Defining the 21st Century Republican Party?

[malchior]

I'm not sure why you dismiss the idea that "the right looks at Hungary as a model because of a reaction to cancel culture." It feels to me like you're looking at this in too binary a way. I do think cancel culture is driving people toward fascists like Orban and Trump. Is it the thing that kicked off this fascination with fascism? Definitely not. But is it a contributing factor? I think it is.

I agree with that last part and I'm not dismissing it in any binary way. It is certainly in the math but more like a retrofitted explanation. The sort that we see the GOP do all the time. They approach political problem solving in a destructive way. "We want to do something bad so we have to find something the other side did and twist that into a rationale about why we are justified when we act badly." Whataboutism is practically rule #2 in the GOP playbook. A close second to the authoritarian-adjacent rule #1 - never break publicly with the GOP.

Meanwhile the reality IMO is that the GOP has been flirting with authoritarianism for 50 years. They might have forced out one authoritarian when he got out of control but even by Reagan era they started to act all wounded about it. By the mid-90s they had elements who were aggrieved enough to begin the mutation of their values into illiberal theories about one-party rule that took on its own life.

I think folks often forget that Clinton was beset with all sorts of attacks on his legitimacy and conspiracy theories, we had a mini-1/6 in the "Brooks Brother riot", Obama...I mean everything there, and such. There were Conservatives even talking about how they were going to win one-party rule by winning hearts and mind during Bush II. When that didn't work they got increasingly aggro as they lost voters as they marched into barking madess.

Were there some 'identity politics' blow ups during that whole period? Sure but was it the primary factor *driving* them towards fascism or looking at someone like Orban? Was it even a significant factor? I don't think so.

[El Guapo]

This isn't all that complicated. The dominant Republican factions all want things that are highly unpopular at this point - the economic conservatives want minimal regulation and minimal taxation of the ultra-wealthy. The social conservatives want to roll back gay rights and maintain a privileged position for white protestant christians. Both sides are pushing against the weight of public opinion, and things are in the long run only likely to get worse. If you really want to maintain either agenda, it almost necessarily means authoritarian-style politics.

Orban is the closest model to how the GOP can get that done here.

[Alefroth]

I'm not sure why you dismiss the idea that "the right looks at Hungary as a model because of a reaction to cancel culture." It feels to me like you're looking at this in too binary a way. I do think cancel culture is driving people toward fascists like Orban and Trump. Is it the thing that kicked off this fascination with fascism? Definitely not. But is it a contributing factor? I think it is.

I read that piece as arguing that opposition to cancel culture is one of the contributing factors in conservatism's drift toward fascism. And, from your post above, I think you actually agree with that argument.

I have a hard time giving it merit because one, cancel culture is a red herring created by the right to excuse behavior they want to enact anyway, and two, the right isn't opposed to cancel culture. They are opposed to voices they agree with being silenced. When the shoe is on the other foot, it's an entirely different story.

[hepcat]

I think the right uses cancel culture as a way to fire up their base, and yes they do dabble in it too. But I also think it is a legitimately problematic issue because it has too often been allowed to become a weapon instead of a means for justice in many cases. It destroys lives….and quite often the lives of those who don’t deserve it.

[Holman]

Decrying "cancel culture" is just the latest protest against the leftward evolution of social mores.

The modern Conservative movement was born in the 1960s in opposition to the civil rights movement. In the 1970s and 80s it combated feminism. In the 1990s the enemy was gay rights. In the present century conservatives attack environmentalism, gender fluidity, "globalism," and science generally.

It's telling that reactionaries like Matt Gaetz and Marjorie Taylor Greene cry "communism" as if it's still 1959.

[LordMortis]

I do think concerns for cancel culture are legit but I see the conservative movements latching on to it 1) as a projection, given that my entire youth was seeing far right reaching groups attempting to cancel everyone and everything they deemed a threat and 2) their usage is modern buzzword treatment of their war on political correctness from the 80s. For my entire life, the organized conservative political movement has been waging a war on language as a substitute for advancing reason, inductive or deductive. It's literally the reason I turned away from conservative tendencies which I long to embrace again. I'm flat out offended by sophistry and it has the byproduct of me mistrusting those that wield it everywhere else.

