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

[zsn]

The only goal of every patriotic American in this election should be the reduction of the current incarnation of the Republic Party to its proverbial ashes, so that it can rebuild itself into a functioning political party.

I didn’t always agree with what they were doing or how they were doing it but that’s politics. Now, it’s just dangerous. I think the beginning of the end started with the Gingrich era and was completed by 2016.

[Sparko]

The only goal of every patriotic American in this election should be the reduction of the current incarnation of the Republic Party to its proverbial ashes, so that it can rebuild itself into a functioning political party.

I didn’t always agree with what they were doing or how they were doing it but that’s politics. Now, it’s just dangerous. I think the beginning of the end started with the Gingrich era and was completed by 2016.

Righteous. McVeigh was part of Newt's path of damage.

[japhy]

Finally, the far right has promise of a new homeland that will welcome their traditional values and families.

Russia, in many ways an authoritarian state, has designated itself as a "safe haven" for citizens of Western countries looking to escape "destructive neoliberal ideas."

Russian President Vladimir Putin signed a decree that Moscow will assist any foreign nationals who want to apply for temporary residence in Russia "outside the quota approved by the Russian government and without providing documents confirming their knowledge of the Russian language, Russian history and basic laws," Russian state media reported Monday.

People interested in temporary residency may apply for visas through a simplified and expedited process. Russia will begin issuing three-month visas as early as next month.

They can request residency based on the rejection of their home countries' "destructive neoliberal ideals," which differ from "traditional Russian spiritual and moral values." Russia is expected to produce a list of which countries are included in this exception, TASS said in its report on the new decree.

Some far-right figures and conspiracy theorists celebrated news of the new policy in a manner that aligns with a growing online trend, particularly among certain far-right personalities, of praising Russian society and comparing it positively to the US and other Western nations.

Praise for Russia has been a common occurrence among some prominent figures on the right, including former President Donald Trump, who has often spoken positively about Putin. Others have parroted Russian talking points, while others have celebrated some elements of Russian society.

In February, after giving the Russian leader a platform to spread misinformation about the war in Ukraine, former Fox News personality Tucker Carlson, went on to praise aspects of Russian society, calling it "shocking" and "disturbing" how much "nicer" Moscow was than any city in the US. He said his position was still pro-America, though.

Others influential in the online space have also shown varying degrees of admiration for Russian society as Putin tries to present Russia as a place where, as Russian state media said, "traditional values reign supreme" and condemn Western ideals.

Rhetoric of this nature has shown up in the Russian leader's speeches. In 2022, Putin criticized the West as "satanic," arguing that it had rejected "moral norms" and "traditional" values. And in his Victory Day speech in 2023, he attacked "Western globalist elites" for what he said was the destruction of "family and traditional values that make a person human."

Alex Jones already is filling out his application. Caveat emptor

[jfish26]

What an encapsulation of how we got to where we're at, and where it seems like we're finally heading.

August 20, 2024

https://heathercoxrichardson.substack.c ... st-20-2024

At Chicago’s United Center today, the delegates at the Democratic National Convention reaffirmed last week’s online nomination of Kamala Harris for president. The ceremonial roll-call vote featured all the usual good natured boasting from the delegates about their own state’s virtues, a process that reinforces the incredible diversity and history of both this land and its people. The managers reserved the final slots for Minnesota and California—the home states of Democratic vice presidential candidate Tim Walz and presidential candidate Kamala Harris, respectively—to put the ticket over the top.

When the votes had been counted, Harris joined the crowd virtually from a rally she and Walz were holding at the Fiserv Forum in Milwaukee, Wisconsin. Last month the Republicans held their own national convention in that venue, and for Harris to accept her nomination in the same place was an acknowledgement of how important Wisconsin will be in this election. But it also meant that Trump, who is obsessed with crowd sizes, would have to see not one but two packed sports arenas of supporters cheer wildly for her nomination.

He also had to contend with former loyalists and supporters joining the Democratic convention. His former press secretary, Stephanie Grisham, told the Democratic convention tonight that when the cameras are off, “Trump mocks his supporters. He calls them basement dwellers.” Grisham endorsed Harris, saying: “I love my country more than my party. Kamala Harris tells the truth. She respects the American people and she has my vote.”

Trump spoke glumly to a small crowd today at the Livingston County Sheriff’s Office in Howell, Michigan.

It was almost exactly twenty years ago, on July 27, 2004, that 43-year-old Illinois state senator Barack Obama, who was, at the time, running for a seat in the U.S. Senate, gave the keynote address to that year’s Democratic National Convention. It was the speech that began his rise to the presidency.

Like the Democrats who spoke last night, Obama talked in 2004 of his childhood and recalled how his parents had “faith in the possibilities of this nation.” And like Biden last night, Obama said that “in no other country on earth, is my story even possible.” The nation’s promise, he said, came from the human equality promised in the Declaration of Independence.

