Jeff Tiedrich: I'm so old, I remember when mainstream Republicans were basically reasonable people..

[Nevilledog]

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Tweet text:
Jeff Tiedrich
@itsJeffTiedrich
I'm so old, I remember when mainstream Republicans were basically reasonable people with differing views on economics, and not a festering fucktangle of democracy-hating fascist shitweasels
11:18 AM · Dec 11, 2020

[agingdem]

1. I'm older than Jeff and the first

Republican I remember is Joseph McCarthy...so never

[LymphocyteLover]

32. I think the key is he wasn't mainstream

slowly the kooks have completely taken over the GOP

[Aristus]

34. Exactly.

He was so vile, nasty, and without redeeming features that the GOP disavowed him essentially, and McCarthy retired to Wisconsin to drink himself to death.

Today, being vile, nasty, and without redeeming features are GOP-sought-after characteristics. Today, McCarthy would be given a prime spot on FOX News, or now, more likely, OAN.

[SleeplessinSoCal]

38. Racism is the difference because ...

The US will become ‘minority white’ in 2045, Census projects
Youthful minorities are the engine of future growth

https://www.brookings.edu/blog/the-avenue/2018/03/14/the-us-will-become-minority-white-in-2045-census-projects/

[DownriverDem]

47. Heard about him

growing up, but didn't remember him during his insanity. I do remember when repubs were pro-environment and pro-choice though. Then they sold their souls to the religious right and racists along with their pro-business slant. I have an old repub friend who is not rich. I kept pressing her for why she voted repub when she needed the programs (SS & Medicare) they have wanted to get rid of for years. She finally admitted that she hated gay people (Called them gaydumbs) & did not want them pushed on her. I told she had a choice. She can wallow in her hate or move on. She's still a hateful trumper not accepting that Biden won.

[George II]

53. I'm older than him, too. The first two republicans I remember are Eisenhower and Rockefeller....

....(Nelson). In the 1950s and 1960s the were both honorable and decent. Rockefeller changed personality later in life, but early on he was pretty non-partisan.

[George II]

55. The difference back then was that he was condemned by many in his own party. In fact....

....the first member of the Senate to come out against him, Margaret Chase Smith of Maine, was a republican. And the Senator who introduced the Resolution to censure him was Ralph Flanders of Vermont, also a republican.

The vote to censure him was 67-22, with half of the republicans voting for the Resolution.

That is the way I remember government working when I was growing up. That ended around the time of the Reagan administration.

[underpants]

2. The word of the day class is FUCKTANGLE

please use it in a sentence

[AngryOldDem]

6. LOL

I’m stealing that. Thanks, Jeff!

ON EDIT: Also like “shitweasels,” although it may be unkind to weasels to compare them to the GOP.

[lame54]

10. I just pulled out my Christmas lights and they are in a real fucktangle.

[underpants]

22. ⭐️

You get a star!

[littlemissmartypants]

25. Perrrrfecto! nt

[housecat]

48. Say that out loud without laughing

[dianaredwing]

51. So much for that knitting project

The cat has created yet another fucktangle.

Just throw them out and buy new ones. These Christmas lights are the ultimate fuctangle.

What do you call a mosh pit that has Mitch McConnell, Ted Cruz, Donald Trump and the rest of the idiot Trumpsters? Don and Mitch's great fucktangle.

[underpants]

52. ⭐️⭐️⭐️

You get 3 stars.

[muriel_volestrangler]

60. A fucktangle is a figure of 120 equally ...

... despicable politicians who regularly care more about their own power, wealth and fealty to Trump than about democracy.

[musette_sf]

3. and IMHO the blame for this

can be squarely placed at the feet of the bitter ex-Nixonians that engineered Empty Suit Figurehead POTUS I, the first prototype for the Rump Debacle.

[AngryOldDem]

4. I became politically aware with Nixon in '72.

So, no, not in my experience.

Jeff must truly be of an age if he remembers a more sane GOP.