While I remember conservative groups trying to get rid of D&D and The Breakfast Club (oh the how the tides have turned there) and Catcher and the Rye and Rock music and all things "hip hop/thug" I didn't even really get the sense of cancel culture until they tried to pressure Fox into cancelling Married With Children. Maybe because it was started by "that crazy woman form Michigan" though we've had our more than our share but that one really hit home. Back in that day, libertarian conservatives railed against that sort of thinking. Now they direct it, to they point they want to cancel votes.

Note: I am beginning to fear the left learning from right. I do not appreciate how the POTUS makes infrastructure mean whatever he wants it to.

[Holman]

One thing to remember is that when Conservatives say "cancel culture," they're largely complaining about the climate of #MeToo revelations.

In that light, it's hard to take their cries of blanket victimization seriously.

[malchior]

[Pyperkub]

A glimmer of hope, redemption may be possible? Michael Caputo's story. Here's a key bit:

“One thing I learned to do in the Trump era: I learned to hate,” he once said to me in a text. “Now I know hate and it’s really unsettling.” It surprised me that he was only realizing this now. I shot him a screenshot of my own: “Hate is a stronger motivator than love.” I’d starred it in my copy of Stone’s Rules — the 2018 book by his brother-like mentor. Stone’s assessment: “Only a candy-ass would think otherwise.” Caputo’s response: “No, Roger is on the nose as usual: hate motivates,” he texted. “But it also consumes. I’m consumed.”

[Smoove_B]

Rep. Lauren Boebert declares that Christians must rise up and remove ungodly leaders from power and replace them with "righteous men and women of God" who realize that the government should be taking orders from the church.

[Octavious]

Ya that's not terrifying at all.

[Jaymann]

I thought they already did. Synagogues are churches aren't they?

[malchior]

Keep in mind that the non-partisan commission in Colorado has redistricted her out of existence. She's done next year most likely. She's also incredibly corrupt. Somehow her husband suddenly started earning a half million a year doing "energy consulting". His previous experience was as a rough neck. It's amazing how people in the federal government including Congress people, their families, and Supreme Court justices suddenly find huge new income sources right around the time of their public service.

[raydude]

Rep. Lauren Boebert declares that Christians must rise up and remove ungodly leaders from power and replace them with "righteous men and women of God" who realize that the government should be taking orders from the church.

Isn't this the kind of thing Republicans get riled up about when it's "Sharia Law"?

[LordMortis]

Isn't this the kind of thing Republicans get riled up about when it's "Sharia Law"?

That is literally the first place my mind always goes when I hear this stuff.

[LawBeefaroni]

The last vestiges of reason are on the way out. Just how the GOP wants it.

Gonzalez, a father of two, said the resignation was about living a “fuller family life.” But it wasn’t hard to read between the lines. He told the New York Times that he no longer wishes to live a life where he has to “have my wife and kids escorted through the airport” by security and where he receives ominous messages from people saying “we’re coming to your house.”

And Gonzalez is not the only Republican to pass on a race with the specter of MAGA violence looming overhead. Georgia Lt. Governor Geoff Duncan, who stood his ground during Trump’s phony attempts to contest the Georgia election, recently told me that he also had a disturbing realization one day, as he looked out at the security protecting him, about how the threats targeting him and his family were coming from inside the GOP tent. Duncan announced back in May that he wouldn’t run again.

[malchior]

Yeah. Anyone who doesn't see the storm clouds after lightning already burned down the barn is in serious, serious denial right now.

[Carpet_pissr]

They eat their own.

[Smoove_B]

I don't even know where this goes any more. Domestic violent extremism? Defining the party? This is so absurd, it almost feels like satire.

Marge Greene says in 2022 she is going to “blow away the Democrats’ socialist agenda,” then blows up a car with “socialism” on it with a 50-caliber rifle she is auctioning off for contributions.

