There's No One Left

[NanceGreggs]

I’ll be giving away my age by saying that once upon a time, there were Republicans who were moral and ethical, who enacted legislation that was for the betterment of their constituents and for the nation.

Once upon a time, the Republican party included true statesmen, eloquent orators, military heroes – principled men who drew the line at abandoning those principles in exchange for money and/or power.

Believe it or not, once upon a time (and not so very long ago), the powers-that-be in the GOP, faced with the depths of Nixon’s corruption, told him to resign rather than be impeached and convicted – despite the political consequences to their own ‘brand’ as a result of doing so.

Those people are all gone now – every last one of them. The Republican party now consists of self-serving idiots who are obviously not interested in their constituents’ wishes nor their welfare (see American Rescue Plan and tighter gun-control), but are focused instead on advancing their own political careers by kissing as many asses as necessary – and one big orange ass in particular.

Gone forever are the Republicans once lauded for their intelligent grasp of the issues, and their ability to debate them. They’ve been replaced by people like Cruz, Boebert and Taylor-Greene – liars, stupid-as-fuck idiots, and whack-job conspiracy theorists.

Gone forever are Republicans willing to stand up for their country and their fellow citizens – when it’s so much easier to pretend that what their fellow citizens saw on January 6th didn’t really happen, when it’s so politically convenient to act as though the obvious isn’t really obvious at all.

There is nothing left of the Republican party that even remotely resembles what it once was. There is no one left to be a shining example – or any example at all – of country over party, or even fact over sensationalized propaganda. There are no Republicans to be reached-out-to on the basis of upholding the truth versus promoting the utterly ridiculous.

There is NO ONE LEFT in the Republican party who isn’t willing to sell out their own country in order to win the approval of a lard-assed con-man who lost them the Senate, the House, and the presidency.

And the fact that an entire political party is willing to stand with that man speaks for itself.

[Skittles]

1. I was thinking about this yesterday

I am old enough to remember when Democrats and Republicans both cared about America, they just had different ideas about what should be done. I have not felt that way in decades. The repuke party truly does not care about America, only about keeping the Greedy Old Pig party in power, and there is NO LOW they won't stoop to. They are sickening beyond belief.

[COL Mustard]

8. In Those Days, You Could Still Disagree

Without being enemies.

[Skittles]

31. YES

I actually had friends I could have long political discussions with - now it's just crazy cult shyte

[OMGWTF]

49. Take a look at the 1956 Republican Platform

It's Bernie Sanders' wish list. How far they have fallen -- https://www.politifact.com/factchecks/2014/oct/28/facebook-posts/viral-meme-says-1956-republican-platform-was-prett/ The Rs didn't even have a platform at their 2020 convention other than "Whatever Trump said." And now the jerkhole who is sitting in the governor's chair in Atlanta has signed draconian anti-voting measures into law.

They are a very clear and present danger. Everyone who was involved with the insurrection on Jan 6 must be held accountable. That horrible day cannot be a practice run. The Rs in Congress who were planning the whole thing need to be tried for treason. We know who you are. Tick tock mofos!

[Skittles]

51. wow

I agree, they are indeed a very clear and present danger

did you see this: as I indicated, there is no low they won't stoop to....they HUMILIATE themselves for that orange buffoon

https://www.yahoo.com/news/trump-secret-sit-down-ohio-151615230.html

[wnylib]

2. The last Republican who had any integrity

was John McCain. I did not agree with most of his views, but I did respect him as an honorable person.

[prodigitalson]

37. I think Romney is a loyal American..as are a handful of others

He is a conservative with whom I disagree with as to what's best for it. But I think he is a loyal American.

Only Repub. who voted to impeach Trump twice.

I think the various GOP state election officials who stood up to Trump love their country too.

I would agree with the OP if it had the qualifier virtually.

[wnylib]

40. Those Georgia election officials

who stood up to trump are leading the voter disenfranchisement laws in their state. They might not be Trumpists, but I can't see them as preservers and protectors of democracy, either. Romney is a corporatist who would not put party above country, but would put corporations above democracy.

