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babylonsister

(170,962 posts)
Thu Sep 10, 2020, 02:28 PM Sep 2020

Two Prominent Conservatives Call For the Death of the GOP


Two Prominent Conservatives Call For the Death of the GOP
Dan K
Community (This content is not subject to review by Daily Kos staff prior to publication.)
Thursday September 10, 2020 · 12:49 PM EDT


It’s no longer unusual to find Jennifer Rubin, one of WaPo’s house conservatives, calling for removing many GOP officials. This morning, however, she went further and called for voting out all of them. On top of that, Tom Nichols, a leading conservative member of the Federalist, wrote the same thing in The Atlantic.

Rubin: Seven reasons to vote every Republican out of office.

Nichols
: This Republican Party Is Not Worth Saving: No one should ever get a second chance to destroy the Constitution.

Start with Jennifer (I’ve written enough diaries about her I can speak of her on a first-name basis. She’s never heard of me, of course):

There are no innocent Republicans running for reelection to the House or Senate. Their grievous misdeeds, whether of commission or omission, were intentional. Their desire to maintain their good standing in the Trumpified Republican Party and avoid the wrath of President Trump’s deeply dishonest right-wing media allies overrode all considerations of decency, honesty and constitutional probity. Let’s review just a few of their disqualifying actions.


Followed by a list of their crimes, by paragraph, with a summary sentence for each:

Republicans facilitated corruption.

Republicans thereby enabled Trump’s abuses of power.

Republicans subverted U.S. national security.

Republicans have supported a commander in chief unfit to lead men and women in uniform.

Republicans have thereby helped foment racial division and violence.

In short, Republicans have put their own political survival above the lives of Americans.

Republicans have thus helped undermine the central attributes of democracy — free and fair elections, and the peaceful transfer of power.


snip//

Next, Tom Nichols, who starts off by saying “I was a Republican for most of my adult life” who really believed that ”While the Democrats were the party of recrimination and retreat, the Republicans were the party of the future.” Uh, right. But regardless, he now sees the GOP for what it has been for generations (even if he won’t admit that part):

Today the Republicans are the party of “American carnage” and Russian collusion, of scams, plots, and weapons-grade contempt for the rule of law. The only decent, sensible, and conservative position is to vote against this Republican Party at every level, and bring the sad final days of a once-great political institution to an end. Then build the party back up again—from scratch.


He blasts the GOP for clinging to Trump because of judges and abortion:

But Trump’s few conservative achievements are meaningless when compared with his war on American democracy, a rampage that few Republicans have lifted a finger to stop.


more...

https://www.dailykos.com/stories/2020/9/10/1976431/-Two-Prominent-Conservatives-Call-For-the-Death-of-the-GOP
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Thomas Hurt

(13,903 posts)
1. Well political parties evolve, maybe even change names, but conservatism isn't going anywhere...
Thu Sep 10, 2020, 02:35 PM
Sep 2020

and they will have to have a party.

fescuerescue

(4,448 posts)
2. Yep. Even if the GOP vanished. And every member with it
Thu Sep 10, 2020, 02:37 PM
Sep 2020

The Democratic party would split into liberal and conservative factions.

Half the people here would be banned, and shunned, Tombstoned etc. Not instantly of course.

Think about the primaries how contentious they always are.

People NEED conflict imo.

elleng

(130,126 posts)
3. 'Conservatism' does NOT exist (in this context,)
Thu Sep 10, 2020, 02:39 PM
Sep 2020

the term is constantly misused; they are radicals.

'Conservatism'
1.
commitment to traditional values and ideas with opposition to change or innovation.
"proponents of theological conservatism"
2.
the holding of political views that favor free enterprise, private ownership, and socially conservative ideas.

Thomas Hurt

(13,903 posts)
4. Of course it doesn't there is conservatism defined and described in academia....
Thu Sep 10, 2020, 02:42 PM
Sep 2020

and there is conservatism in practice in real life.

elleng

(130,126 posts)
5. True, 'context' is important,
Thu Sep 10, 2020, 02:48 PM
Sep 2020

but there is NOTHING conservative about them in either context.

'commitment to traditional values and ideas with opposition to change or innovation.
"proponents of theological conservatism"'



Thomas Hurt

(13,903 posts)
6. fear of change and the "other" is a foundation of modern conservatism in real life and definition...
Thu Sep 10, 2020, 02:55 PM
Sep 2020

Trump has spent his admin in an reactionary frenzy of commitment to traditional values - returning to them.

undermining gay marriage
attempting to ban abortion and birth control
turning back environmental protections
ditto for consumer protections
rejection of civil rights measures


This isn't just Trump but the entire GOP in the modern age.

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