[Blackhawk]

She'll be nursing that bruise for a while.

[Isgrimnur]

[pr0ner]

Is that her "O" face?

[Unagi]

Shame she wasn't pressed up a little against the scope. so close. But still fun to re-watch over and over at the 19 second point.

[Alefroth]

She lacks the subtlety of Palin.

[Drazzil]

Shame she wasn't pressed up a little against the scope. so close. But still fun to re-watch over and over at the 19 second point.

I'm surprised she didn't break her shoulder.

[Holman]

If she shoots where the (mocked up) site is aimed, that rifle is just going to put a hole in each side of the car and tear up some upholstery in between.

Socialism can handle it, Margie!

[Smoove_B]

Here you go - they know what needs to be done; they don't want to be held accountable for doing it.

"Senator Roy Blunt, Republican of Missouri, said '40 or 45' Republicans would be willing to agree to allow a debt ceiling increase to come a vote, as long as they did not have to cast a public ballot. The problem, he said, was the other five."

[Grifman]

Where does this craziness end:

[malchior]

Let's see if this guy has *any receipts* because this sounds like bullshit. I mean I can believe in a scenario where Tom Cotton is undermining Trump so he can grab the brass ring eventually...but that's about as far as it'd go.

[Isgrimnur]

yay...

Reports of Grima Wormtongue plotting with the Mouth of Sauron to ensure that the hobbits made it to Mount Doom.

[Unagi]

Let's see if this guy has *any receipts* because this sounds like bullshit. I mean I can believe in a scenario where Tom Cotton is undermining Trump so he can grab the brass ring eventually...but that's about as far as it'd go.

So, will Cotton and McConnel now be pariahs to The Base ? All it takes is for Trump to find it possible, not for any of us to.

[malchior]

I'm a little surprised there have been no denials or responses about how their actions were 'misunderstood'. In the end, maybe because they know that unless Trump makes an issue of it...it'll be quickly forgotten.

[Holman]

Trump and MAGA already hate McConnell, and Cotton isn't up for re-election until 2026.

[El Guapo]

Trump and MAGA already hate McConnell, and Cotton isn't up for re-election until 2026.

Plus if Trump turned Sauron's gaze on Cotton, then Cotton would just abase himself until he's in good standing. Plus a report in the NY Times saying something negative about Cotton is a positive for him with regards to the MAGA base.

[Kurth]

Where does this craziness end:

Is it just me, or does Tucker Carlson's facade crack just a bit at about 50 seconds in that video? I've watched it a couple of times, and I think he's actually suppressing a laugh when he says "so [Mike Flynn] actually knows what he's talking about." Even good old Tucker can't stay in character for that line.

[Carpet_pissr]

Has anyone read Michael Greene’s stuff?

Specifically The 48 Laws of Power. https://www.amazon.com/dp/0140280197/re ... 3AGYNREG0W

I increasingly get the sense that many Republicans (especially the MAGA crop) have read, and REALLY absorbed that book and it’s laws.

And seemingly zero Democrats have.

Amoralistic. Brutal. Unscrupulous. Dangerous. Borderline sociopathic. But deadly effective.

(Interesting side note: it’s the number one requested or read book in the prison system)

[malchior]

If you click to see the message in the full it ends with an odd reference to '17 minutes' to act. A reference to the 17th letter - Q.

[Holman]

At the rally last night for GOP VA Gov candidate Glenn Youngkin, they said the ‘Pledge of Allegiance’ to a flag that was carried during the insurrection on Jan 6, as if it was sacred or something.

[malchior]

Just an underline that the "moderate" Republicans are still radicals. This is either complete delusion (lying to himself), ignorance, or just lying. I don't know but he is just not even close to right. The bills he talks about aren't even close to enough to solve the problem yet its too 'radical' for the likes of him.

[Zarathud]

It’s one thing to decry that the other side is playing politics in proposing the “God and puppies Act.” It’s another to say “I hope we can be adults and agree, but I won’t say what I would agree with.”

It’s time to stop talking around the issues, and lay out some solutions.