[uponit7771]

3. K&R, damn never EVERYONE of them are repeating the Big Lie to justify 1/6

[OhioChick]

4. I agree they're all stupid-as-fuck idiots

I'm so fucking sick of all of them, they're traitors to this Country and killing us along the way. (SARS-CoV-2)

I've fucking had it, already.

[OMGWTF]

50. Word. Hanging is too good for them.

[Ford_Prefect]

5. The reason they are gone is a 40 year long program of recruiting ideologues whose

loyalty to the party and whose individual lust for power and money made them
willing to do whatever the party says, no matter how damaging it might be to the voters who elected them. To them election is a game of manipulating enough voters to place you and keep you in that special class of people who make the rules and get well paid to do it. It is also about control and being able to punish those you don't like.

It is NOT about shared community with or social responsibility for other Americans, or other, lesser humans. When you make all the rules to benefit yourself there's no purpose served by helping others except to make them loyal to you.

In short the GOP party structure has been used to build an institution which serves vested interests who can pay for that service and protection, and to punish those whom the party elite wish to subjugate according to their religious and social prejudices.

[COL Mustard]

9. They Started Down This Path

With Jerry Falwell and the “Moral Majority”. They reap what they have sown.

[Tommymac]

27. I's say at least 60 year..

Goldwater started the modern Movement Conservative train moving.

I remember going to college in NC in the mid 1970's, I was a Democrat, and the 'Young Republican' Club on campus had just formed.

Those who joined it were zealous self-centered asshats who were social outcasts that no one really liked; but they laid the groundwork for Reaganism, and the negative Rushian/Gingrichian/Rovian rethuglican politics of hate that went mainstream in the the 1990's.

[prodigitalson]

38. I think the abolition of earmark spending removed

any incentive for GOPers to play well with others

[The Wizard]

57. The QAnon faction

expands the boundaries of reality. Trump has done things to compromise all of them. He peeled the scab off of the worst fears and lowest instincts.

[DFW]

6. When I was very young, as in "looking forward to my teenage years"

My dad would sometimes take me with him to the Capitol to hang around the Senate Press Gallery. He was introducing me to Senator This and Senator That, and I had no idea who they all were, or what party they belonged to. I remember a few of them vaguely, as they would sometimes make the (then-) long trek out to out house in the (then-) wilderness of northern Virginia ("Falls Church?" Where the hell is THAT?). Idaho's Frank Church was a frequent visitor.

Because my dad's main paper was in upstate New York, he always knew the Governor, Senators and Reps. from there. Republicans like Jake Javits, Charlie Gooddell and Nelson Rockefeller were guys I knew as well as a 10 year old kid could know busy friends of his dad that had no time for a ten year old kid. Others were the always entertaining Everett Dirksen of Illinois, who loved to entertain (even me), but had a perpetual cigarette smoke stink about him, as he chainsmoked--something that eventually killed him. Even in my teen years, some of the more far-right Republicans my dad knew asked intelligent questions, and listened to the answers. One Republican congressman, upon hearing that I had lived in Spain, and returned on a regular basis, was worried about Socialist and Communist factions in the newly post-Franco Spain. This was in 1977. I explained to him that their "Socialists" were more "social" than "socialist," and had no interest in changing Spain's economy drastically, or Spain's foreign policy hardly at all. The Spanish Communist Party was no more than a fetish that would fade into near-total obscurity as long as we didn't point any fingers at them. He listened, and took it in. It all came to pass just as I told him--Republicans never raised a stink about the Communist party being now legal in Spain. The people of Spain had no use for what they were selling, and they did indeed fade into obscurity.

Republicans 40 years ago may have had screwy ideas, but they LISTENED to the opposition (as did Democrats). Republicans today don't have screwy ideas--they have no ideas at all. They swallow what Fox Noise and National Hate Radio feed them in the evening and regurgitate it the next morning in Congress. They follow what is left of Trump's political ghost because all they do is follow. There is no leader among them. Their leaders are shadowy influential people who pull strings in the background, leaving the mechanics to tacticians like Moscow Mitch, and the theatrics to useful clowns like Trump and Gaetz. The only difference between now and ten years ago is that they no longer need a tea party for an outlet for their more extreme elements. There is nothing left BUT extreme elements. What was dubbed "the party of NO" back then is now the party of "no way in hell," and "know nothing, and don't wanna know anything else."

