Esquire: Where Do Republicans Go From Here?

[Saviolo]

Full article here: http://www.esquire.com/news-politics/politics/a16636401/republican-party-gone-mad/

Scrapie is a prion disease, similar in its effect to Bovine Spongiform Encephalopathy (Mad Cow Disease) and to the wasting disease that afflicts herds of deer, and to kuru, a disease first seen among tribes in Papua New Guinea that was transmitted in part through the ritual cannibalism of the tribe’s dead. Elsewhere in Asia, the custom of eating the brains of a monkey was responsible for cases of Creutzfeldt-Jacob Disease, yet another prion illness. Once established in the victim, prion disease destroys the human nervous system. It eats away at the higher functions of the brain. So, when I talk about the prion disease that afflicts the Republican Party, and the conservative movement that is its only life force any more, I do not use the metaphor idly. The party has lost what’s left of its mind.

Far too many people are far too delicate about this. The Republican Party is completely mad, and it has been going in that direction for a very long time. It has been raving through all the halls of all the governments, large and small, like a lost soul with a big knife. The symptoms of the enveloping disease have been obvious for decades, ever since Ronald Reagan served up the first helping of monkey brains in 1976, when he nearly wrested the party’s nomination from Gerald Ford. It is full-blown now, and it is general throughout the Republic. The Republican Party has infected every institution with its own private insanity.

It did not begin with Donald Trump, god knows. It was there when Bob Dole, who is looked upon now with nostalgic fondness, declared that he represented all those people who didn’t vote for Bill Clinton, an unprecedented public statement by the leader of an opposition party. It was there when various influential Republicans met on the night of Barack Obama’s inauguration and declared open warfare against his agenda before they even knew what it was, and this in the middle of the worst fiscal crisis since the Great Depression. It was there when they meddled in the care of Terri Schiavo and it is there in their pathological insistence that supply-side economics works. It cost Merrick Garland a seat on the Supreme Court. And it was the direct cause of the election of the current president*.

Well, no punches pulled here! About time some major reporting outlets have noticed that Republicans have entirely lost their minds. Progressives have been saying it since Reagan. Even Bill Maher has been saying since Bush Jr.

[DinahMoeHum]

1. Ahhhh, dessert!!

[unblock]

2. all right! esquire, but i'll take it! can't wait to see something like this in the new york times!

indeed, the republican party has been pushed in this direction since the propagandists took over most of talk radio and launched foxnews.

[OhNo-Really]

21. Actually, the takeover began 80 years ago

The minute FDR signed the New Deal

The history is here, lot of reading but seems to be legit history

"Below are some snippets that connect the threads of an 80 year plan that haven't been completely connected by others. The Kochs + The Family + The John Birch Society. A very clever plan to grasp the world for the few, while squeezing dignity and even life from the many.

A specific faux Christian Plan has been spread and taught to politicians, dictators, corporate leaders, pastors, mullahs, power players. Special attention and lots of financing are poured into youth training worldwide to create vessels of power. David Bahati was chosen by the Family to be a Ugandan vessel of power, for example.

Secret Five (5) Key Men cells are in place. For a chilling wake-up, reality check, Google: Stalin "five man cells" Forming "Five man cells" is a very old and effective organizing technique.

The same message is taught to all religious persuasions forming this worldwide Web of Power and Influence called The Family, a seemingly cynical reference to the Mafia."

https://www.dailykos.com/stories/2011/2/14/944611/-

[FakeNoose]

25. Eisenhower would have had my vote in 1956

But I was only 4 years old at the time, so...

[OhNo-Really]

27. I remember "I like Ike" buttons

The John BirchSociety called Ike a communist.

Tax rate on highest earners, $5,000,000 was 90% on income back then, not capital gains.

The progressive tax rate kept irresponsible greed in check.

Reagan Et Al destroyed that, and ended America's all chances for economic fairness.

This is an interesting compilation of America's tax history all under one roof.

https://www.dailykos.com/stories/2010/11/19/921587/-

TAX HISTORY

Addressing 3 above: Overview of taxation for higher earners.

