We Lost the Battle for the Republican Party’s Soul Long Ago

[twocoach]

Basically.

I find it hard to imagine with as diverse of a population as we have that everyone can fit comfortably into Team R or Team D. I know I can't.

Yep. Aspirin has side effects; potassium cyanide has side effects. Both sides.

That's what "they" say too. "They" think your team is the potassium cyanide though.

"They" also think Donald Trump was sent by God to save their conservative, religious way of life so pardon me for not giving much time to what "they" think. They think a lot of stupid, inaccurate things.

[twocoach]

cuz…both sides?

Basically.

I find it hard to imagine with as diverse of a population as we have that everyone can fit comfortably into Team R or Team D. I know I can't.

Sorry but one side actively working to tear democracy apart in this nation isn't the same as the other side having some platform issues you don't personally agree with. There will never be one party that you agree 100% with. That isn't even the goal.

[jfish26]

Ranked choice voting is worth a try.

Then, get rid of the electoral college.

I will just say in response - this analysis really stood out to me, in the "friend of the court" brief filed by prominent conservatives (Luttig, etc.) in support of applying 14A-3 as written:

https://www.supremecourt.gov/DocketPDF/ ... 0Brief.pdf

[There] are no special interpretive rules for the many constitutional provisions that render millions of citizens unable to be President, or to hold other federal offices. R. Bernstein, “Lots of People Are Disqualified from Becoming President,” Atlantic (Feb. 4, 2021). Section 3 and these other provisions are not improperly anti-democratic, but rather they set forth foundational rules of the Republic adopted by the People through ratification.

Indeed, the Electoral College is a similar foundational rule. The Electoral College has prevented the People’s first choice—the winner of the national popular vote—from being President five times (1824, 1876, 1888, 2000, and 2016).

Not much would remain of our Constitution if this Court narrowly enforced the Constitution’s provisions
when they potentially frustrate large numbers of voters. The Electoral College, separation of powers, bicameralism, six-year rotating terms for Senators, judicial review, the First Amendment, the Second Amendment, and the many Amendments protecting criminal defendants—and much more—often lead to binding results that are contrary to the majority preferences of voters in many states and nationwide.

[DeletedUser]

Yep. Aspirin has side effects; potassium cyanide has side effects. Both sides.

That's what "they" say too. "They" think your team is the potassium cyanide though.

"They" also think Donald Trump was sent by God to save their conservative, religious way of life so pardon me for not giving much time to what "they" think. They think a lot of stupid, inaccurate things.

Hey, you're preaching to the choir. I'm with you.


....but "they" also includes a lot of people who dislike DT, while simultaneously thinking team D is "potassium cyanide".

It's a very divided country.

[DeletedUser]

cuz…both sides?

Basically.

I find it hard to imagine with as diverse of a population as we have that everyone can fit comfortably into Team R or Team D. I know I can't.

Sorry but one side actively working to tear democracy apart in this nation isn't the same as the other side having some platform issues you don't personally agree with.

I never said they were the same. I'm not sure where you're coming up with that.

I have voted overwhelmingly for 1 party the last handful of years.

[Sparko]

The easiest thing to do in policy or debate is to simply negate. There has never been a party created or conceived that will be able to satisfy all the people all of the time, as that great democrat said when elected as the first republican president.

[zsn]

Ranked choice voting is worth a try.

Then, get rid of the electoral college.

Another thing that the California Republicans advocated and obtained was a nonpartisan group to draw electoral maps and the jungle primary. Representation is reflected by the electorate.

First thing we need to do is remove the ability of those being elected from picking the electorate. There has to be a law that legislative districts have to follow natural or administrative boundaries.

[Sparko]

Ranked choice voting is worth a try.

Then, get rid of the electoral college.

Another thing that the California Republicans advocated and obtained was a nonpartisan group to draw electoral maps and the jungle primary. Representation is reflected by the electorate.

First thing we need to do is remove the ability of those being elected from picking the electorate. There has to be a law that legislative districts have to follow natural or administrative boundaries.

Wisdom as always

[jfish26]

It will shock nobody that Jason Whitlock retweeted this brain disease garbage.

https://x.com/realcandaceo/status/17538 ... q_-8Yt1KMA

It’s obvious that the CIA has fully infiltrated Hollywood and the media, determining which artists are allowed to be successful and what ideas they must therefore promote.

It’s all so clearly artificial.

Most celebrities are unwitting participants and believe their own fame.

All of these idiots simply cannot comprehend that most of the right wing Christian agenda is simply unpopular. And that is WITH Elon thumbing the scale in their favor.

[Shirley]

It will shock nobody that Jason Whitlock retweeted this brain disease garbage.

https://x.com/realcandaceo/status/17538 ... q_-8Yt1KMA

It’s obvious that the CIA has fully infiltrated Hollywood and the media, determining which artists are allowed to be successful and what ideas they must therefore promote.

It’s all so clearly artificial.

Most celebrities are unwitting participants and believe their own fame.

All of these idiots simply cannot comprehend that most of the right wing Christian agenda is simply unpopular. And that is WITH Elon thumbing the scale in their favor.

It can't be possibly be that Trump and "conservative" republican ideas suck and are unpopular.