[COL Mustard]

11. Funny To See What Falls Church Was Like

I live there now and have 2 stop lights between my house and downtown DC.

[DFW]

12. I lived there pre-beltway

A different world.

My parents built a house on Lake Barcroft in the 1950s. We were something like the third house on our side of the lake. Nothing but woods and dirt roads. When it rained, we were stuck, because my dad's car couldn't get up the mud incline that led to the "street." Things got easier once he could afford to have it paved over, and he could get to the "street" any time he needed to. My first playmates were squirrels and blue jays.

When we moved in, my dad was 33, my mom was 28, and I was 3. They both died in that house, my dad in 2000, my mom in 2002.

[COL Mustard]

13. I've Lived In The DMV Since The Mid-80s

But moved to Falls Church in 2001, and we'll be here until retirement at least.

The Lake Barcroft area has some very nice houses, and in Falls Church City you can still find a lot of 1950s era houses, but infill is taking down a lot of them. I guess that's progress.

[DFW]

26. Our house WAS considered very avant-garde at the time

It had a round chimney in the middle, and was round with rooms circling around the chimney. Our bedrooms were off on one wing, and our parents had their bedroom all the way at the other end (no fools, they).

Of course, after 45 years, it wasn't so modern any more, but architecturally, it still stood out. There were still a few of the old houses where friends of mine grew up, but many had been replaced by newer, swankier homes as the place transformed from a wilderness to the "Washington Suburbs." I don't even know what has become of our old house. Ever since it had to be sold, I have not gone back there. Too hard to imagine it in someone else's hands, I guess.

[I_UndergroundPanther]

41. When I was married

To my ex from the year 2000 to around 2002 We lived in Loch Lomand in Manassas Virginia,and we'd hang out in Falls Church a lot. And Alexandria. We were a fixtures at the Falls Church Starbux.

I'd sit there and draw,while he read stuff.

I liked Falls Church.

[DFW]

61. It was a sleepy little town when I was growing up

I haven't been back to the actual town in decades.

[Scrivener7]

15. Where do you think it will go from here?

I'm reading a book now about Nazi wives. Among many horrifying things in it is the fact that when the center imploded in Germany, there was a rush to the extremes. The political chaos, combined with very effective propaganda, was the breeding ground that allowed Nazism to flourish.

There are parallels today. Do you think the Republican party will split into an extreme and less extreme party, or will they just gradually get stronger in their extreme-ness? Or do you see some other outcome?

(PS: I changed my name, y'all! I used to be Squinch.)

[prodigitalson]

39. I think their split is possible.

What's the name of the book? Real Housewives of the Third Reich?

Kidding. It sounds good what's it called?

[Scrivener7]

47. Lol! It's called Nazi Wives by James Wyllie.

[DFW]

62. There is a fundamental difference between the Weimar Republic and today's USA

The government of the Weimar Republic was in chaos because every tiny splinter party that could elect one member to their parliament got in, and held things up with their grandstanding. People were hurting badly economically still from the after-effects of World War I and the reparation payments the victors had imposed. Post-war West Germany wisely instituted a rule that no party got representation in the Federal or State parliament unless they got at least 5% of the vote. This prevented "Die Republikaner," a Neo-Nazi movement in the 1980s, from gaining any solicitations as a coalition partner. They couldn't manage to get 5% of the vote where they ran. Today's mildly watered-down far right movement, the AfD does manage to get over 5%, but still, no other party in Germany (so far, anyway) will have them in a coalition, even if it means being out of power. It is a line no other party in Germany is willing to cross.

The Nazis basically offered the same things the Trumpanzees did 80 years later. You need us to save you from the chaos, we will make our country great again. After all, "Nazi" is nothing more than an abbreviation of the German word for "nationalist," or "National" as in "National Socialist," the official name for their movement, "Nationalsozialismus."