“That is the true genius of America,” Obama said, “a faith in the simple dreams of its people, the insistence on small miracles.” He called for an America “where hard work is rewarded.” “[It's] not enough for just some of us to prosper,” he said, “[f]or alongside our famous individualism, there's another ingredient in the American saga.”

He described that ingredient as “[a]belief that we are connected as one people. If there's a child on the south side of Chicago who can't read, that matters to me, even if it's not my child. If there's a senior citizen somewhere who can't pay for her prescription and has to choose between medicine and the rent, that makes my life poorer, even if it's not my grandmother. If there's an Arab American family being rounded up without benefit of an attorney or due process, that threatens my civil liberties. It's that fundamental belief—I am my brother's keeper, I am my sister's keeper—that makes this country work. It's what allows us to pursue our individual dreams, yet still come together as a single American family. ‘E pluribus unum.’ Out of many, one.”

Obama emphasized Americans’ shared values and pushed back against “those who are preparing to divide us, the spin masters and negative ad peddlers who embrace the politics of anything goes.” He reached back into history to prove that “the bedrock of this nation” is “the belief that there are better days ahead.” He called that belief “[t]he audacity of hope.”

Almost exactly twenty years after his 2004 speech, the same man, now a former president who served for eight years, spoke at tonight’s Democratic National Convention. But the past two decades have challenged his vision.

When voters put Obama into the White House in 2008, Republicans set out to make sure they couldn’t govern. Mitch McConnell (R–KY) became Senate minority leader in 2007 and, using the filibuster, stopped most Democratic measures by requiring 60 votes to move anything to a vote.

In 2010 the Supreme Court handed down the Citizens United v. Federal Election Commission decision, declaring that corporations and other outside groups could spend as much money as they wanted on elections. Citizens United increased Republican seats in legislative bodies, and in the 2010 midterm elections, Republicans packed state legislatures with their own candidates in time to be in charge of redistricting their states after the 2010 census. Republicans controlled the key states of Florida, Wisconsin, North Carolina, Ohio, and Michigan, as well as other, smaller states, and after the election, they used precise computer models to win previously Democratic House seats.

In the 2012 election, Democrats won the White House decisively, the Senate easily, and

a majority of 1.4 million votes for House candidates. Yet Republicans came away with a thirty-three-seat majority in the House of Representatives. And then, with the 2013 Shelby County v. Holder decision, the Supreme Court gutted the Voting Rights Act, making it harder to protect Democratic voters.

As the Republicans skewed the mechanics of government to favor themselves, their candidates no longer had to worry they would lose general elections but did have to worry about losing primaries to more extreme challengers. So they swung farther and farther to the right, demonizing the Democrats until finally those who remain Republicans have given up on democracy altogether.

Tonight’s speech echoed that of 2004 by saying that America’s “central story” is that “we are all created equal,” and describing Harris and Walz as hardworking people who would use the government to create a fair system. He sounded more concerned today than in 2004 about political divisions, and reminded the crowd: “The vast majority of us do not want to live in a country that’s bitter and divided,” he said. “We want something better. We want to be better. And the joy and the excitement that we’re seeing around this campaign tells us we’re not alone,” he said.

And then, in his praise for his grandmother, “a little old white lady born in a tiny town called Peru, Kansas,” and his mother-in-law, Marion Robinson, a Black woman from the South Side of Chicago, he brought a new emphasis on ordinary Americans, especially women, who work hard, sacrifice for their children, and value honesty, integrity, kindness, helping others, and hard work.

They wanted their children to “do things and go places that they would’ve never imagined for themselves.” “Whether you’re a Democrat or a Republican or somewhere in between,” he said, “we have all had people like that in our lives:... good hardworking people who weren’t famous or powerful but who managed in countless ways to leave this country just a little bit better than they found it.”

If President Obama emphasized tonight that the nation depends on the good will of ordinary people, it was his wife, former first lady Michelle Obama, who spoke with the voice of those people and made it clear that only the American people can preserve democracy.

In a truly extraordinary speech, perfectly delivered, Mrs. Obama described her mother as someone who lived out the idea of hope for a better future, working for children and the community. “She was glad to do the thankless, unglamorous work that for generations has strengthened the fabric of this nation,” Mrs. Obama said, “the belief that if you do unto others, if you love thy neighbor, if you work and scrape and sacrifice, it will pay off. If not for you, then maybe for your children or your grandchildren.”

Unlike her husband, though, Mrs. Obama called out Trump and his allies, who are trying to destroy that worldview. “No one has a monopoly on what it means to be an American,” she said. “No one.” “[M]ost of us will never be afforded the grace of failing forward,” she said. “We will never benefit from the affirmative action of generational wealth. If we bankrupt a business…or choke in a crisis, we don't get a second, third, or fourth chance. If things don't go our way, we don't have the luxury of whining or cheating others to get further ahead…we don't get to change the rules so we always win. If we see a mountain in front of us, we don’t expect there to be an escalator waiting to take us to the top. No, we put our heads down. We get to work. In America, we do something."