It can't be that even during a pandemic, voter participation in 2020 increased by 7% over the 2016 election because the majority of people had obviously already had their fill of republicans and Trump, so Biden won the electoral college 306-232, the popular vote by over 7 million votes.

Instead of acting like adults, like Americans, and admitting they lost and moving on, (even tho Democrats accepted that Bush won Florida by ~ 500 votes and the conservatives on the SCOTUS handed him the presidency in 2000), they staged an unsuccessful coup in an effort to disenfranchise the > 81 million people who voted for Biden. And when that didn't work, they started a stream of lies and conspiracies to make themselves feel better instead of admit defeat, and because they knew their low-information cult members, (see Randy's contributions), would eat it with a spoon.

Why? Because the republican business model depends on always having someone to blame. And if there isn't, they're only too happy to make one up. Benghazi. Hunter Biden. The Clinton Foundation. Drag Queens. The list is endless.

If I looked around and saw that I was on the same side as Jason fucking Whitlock, it would shake me to my core.

[Sparko]

The danger of blaming the majority of Americans is that eventually you have to side with our country's enemies, parroting Russian, Iranian and Chinese claims that salve hurt feelings for losing an election as a religious autocrat.

[jfish26]

So, ah, is the GOP finally melting down?

[KUTradition]

it’s hilarious (and sad, obviously)

[jfish26]

I’m past thinking it’s sad. It is apparent that the party has to burn to the ground.

[japhy]

Dang it, I thought for sure they were going to release the Kraken this time.

The far-right political agitator James O’Keefe and the Project Veritas organization he once led have admitted that they had “no evidence” backing up widely spread claims of voter fraud at a Pennsylvania post office during the 2020 presidential election won by Joe Biden.

O’Keefe and Project Veritas made that admission on Monday after settling a lawsuit filed against them by Robert Weisenbach, the postmaster of Erie, Pennsylvania, in state court, concluding one of the more prominent legal battles spurred by Republican lies that Donald Trump was defrauded out of another term in the White House.

“Neither Mr Weisenbach nor any other [postal] employee in Erie, Pennsylvania, engaged in election fraud or any other wrongdoing related to mail-in ballots,” O’Keefe said in a statement published on Monday on X, the social media platform formerly known as Twitter. “I am aware of no evidence or other allegation that election fraud occurred in the Erie post office during the 2020 presidential election.”

Claims by an Erie mail carrier and Trump supporter named Richard Hopkins thrust his local post office into the center of rightwing conspiracy theories seeking to delegitimize Biden’s victory in the 2020 election. Hopkins maintained in a signed affidavit that he had overheard Weisenbach discuss illicitly backdating mail-in ballots, which overwhelmingly favored Biden after Trump urged his supporters to vote in person instead despite vaccines meant to limit the spread of Covid-19 still not being widely available at the time.

But Hopkins recanted his sworn allegations after Lindsey Graham, the Republican senator who was then leader of the chamber’s judiciary committee, cited them to support his calls for a federal investigation into ballot tampering.

Hopkins sought to cast doubt on his retraction soon after, saying in a YouTube video: “I did not recant my statements.” But on Monday, Hopkins confirmed he was wrong to have besmirched Weisenbach.

“I only heard a fragment of the conversation [involving] Weisenbach and reached the conclusion that the conversation was related to nefarious behavior,” Hopkins said in a statement released along with O’Keefe’s. “As I have now learned, I was wrong. Mr Weisenbach was not involved in any inappropriate behavior concerning the 2020 presidential election.”

Hopkins’s statement alluded to the results of a US post office inspector general’s investigation which cleared Weisenbach and his colleagues of wrongdoing. The statement also apologized to Weisenbach, his family and his post office employees, along with anyone who was “negatively” affected by Hopkins’s falsehoods. “I implore everyone … to leave the Weisenbach family alone and allow them to return to their normal, peaceful lives,” Hopkins’ statement added.

[zsn]

I’m past thinking it’s sad. It is apparent that the party has to burn to the ground.

I think that would be a good start. Then, you should incinerate the ashes, smelt the remaining ashes and then shoot those ashes into deep space.

To ensure that nothing resembling the Republican Party ever takes hold anywhere.

[twocoach]

The idiotic House of Reps impeachment proceedings against Dept. of Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas ended with a failed vote. Meanwhile, the Senate Republicans stand ready to block the bipartisan border deal that has been worked on for some time now.

Congressional Republicans continue to fail the American public over and over again and have repeatedly proven that they have no interest or ability in governing.

[jfish26]

The idiotic House of Reps impeachment proceedings against Dept. of Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas ended with a failed vote. Meanwhile, the Senate Republicans stand ready to block the bipartisan border deal that has been worked on for some time now.

Congressional Republicans continue to fail the American public over and over again and have repeatedly proven that they have no interest or ability in governing.

The cherry-on-top is MTG blaming those tricksy Democrats for ... the pubs' inability to count.

[Sparko]

In fairness to the insurrectionist MTG (Rap Name), they thought they would sneak in a vote during a post-operative period. . . And they would have gotten away with too if not for those meddling patriots.

[Shirley]

Never heard of him before.

He isn't wrong.

Warning: Bad Language

Tony Michaels is known as "The Rush Limbaugh of the Left"

I would add "profane" Rush of the left.