Although the signs are there, in the end, I don't see the Republican Party breaking up. To do so means they lose Senate and House seats right and left, and thus their relevance. My guess? They will continue to flirt with extremism for as long as it keeps them powerful. When and if their financiers should decide that there is no longer an incentive to do so (if that moment ever comes!), they will go back to the Javits-Dirksen-Ford-Dole mode of days of yore. They aren't conservative--not as the word is defined in English, anyway--by any stretch of the imagination. They just hijacked the term, as if going inside a garage really DOES turn you into a car. To the current crowd of crazies, we are "libbruls" and they are "conserv'tives," and if pressed, they couldn't give you an accurate description of what either term means. I'm quite confident that if Charles Koch suddenly decides that his influence will be enhanced by having the Senate Republican Caucus led by Mitt Romney or Lisa Murkowski lead their faction rather than Moscow Mitch, it would be so within weeks of his decision. We'd marvel at the turn of events, and we'd never find out why. The crazies out in the hinterlands would follow, because that's what they do. They do not lead, never have.

[Scrivener7]

65. Thanks for a very considered answer. I tend to agree but I don't

see the money powers changing their direction. Which is my worry. The party is champion at manipulation and they show no sign of wanting to stop this rush to anti-Democratic craziness.

The midterms will tell us a lot about whether our Democracy is having a brief respite now from those who want to topple it or whether we will be okay for a while.

[DFW]

66. The midterms will indeed be crucial

They should tell us whether the voter suppression will determine the makeup of our Congress, for if it does, it will not be an easy thing to turn around. It is a road to one party rule and the Soviet States of America.

By the way, regards to Bartleby.............

[Scrivener7]

67. You're the first to get one of the references that made me choose my new name!

I just retired from a wonderful but very emotionally demanding job. Now I get to say "I prefer not to" whenever I want.

[DFW]

71. Back when I was in school

We actually used to read stuff.

I have no idea what they do these days. I guess when asked to read, they say they prefer not to.

[Scrivener7]

72. Lol. But I feel bad for them bc they miss so much.

[DFW]

73. That makes two of us!

It wouldn't surprise me if the name Herman Melville draws a blank with 90% of Americans these days.

[COL Mustard]

7. I Came Of Age In The Mid 1970s

Where I lived then, one generally became a Republican. If you were a Democrat, you were soft on Communism, you were a welfare lover, you probably didn’t believe in God, and all number of other bad things.

I left home a few years later, and have never looked back. I’m the “liberal” in my family (not really, but it’s all a matter of degree), and I left the Republican Party years ago. In 2016, I tried to talk my Mother out of voting for T***p, unsuccessfully, because he’s been sent by God.

It really makes me sad to think about how many people have bought into this line of bullshit, but there’s no going back. I’m dead to the GOP, and they’re dead to me.

[Escurumbele]

10. The republican party has always been corrupt, reason why Roosevelt had to start a 3rd party

Their shenanigans were at constant work then as they are now. The vote suppression, the cheating, the personal attacks happened then as they happen now, their love for industry, their racism (although to their defense, Democrats were also racists), was then as it is now, their belief that the people should have no saying in decisions made by the government was then as it is now.

Sorry, but there were cycles when we could have said there were a few good republicans, but through history they have always been the trash they are today, the difference is that they no longer care if people know they are evil, it has worked for them for over 100 years, they figure now that there is no need to hide, in other words "they are out of the closet".

[speak easy]

16. Much as I admire TR

He split the northern vote and put the Klan's Man in the White House.

[speak easy]

14. Larry Hogan?

Maryland Governor Encourages Pence to Invoke 25th Amendment
https://uk.news.yahoo.com/maryland-governor-encourages-pence-invoke-193158359.html

[Tom Rinaldo]

17. Nance's OP is written in bold colors to highlight a painful truth

With enough searching there are some exceptions, to varying degrees, but as they say "it's the exception that proves the rule." There is no one left within the National Republican Party who can take on the crazies on any issue and win.

[speak easy]

18. Agreed.

[I_UndergroundPanther]

44. I live in Maryland

And I never trusted Hogan,because he is a republican and republicans are assholes by default.

[Elessar Zappa]

19. They've been awful my whole life.

Of course, I’m only 37 and started to pay attention to politics when Gingrich was House speaker.

[apnu]

21. I'm 47, I remember this class of Republicans, but its faint.

As a kid in the 70s I remember adults talking politics when I was in the room. They were informed, they had reasons for their positions and could articulate those reasons. People who disagreed were also informed and articulate. Then Reagan and the 80s happened. Reagan was a good actor, he made his emotional appeals to racism and sexism seem principled and reasoned.