And then Mrs. Obama took up the mantle of her mother, warning that demonizing others and taking away their rights, “only makes us small.” It “demeans and cheapens our politics. It only serves to further discourage good, big-hearted people from wanting to get involved at all. America, our parents taught us better than that.”

It is “up to us to be the solution that we seek.” she said. She urged people to “be the antidote to the darkness and division.” “[W]hether you’re Democrat, Republican, Independent, or none of the above,” she said, “this is our time to stand up for what we know. In our hearts is right. Not just for our basic freedoms, but for decency and humanity, for basic respect. Dignity and empathy. For the values at the very foundation of this democracy.”

“Don’t just sit around and complain. Do something.”

[jhawks99]

I knew this was coming, the only question was who would go there 1st?

https://www.rawstory.com/ann-coulter-gus-walz/

[KUTradition]

I knew this was coming, the only question was who would go there 1st?

https://www.rawstory.com/ann-coulter-gus-walz/

they’re trash

this was my reaction: https://www.cbsnews.com/minnesota/news/ ... et-reacts/

[twocoach]

I knew this was coming, the only question was who would go there 1st?

https://www.rawstory.com/ann-coulter-gus-walz/

To me, it doesn't even matter if the kid is on the spectrum or not. One family member being profoundly happy and proud of their family member's accomplishment is ENTIRELY NORMAL. I would act like that at everything my kid did if they hadn't already threatened me not to.

Republicans are trying so fucking hard to turn all the insults of them back on Democrats that they are just proving that they have completely lost touch with what is normal. Fuck them.

If my kid was ever that proud of me and of being my kid then I would die a happy man.

[jhawks99]

I don't know what kind of mind could take a spontaneous outpouring of love from a kid to his dad as being "weird" or some kind of "weakness". WTF is wrong with them? Republicans have lost their soul is the perfect thread for this.

[Overlander]

Ann has no soul.
Also, I doubt she has a reflection in a mirror

[Shirley]

NSFW!

#AngryVeteran Rants About Gus Walz's DNC Appearance!


dammit

[jhawks99]

If you volunteer for the wrong people, the party comes looking for you.

https://www.nytimes.com/2024/08/25/us/t ... =url-share

[Overlander]

If you volunteer for the wrong people, the party comes looking for you.

https://www.nytimes.com/2024/08/25/us/t ... =url-share

Gestapo tactics.

[KUTradition]

it’s amazing how things like tampons and books can get so many, so worked up

hilariously sad

[MICHHAWK]

in the last 3.5 years we have:
defunded the police
"secured" the border
complicit in one of the greatest clusterphucques in the history of the world
funded 2 wars
blew the lid off the national debt
bankrupted the folks


tampons in the boys toliet don't even register. anything goes. remember.

[jfish26]

in the last 3.5 years we have:
defunded the police
"secured" the border
complicit in one of the greatest clusterphucques in the history of the world
funded 2 wars
blew the lid off the national debt
bankrupted the folks


tampons in the boys toliet don't even register. anything goes. remember.

From Trump’s sleepy, sedated stump speech to MICH’s ears. With zero stops at the “wait, are these things true” waypoint.

[Overlander]

What police have been defunded?

If it has happened, I sure don't see a reduction in Oakley Tactical sunglasses, Tacti-Cool gear and battle-ready police cruisers.

[Sparko]

What police have been defunded?

If it has happened, I sure don't see a reduction in Oakley Tactical sunglasses, Tacti-Cool gear and battle-ready police cruisers.

Those Trump sneakers and NFTs are not being budgeted for, incredibly.

[jhawks99]

From the Party of Disgusting Human Beings

https://talkingpointsmemo.com/edblog/tr ... aign-event

[KUTradition]

in a race to the bottom with noem

Montana's Tim Sheehy, who hopes to flip the Senate, is caught on tape making racist comments about Native Americans

[japhy]

So, much of the Repugnican party now seems to have been on the Putin's payroll. For fucks sake the denigration of the party since trumpty plumpty took over is just incredible. Selling their souls and our country to the highest bidder.

The media company now alleged to have been part of a Russian election interference plot featured interviews with prominent Republicans such as a daughter-in-law of former President Donald Trump, one of Trump's lawyers and a member of Congress, a USA TODAY review of its content reveals.

Tenet Media’s podcasts, broadcast on platforms such as YouTube, included appearances by Republican National Committee Co-Chair Lara Trump, who is married Donald Trump's son Eric; Rep. Brian Mast of Florida; longtime Trump lawyer Harmeet Dhillon; and former Trump national security aide Kash Patel.