From 1913 (with the exception of years 2025-2029 25%), high wage earners have paid an average of at least 70% tax. For many years the highest earners even paid up to 90% tax. Here's a snap shot of the highest tax rates:

90% The tax rate for high earners from 1944 - 1964

70% tax rate for high earners from 1964 - 1982 until it dropped to

The Tax Holiday for High Earners Begins, and continues today whether or not the Bush Tax Cuts Sunset:

50% in 1982. Not good enough! It dropped AGAIN to

38.5% in 1987. Still not good enough. It dropped AGAIN to

28% in 1988! Bush I, increased it to

31% in 1991, Clinton increased it to

39.6% in 1993, and Bush II dropped it AGAIN to

38.6% in 2002. Still not good enough. Bush II dropped it AGAIN to

35% in 2003, where it will remain if the Bush Tax Cuts are Sunset/end;

39.6%, the rate for years 1993 - 2000 BUT STILL HISTORICALLY HUGELY LOW.

Why have the highest earners, those above $5,000,000 a year, been on a Tax Holiday for nearly 30 years?

Singles and median income wage earners haven't EVER been given a tax holiday anything close to the Hay Day the uber wealthy have enjoyed since Reagan.

We have a right to demand fairness be returned for ALL, including the uber wealthy.

[FakeNoose]

28. Ike's 90% corporate tax made sense when you look at it this way

On top of this, nobody ever questioned Eisenhower's loyalty to the US Constitution.
Whatever happened to the sensible Republicans of the 1950's? Oh, that's right!

[OhNo-Really]

29. Nice visual! May I have the link?

This 80 year history of the now winning radical right New Deal Haters is helpful for understanding how we got here today.

It helps explain SO MUCH. Like why the Midwest GOP hated Ike and considered him a communist.

80 Years of Planning: The Kochs + John Birch Society + The Family + Libertarians = GOP Today

The theocratic underpinning of the so-called, world-wide AUSTERITY MOVEMENT, began in 1930 in response to the New Deal.

https://www.dailykos.com/stories/2011/2/14/944611/-

1930's: Abraham Veriede, the founder of "The Prayer Breakfast organization now known as The Family" began to organize an anti-Union battle in the Northwest. He taught a new religion to America's CEOs, politicians, and the wealthy."

Veriede organized leading tycoons to create Prayer Groups where they plotted and planned the demise of the New Deal and sponsored young people to become politicians. Today there are "prayer groups" in every State Legislature.



ABOUT IKE
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Presidency_of_Dwight_D._Eisenhower

In domestic affairs, Eisenhower attempted to avoid partisanship whenever possible. When Democrats regained control in the 1954 Senate and House elections, limiting his freedom of action on domestic policy, his largely nonpartisan stance enabled him to work smoothly with the Democratic leaders Speaker Sam Rayburn in the House, and Majority Leader Lyndon Johnson in the Senate. Biographer Jean Edward Smith describes the relationship between the three:

Ike, LBJ, and "Mr. Sam" did not trust one another completely and they did not see eye to eye on every issue, but they understood one another and had no difficulty working together. Eisenhower continued to meet regularly with the Republican leadership. But his weekly sessions with Rayburn and Johnson, usually in the evening, over drinks, were far more productive. For Johnson and Rayburn, it was shrewd politics to cooperate with Ike. Eisenhower was wildly popular in the country....By supporting a Republican president against the Old Guard of his own party, the Democrats hoped to share Ike's popularity.[96]

[FakeNoose]

30. I don't have a link

Most of these jpegs that I post here are found on Twitter threads. (I don't create these myself.)
I just copy them off of there. You make take a copy of anything I post.

When I post gifs (the animated pictures) they aren't from Twitter.
They're usually ones that I find by searching on Google.
I like sharing them here on DU just to add some interest.

[OhNo-Really]

31. Thanks

My computers all crashed so using old iPad which is a nightmare to DU post with.

[n2doc]

3. Ahooogah! Ahooogah! Dive! Dive! n/t

[Saviolo]

4. Only one way!

[TheBlackAdder]

8. They're Cons, they can always go lower. That's not dirt, BTW, it's a massive dung mound.

The Mound of the Hound of the Baskervilles.