Its been a down hill slide for the party ever since. Want to see his greatest performance? Watch is inaugural speech in 1981 "Government is the problem". There is no policy in it, the speech 100% government paranoia and race baiting. Because Reagan was wildly popular, the party morphed into that.

[apnu]

20. This only happens because it wins local elections

The Republicans haven't won a popular election nationally since W in 2004 and then it was very thin. America rejects them nationally.

But state and local? That stupidity wins. They continue this behavior because it works for where they are now.

See Mitch McConnell, Ted Cruz, Rand Paul, Ron Johnson, etc.

[Tommymac]

28. It's called Gerrymandering. nt

[Ferrets are Cool]

43. This

[apnu]

48. You can't Gerrymander a senate seat

You can for Representatives. You can for county and local precincts. But not for Senate seats, those are popular election in the state.

[uponit7771]

64. Those are mostly unopposed by dems or dems run republican light and lose

[brooklynite]

68. Name a State with an Incumbent Republican Senator today you could beat with a "real" Democrat

[BumRushDaShow]

69. PA

Link to tweet

TEXT

John Fetterman
@JohnFetterman
It’s not “moderate”.

$7.25 hr is really shitty.

$11 hr is less shitty.

People making $174,000 a year wringing their hands over a single parent working hard over 2,000 hours a year to earn $31,000 to live is astonishingly shitty + utterly out of touch.
Senate Democratic moderates push for minimum wage compromise
A Tuesday meeting on the topic is set to include the eight Democratic caucus members who opposed Sen. Bernie Sanders’ (I-Vt.) $15 hourly wage plan.
politico.com
5:38 AM · Mar 24, 2021 from Pennsylvania, USA

Link to tweet

TEXT

John Fetterman
@JohnFetterman
·
Mar 24, 2021
Replying to @JohnFetterman
There is no “moderate” math.

Math is math.

Those who say there is, should work and live on it to demonstrate to the rest of us exactly how it’s done.

John Fetterman
@JohnFetterman
My promise to you: if I am lucky enough to be your next US Senator, Math will always be Math.

I will never, ever ever tell you or the 24M low wage workers that you are undeserving of a life of basic economic dignity while I earn $174,000 a year.
5:52 AM · Mar 24, 2021 from Pennsylvania, USA

[uponit7771]

70. Texas, Beto or Castro could whoop Cornyn's his racist ass with the right message. The message

... would be going hard being themselves instead of being republican light.

The right doesn't have a message today outside of worshiping Trump and hatred of non whites, most Americans reject that

[MissMillie]

22. Believe it or not, here in MA, our District had a GOP Congressman

Silvio Conte, who died in 1991. My mom, a staunch Democrat, liked him. Back then I didn't live in his district (I do now) so I don't recall his opponents in the elections he ran in where I was old enough to vote.

Of course now our Governor is Charlie Baker. Thank goodness the GOP has decided to remain unreasonable (read "rTrumpist&quot for now. 45 will never endorse "never-Trumper" Baker for anything.

[marie999]

24. I voted for Senator Edward Brooke.

[dalton99a]

23. Kick

[planetc]

25. I remember those Republicans from when I was young.

You could count on any large or small business owner to be Republican, and there was no shame in it. These people wanted the national government in the hands of fiscally responsible people, and they were afraid of communist Russia, since that was the evil mushroom that had sprung up in the aftermath of WWII. Dwight Eisenhower was a good president, and nobody knew what was going on in the South. Then the 1960s happened, and TV politicking happened, and we found out how dangerous it was to try to vote in the south. By degrees, any politician of either party had to come up with a pile of cash to run convincingly for anything. And that is where we are right now.

I am comforted by the fact that capitalism is failing too. More and more voters are becoming aware that many jobs are essentially peonage to the CEOs, who are making out like bandits. My hope is that voters will get sick and tired of this, and look for a party that actually cares about the burdens they carry and a future that could be better.

[jalan48]

29. K & R

For an increasing number of them it has become a way to grift at the public's expense. Our institutions have become openly corrupt.