[BannonsLiver]

8. Pfft

Nixon was a rank amateur in comparison to these people. Kinder, more genteel times.

[AngryOldDem]

11. Agreed.

But he still was a problem...an early symptom, as it were, going back to his Senate race in the late 1940s.

[BannonsLiver]

13. To me the difference is this

Back then the GOP senators went to Nixon and told him it was over. None of the modern GOP would ever do that with Trump.

[AngryOldDem]

15. Yes. And I wish the talking heads would stop bringing that up.

Ain’t gonna happen now.

Things really went off the rails with Gingrich and his “hold power at all costs” mentality. But getting back to the original point, I can’t easily recall a GOP pol deserving of much respect.

[treestar]

26. +1

[Gary 50]

49. After union based thugs beat up demonstrators....

After union based thugs beat up antiwar demonstrators Nixon invited them (the thugs) to the white house to thank them. He was a prototype for future republican fascists. Thought I could never hate another politician as much as I hated him. I was wrong.

[usajumpedtheshark]

12. The last Republican president I have any respect for is President Eisenhower. Not perfect

but certainly better than those Republicans that followed. Certainly, Trump is the worse ever and I never expected to see the GOP abandon Reagan beliefs and policies so quickly

[LeftInTX]

20. I didn't blame Watergate on Nixon's party

I just blamed in on Nixon.

It seems in the 60s and 70s, there was a balance of power and compromise between the two parties. But I was born in 1956...so maybe it was my young age....It seemed like bills were passed and negotiated based on how we learned in school. Then Reagan came along and I was, "forget that"....

[moonscape]

31. Bills were voted on and we'd look to see who

voted for/against because they were not party-line votes. There was plenty of cross over with senators actually voting on issues.

[LeftInTX]

33. It was classic, "How a bill becomes a law"

I wasn't political, but the important bills became headlines.

I remember my thrill when the 26th Amendment was passed!

I was 14!

[moonscape]

36. And it was unanimous. Imagine that happening

today. Republicans would not have voted for it because the youth were Democrats by a wide margin. I was turning 21 that year. My 1st vote was for McGovern.

[Evolve Dammit]

44. "Don't change Dicks in the middle of a screw. Re-elect Nixon in '72!" This was a slogan.

[AngryOldDem]

56. Was this also a slogan?

Or am I imagining it? Either way it makes me laugh:

“Dick Nixon before he dicks you.”

[Evolve Dammit]

61. Sounds right! He wouldn't make it through a primary today. Choir boy by comparison.

[ananda]

5. I so relate.

A while ago, I picked up a conservative bridge partner
who I liked as a person. I told him that i used to have
some respect for conservatives even though I disagreed
with them. I said I had lost all respect for them of late
because they got so extreme.

He actually agreed with me. I think he's probably more
like the Lincoln folks and not a Trumper.

[OAITW r.2.0]

19. Read and compare the Republican Party Platform of 1952 and 1956.

They were the same old shitty Party in 1952. But the 1956 Platform reads like a Democratic platform you'd be proud to support today.

[Evolve Dammit]

45. Ike's influence?

[OAITW r.2.0]

54. Absolutely.

Of course, that went away in 1960 when Nixon ran against Kennedy.

[ananda]

59. I guess Eisenhower was the last decent Reep president.

And he wasn't all that great.

Adlai Stevenson would have been light years better.

[Ferrets are Cool]

7. Before Raygun and Limpballs

[Yavin4]

14. In order to win elections, mainstream Republicans curried favor with racists, sexists, and other...

dullards.

Now those people are in charge of the party.

[treestar]

27. Exactly!

the Republicans are just an organization for gaining of power - no principles. Everything they do is to consolidate power for themselves.

They tried to use 911 to gain more power. Then Dotard came along, and they saw their opportunity.

[NoRoadUntravelled]

16. I remember those days.

The days before Reagan.

[LeftInTX]

17. They started going weird with Reagan

I didn't blame Nixon's stuff on his party, I blamed it on Nixon.
(Although I was only 17 when he resigned and wasn't into politics)
Nixon seemed be an OK president who did illegal stuff to get re-elected.

