black lawmakers were booed while speaking about race on the House floor last week.

The Indiana Black Legislative Caucus is now calling for mandatory implicit bias training.

But it certainly was not the first time Republican lawmakers have been criticized for targeting or mocking underrepresented groups. Over the past five years, Republican lawmakers have made headlines at least 10 different times for making or sharing offensive posts on social media.

'Do they listen?':Black lawmakers, Hoosiers say booing emblematic of larger Indiana problem

Here are the incidents that grabbed the most attention:

You all can read the offensive remarks in the link, if interested.

 

[Keith&Co.]

Cawthorn....

 

[ronburgundy]

More on the side of 'what the gqp has become:

WaPo: https://www.washingtonpost.com/poli...witter&utm_campaign=wp_main&utm_medium=social

Amid a contentious hearing over proposed restrictions on Arizona’s vote-by-mail system, a Republican state lawmaker argued that voters who hadn’t participated in recent elections should no longer automatically have absentee ballots mailed to them. The reasoning, said state Rep. John Kavanagh (R), is that Republicans care more about alleged voter fraud than Democrats — and that “everybody shouldn’t be voting.”

“Democrats value as many people as possible voting, and they’re willing to risk fraud. Republicans are more concerned about fraud, so we don’t mind putting security measures in that won’t let everybody vote — but everybody shouldn’t be voting,” he told CNN this week.

IMO, they have always been this way, at least since the 'southern strategy' switch. But while progress had beat them back into the proverbial closet, the internet, and the orange shitgibbon, as brought them out, loud and proud.

We both posted the same thing within minutes of each other, but I'm glad I'm not the only one who has noticed this.

I third that, with the caveat that the "switch" was still underway and congealing, if you will, through the 70's and even 80's. In fact, you could say that the switch is still slowly happening. The fight leading up to the Civil Rights Act of 1964 drew the ideological lines of a coming culture war that at the time was not aligned with party lines. The social conservatives that Kuchel referenced in 1966 were shifting towards but far from already all in the GOP. Many social conservatives remained Dems up until recently, such as many Union Dems who always thought like a good racist conservative Christian but voted Dem for purely union wage reasons, and now with the demise of Unions have no reason to. I think that is the major reason why the "rust belt" has become more winnable for the GOP.

Social conservatism favors traditionalism, and in the US that means favoring the traditions of oppressive dominance by straight white males and no rights for others. That is why the move to the right of the GOP has coincided with the fact that the only faction of US society that has increased it's support for the GOP during that shift has been white males, who went from being about evenly splite between the parties in 1990, to 61% to 32% lean GOP vs. lean Dem. White women remained about the same in allegiance over that time, while non-white women have shifted even more toward the Dems and non-white men close to about the same. Basically, if you're in the racial and gender group with traditionally all the power then your probability of favoring GOP has greatly increased over the past few decades, while if you are in the powerless group in both those dimensions your probability has decreased, and if you are split between these dimensions, then your probability hasn't changed much. Although, black males did change from GOP to Dem in droves, but it was in the 1960's. In the past 25 years there's been less movement either way.

And it's not all straight white males heading for the racist hills of the GOP, but especially the uneducated. In 1992, increased education among whites was slightly related to increased GOP affiliation. That has completely reversed so that the large skew towards the GOP among white males is largest among those with High school or less, and non existent among college grads. This makes sense if one assumes that favoring traditional bigotries is hindered by intellect and education.

 

[prideandfall]

It amazes me how easily evangelicals have been manipulated by the Republican Party.

i'm pretty sure you have that completely backwards.

the republican party was going along just fine until it brought all the evangelicals in, and *then* it went tits up.
the GOP is what it is because of its voters, not the other way around.