[ShazamIam]

30. The most depressing aspect of the take over of the economic and political agenda by extremely

conservative and anti-democratic Republicans, is that that people voted for them and supported the ideas, Nixon's racism, The Reagan team pilling on the racism with the religious *anti-life force and gun rights. Trump received 47% of the vote.

I think we need to reclaim the information and narrative, pretending the MSM is liberal is another amazing lie that is widely believed when they haven't been liberal except on a very few issues, LGBT rights and dishonest promoting of equal pay for women and I say dishonest because they seem to design the reporting to piss off men and make women seem greedy for seeking pay parity.

The current fact checking operations aren't nearly enough to combat the corruption of the information providing institutions.


*they aren't pro-life they are anti-woman.

[crickets]

32. Well said, Nance. K&R for the post and the discussion.

[11 Bravo]

33. I hear you, Nance! Hell, I will even admit to having VOTED for a Republican ...

way back when. Tom Davis (R) was my representative to the Fairfax County board of Supervisors, and he was a good one.

I might have even considered voting for him when he ran for the House of Representatives, had he not been running against Leslie Byrne, a personal friend of mine.

(As it turned out, I'm doubly glad I didn't. Once in the House he was a way too reliable Repub vote, and also got involved in some pretty shady influence-peddling, thus kind of proving your point.)

[yellowdogintexas]

60. I voted for Senator Howard Baker back when I lived in Tennessee

Twice in fact. He was a very good Senator and I liked him a lot.

He was Everett Dirksen's son in law by the way.

He would be absolutely appalled at the state of the GQP today. In fact, he would probably be an independent

[moondust]

34. Send it to Manchin.

He doesn't seem to understand that *ideally* the filibuster could be used to prevent radicalized parties from ramming through radical legislation. Instead it is now a totalitarian tool that a radicalized, self-serving gang can use to prevent reasonable legislation from being passed for the public good.

[Kingofalldems]

36. The Limbaugh effect.

[Ferrets are Cool]

42. A very articulate description of a defunct Political Party.

[world wide wally]

45. It will be a glorious day when the GOP and its henchmen dies.

[soldierant]

46. This ...

"Believe it or not, once upon a time (and not so very long ago), the powers-that-be in the GOP, faced with the depths of Nixon’s corruption, told him to resign rather than be impeached and convicted – despite the political consequences to their own ‘brand’ as a result of doing so"

They did ... they did indeed. And Nixon himself was not without accomplishments. Title IX - the EPA - trade with China. It would have been easy for them to take the stand that his accomplishments outweighed his corruption. And they didn't.

Now they don't even pretend to care about corruption, and they have no accomplishment with which to offset it anyway. I'm old too. this is all within my lifetime, as well. Yes, it hurts.

[grantcart]

52. Aaron Van Lingdeveld (sp). Per Rachel Maddow

Republican Michigan Electoral Supervisor who supported certifying electoral results.

There is one.

One.

[Bristlecone]

53. Money in politics/elections and the end of the Fairness doctrine

Seem to coincide with the end of the actual GOP. Or the beginning rather....Reagan.

[BobTheSubgenius]

54. Nope, no one.

I remember Republican politicians and commentators that no one on this side of the aisle would agree with more than once in a great while, but could still be talked to, reasoned with. Not so much any more.

[qwlauren35]

55. Hence the Lincoln Project

There are plenty of Republicans who are upset about the theft of their party and are trying to do something about it.

[Pepsidog]

56. So true.

[Progressive Jones]

58. + 1,000 nt

[electric_blue68]

59. I was becoming politically alert, then active between ...

' 65 - '67: 12 - 15 yes old.

I knew about Goodel , and John V Lindsey.

In fact I actually volunteered for Lindsey, then Goodel -
the only two (Liberal Republicans) I ever
volunteered for.

Why?

Lindsey's Dem opponent was too socially conservative for me!

And Javits also also became to conservative in areas
important to me.

[BumRushDaShow]

63. To align with your thoughts, the money quote from President Biden yesterday

Link to tweet

TEXT

CBS News
@CBSNews
President Biden is asked if he believes he'll be running against Donald Trump in 2024:

"Oh, come on. I don't even think about — I have no idea. I have no idea if there will be a Republican Party. Do you?" https://cbsn.ws/3tXISgz
2:10 PM · Mar 25, 2021