I think in the 60's and 70s, there was a "balance of power" between the two parties. I remember learning about conservative Southern Democrats in school and I wasn't crazy about them either.

Then Reagan and his red tide came along and forget that....Once they became dominant, their true colors came out.

[jcgoldie]

18. Reagan ushered in 2 themes that have been taken to ridiculous extremes in the Trump era...

1. All government is bad.

2. Everything I say is racism in code. (Well except Trump doesn't know the code.)

[LeftInTX]

21. Yes

Nixon was just a "president", not an idealog
He did some good stuff...

He ended that damn war!

I was convinced Reagan was gonna get us into another Vietnam.

[aka-chmeee]

28. After making sure it wouldn't end while he could still use it to his benefit. nt

[LeftInTX]

35. Yeah, but I was born in 1956 and wasn't too politically savvy

I was just under 12 when Nixon was elected in 1968.

Damn...Bobby Kennedy...he would have won.

Humphrey came across as bland...Nixon redid his image...
Unfortunately, in this country we vote for an image...
I wish we had a parliament...

[marie999]

23. I remember Republican Senator Edward W. Brooke III of Massachusetts.

He served with the Democratic Senator Ted Kennedy.

[Towlie]

24. They call themselves the party of Lincoln but they're closer to the party of John Wilkes Booth.

 
←

[littlemissmartypants]

29. DUzy! nt

[hunter]

30. Not since Reagan.

Don't pretend.

[sandensea]

37. +1

When the GOP brought the Falwell wing on board, they probably never thought they would one day be the party.

Now, the "country club" Repugs just don't care - as long as it gets their business-über-alles agenda pushed through.

Jerry Falwell inaugurating the Moral Majority in 1979.

Then seen as a lunatic (but useful) fringe even by GOP leaders, they've now become the party - and will likely soon be the more "moderate" wing.

[dalton99a]

41. And then this asshole:

[sandensea]

50. Looks like the Manchurian Candidate

A male version of a Stepford Wife - just like right-wing church ladies like them.

But if they could see them in their private lives...

[northoftheborder]

39. On the way to becoming "antique",

I remember when Republicans were mostly reasonable people who could compromise. (They always put "money first", though.) But many were also supporters of the environment and civil rights. And southern Democrats were often, but not always, segregationists. Democrats from the northern states often were also friends of and responsible to, the wealthy and powerful, of either party. Texas Democrats have always been beholden to ranchers and oil interests. Progressive Democrats have always been in the minority; I think there are more now, since the Republicans have become so right-wing.

From Reagan on, and especially Gingrich's era, things became much more divided as to party. And the entrance of "family values" into the public discussion just set the rigidity in stone.

FDR and LBJ were products of their culture and environment, BUT, grew above their station in life to care for the poor and disenfranchised. I don't know any Republicans who were able to make that great a leap with major reform. That is what they need to do now, or they will disappear as a party.

I just watched "Social Dilemma" on Netflix. Everyone should see that. Doesn't answer any questions, but throws them out to consider.

[bucolic_frolic]

40. I'm old enough to remember the obfuscated English language before Tiedrich gave it clarity /nt

[keithbvadu2]

42. Certainly not old style republicans with morals, honor, ethics and integrity. Those folks are gone

Certainly not old style republicans with morals, honor, ethics and integrity.

Those folks are gone.

[melman]

43. .

Link to tweet

[JustABozoOnThisBus]

46. Eisenhower was almost a socialist, ...

... using public funds and central planning to create an interstate highway system, modeled on the national socialist autobahn.

Could such a project fly today?

We can't even keep current infrastructure maintained, much less create new things like national high-speed rail. Maybe we'll figure out a national standard electric vehicle charging system, maybe.

[Hortensis]

57. I'm so old I remember when they called Dems naive bleeding hearts. nt

[AwakeAtLast]

58. That's some Scottish level shade!

Righteous!