Other notable Trump-supporting guests who have appeared on Tenet Media include Republican U.S. Senate nominee Kari Lake of Arizona, former Republican presidential candidate Vivek Ramaswamy and former Democratic Rep. Tulsi Gabbard of Hawaii, who recently endorsed Trump.

By Thursday night, several of the videos were taken down and replaced with a message from YouTube saying the associated account was cancelled.

Paul Dans, who at the time was leading Project 2025, also appeared on a Tenet Media podcast days before resigning from his role.

None of the guests or their representatives provided comment for USA TODAY.

Friendly interviews, partisan rhetoric

The interviews often highlighted Republican talking points. Mast, an Afghanistan veteran, criticized Democratic vice-presidential nominee Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz’s military record and accused him of "deserting his troops" in his National Guard unit before they deployed to Iraq. The episode was called, “Tim AWOLTZ CANNOT Be VP.” (Walz retired two months before his unit received an alert order to go to war, and he submitted his retirement paperwork five months before the order, in order to run for Congress.)

Three weeks ago, another episode blamed Walz for a nonprofit fraud scheme that targeted Minnesota's pandemic relief funds while he was governor — an issue over which House Republicans have since subpoenaed him.

“We’re big-time Lara Trump fans,” said host Benny Johnson, a far-right media personality who is advertised as “talent” for Tenet Media, when Lara Trump appeared on his program.

Trump spoke to Johnson about her efforts to replace many employees with Trump loyalists at the RNC shortly after she took over the national party. “You’re never going to get rid of all the bad apples, but we really do bring in a good group of people with us,” she said.

The Kremlin agrees!

Lara Trump, Mast, Dhillon, Lake, Patel, Ramasawmy, and Gabbard all appeared on Johnson's show. He said Wednesday he was a victim in the Russian plot.

The Department of Justice alleges, although not using the company’s name in the charging documents, that unregistered foreign agents for Russia created Tenet Media as a way to influence the 2024 election and paid as much as $100,000 per episode to some of its commentators.

Host Benny Johnson says he was duped

The plot involved creating a profile for a fake private investor named Eduard Grigoriann and holding that fake persona out as the funder of the supposed news organization. Tenet Media's mission statement on its homepage and business filings with the Tennessee secretary of state match the information in the indictment.

“A year ago, a media startup pitched my company to provide content as an independent contractor,” Johnson said on X, formerly known as Twitter. “Our lawyers negotiated a standard, arms length deal, which was later terminated. We are disturbed by the allegations in today’s indictment, which make clear that myself and other influencers were victims in this alleged scheme.”

Matt Christiansen, who hosted the podcast about the COVID fraud, said on X: "At no point has anyone ever directed me what to say or not to say, and I would never agree to anything otherwise."

Well that makes it all better.

The Department of Justice did not name the beneficiary of the Russian misinformation plot, but "propaganda proposals" the department shared Wednesday in a similar case involving Russian interference made clear that the Russian government favors the Republican Party and would prefer to see Trump re-elected over Democratic Vice President Kamala Harris.

In that case, the U.S. government seized dozens of internet domain names the Russians designed to look like legitimate news organizations. The Russian documents also proposed disseminating information to swing-state residents, residents of conservative states, Hispanic Americans, Jewish Americans, and users of sites such as Reddit and 4chan.

Trump has publicly complimented Russian President Vladimir Putin. During the 2016 election, Russia interfered on Trump's behalf, the U.S. intelligence community found, although a special counsel investigation did not find evidence of a conspiracy with the Trump campaign.

Democrats have led the way in providing military aid to help Ukraine fight off Russia's invasion, but Donald Trump, his running mate Sen. JD Vance, R-Ohio, and a segment of the Republican Party have criticized that funding. Trump has also said he would allow Russia to do "whatever the hell they want” to U.S. allies in Europe that don't spend enough on defense.

“While [U.S. Political Party B] are still in power, they are trying to maintain the current foreign policy priorities,” read the Russian documents, with the DOJ’s redaction apparently referring to the Democrats as Party B. “[U.S. Political Party A], still in opposition, have been criticizing these priorities.”

The Russian documents referred to Party B as as “left-wing and far-left globalists who advocate for perversion of traditional moral and religious values,” and Party A as “normal people whose priority is to protect the traditions of the American way of life.” Another document said, “The [U.S. Political Party A] is currently advancing a relatively pro-Russian agenda.”

Ron Reagan must be very proud of his party. Is there any part of this party that trumpty hasn't tainted with his orange smudge? Is there an actual conservative party or does this party have to be burned to the ground and start all over again?

Even Lindsey Graham who famously said, "If we nominate Trump, we will get destroyed ... and we will deserve it.", has fallen into line and suckles at the fetid teat of trumpty plumpty.

The party of insurrection, treason, and rubes.