[niyad]

5. may they, and all their supporters and enablers, receive everything they deserve.

actually, I was going to respond to "where do they go from here" with "straight to hell"

[malthaussen]

9. This is hell, nor are we out of it. n/t

[niyad]

10. sadly, you are absolutely correct

[C Moon]

15. I agree. I'm not celebrating anything because there is nothing to celebrate.

[LiberalLovinLug]

24. Make me think of another tangent. How they hate being happy or celebrating

And they are as close to what a non-infected brain would call "happy" when they are the cause of, and the witness to anyone they consider the "other" in a state of distress and unhappiness.

edit: I was going to add that Obama's laughing mug did nothing to bridge any gaps. In fact seeing him and his happy family, and by extension Democrats celebrating having such an intelligent, warm, funny, family man as their President only deepened the lines on their foreheads. They seethe with offensive hatred when Dems have the WH. And then seethe with defensive anger defending their President to the death when in power.

[SharonClark]

6. It's Charlie Pierce.

[Orrex]

7. Straight to hell, where they belong.

[lagomorph777]

11. Yay! Monkey Brains!

[kairos12]

12. Since Goldwater in 1964.

[Proud Liberal Dem]

13. Goldwater started off extremist but became more sane as he got older

He was strongly supportive of allowing gays to serve openly in the military back when we were having that debate in the early 1990's and apparently hated the religious right.

[Salviati]

14. Elephantine Spongiform Encephalopathy

Conservative ideology will swiss cheese your brain.

[BaronChocula]

16. Where do they go from there???

I say they keep going back to scaring suburban white women (soccer moms, security moms, etc) into voting for them.

[Ferrets are Cool]

17. Every day I think they cant go any lower, and every day they prove me wrong. nm

[spike91nz]

18. They go

To the creation of a crisis which permits the suspension of rights and the next election. It is their only way out, short of the republicans seeking sanctuary by moving en-mass to Russia.

[Botany]

19. Bovine Spongiform Encephalopathy smack

monkey brain eating

[Virtual Burlesque]

26. KFC

... Kentucky Fried Chimpanzee brains ...

[OhNo-Really]

20. Pierce is Pissed

What thinking person isn't?

What's true is The Billionaire Deplorables organized and began dismantling our Democracy THE MINUTE FDR signed the two page NEW DEAL.

The whole history, the genesis of todays Koch Et All sponsored Libertarian aka Tea Party aka Freedom Caucus aka John Birch Society aka GOP is found here.

WARNING: A lot of information ie time needed to read.

https://www.dailykos.com/stories/2011/2/14/944611/-

"Below are some snippets that connect the threads of an 80 year plan that haven't been completely connected by others. The Kochs + The Family + The John Birch Society. A very clever plan to grasp the world for the few, while squeezing dignity and even life from the many.

A specific faux Christian Plan has been spread and taught to politicians, dictators, corporate leaders, pastors, mullahs, power players. Special attention and lots of financing are poured into youth training worldwide to create vessels of power. David Bahati was chosen by the Family to be a Ugandan vessel of power, for example.

Secret Five (5) Key Men cells are in place. For a chilling wake-up, reality check, Google: Stalin "five man cells" Forming "Five man cells" is a very old and effective organizing technique.

The same message is taught to all religious persuasions forming this worldwide Web of Power and Influence called The Family, a seemingly cynical reference to the Mafia."

[DonCoquixote]

22. how about hell?

It is reserved for the most selfish and vicious of souls.

[Iliyah]

23. Back to whence they came . . . . . . .

purgatory

[ancianita]

32. He can pathologize this, but it's been a deliberate stealth design since Fred Koch's

joining of the John Birchers, the design's academic legitimizing by his boys, Charles and David, with James M. Buchanan, the University of Chicago economics department, the William Volker Fund's support of Friedrich Hayek and his Mount Pelerin Group out of Europe, after the de-nazification of Germany failed.

I know, that's a lotta name dropping, sorry.

Nancy MacLean, from Duke, wrote the best researched history of that design in Democracy In Chains-- The Deep History of the Radical Right's Stealth Plan for America (2017), which was on the short list for a Pulitzer.

There really has been a method to what we shouldn't mistake as madness.

[ThoughtCriminal]

33. Kind of like a version of Moore's Law for political madness

Every 18 months, conservatives double the level of batshit insanity.

Positive feedback loops in action.

[colsohlibgal]

34. To Hell I Hope

Russia has always been a big boogeyman to the right, so where is the outrage with Trump buddying up with them, while alienating our traditional allies in Western Europe, Scandinavia, and Australia?

They have lost their minds and jumped the shark.