Republican lurkers---I admit it: I have seriously misjudged your party.

[Atticus]

Last edited Sat Nov 5, 2022, 12:54 PM - Edit history (1)

For most of my adult life I thought you were zealous patriotic supporters of American democracy.

My bad.

[AllaN01Bear]

1. hear . hear. seen their ilk @ work most of my adult life.

[Lovie777]

2. Now we know that was a LIE......

[dalton99a]

3. For God and Country

Trump and Russia

[packman]

4. The first and ONLY Republican I ever voted for -

[mitch96]

7. THIS!! and his warning about the Military Industrial Complex still ring true...nt

[Evolve Dammit]

8. My how that has changed. Embers were fanned for decades and now ingnited with a side of gasoline

[Lonestarblue]

10. I was a child when Eisenhower was president, but he represented a party that at the time

worked for most of the country (not minorities, though). He was perhaps the last true statesman in the Republican Party. Over the past decades, it has now become the party of charlatans, kooks, conspiracy theorists, and those at the top of the economic cake who simply want all the cake for themselves and only crumbs for the other 99%.

[pazzyanne]

14. + 1 nt

[Rebl2]

19. Your last

sentence is so true. I feel like it started with Nixon, but really got much worse under Reagan.

[Joinfortmill]

24. Reagan, the actor. Beware the wolf in sheep's clothing.

[Thunderbeast]

28. It started LONG before that.

Wilke, Dewey, and Taft stoked the flames of prejudice and nationalism as they sought power. The New Deal was their main target.

None of the Presidents pre-FDR were saints by today's standards.

[soldierant]

60. Back in the day you speak of, no one was working for minorities.

There was Beown v Board, and there was a great number of people horrified by it and screaming their heads off. It wasn't until Johnson that we saw a political party actively work for minorities. Johnson always maintained that that action was Kennedy's visin and that he felt bound to execute it. It ended up upending both parties - notably turning the partyof Lincoln into the party of Roger Taney - not that they would, any of them, recognize the name.

[Farmer-Rick]

27. Well, they have abolished labor laws and farm programs

All that's left for the right wing to destroy is Social Security and unemployment insurance.

Then we will be living back in the 1920s, where people starved to death because of the free market and a world war with genocide was brewing.

Back to putting your 80 year old Grandma in the chicken coop to live and letting the elderly die of exposure.

[Beartracks]

56. Their numbers are no longer negligible. But the ARE stupid, and dangerous.

[soldierant]

58. I did (and do) respect him.

But, in my house, the adults voted for Adlai.

I suspect he was the last President of either party who played bridge - which I only happen to know because I'm fond of bridge and have read a fair amount about the game and its players.

[Hotler]

5. They have no idea how bad fascism will be. All that is driving the repug voter is their hate for us.

and getting wins so they can hurt us. They're waiting for a nod and a wink from a dictator to openly start killings us.

[Alexander Of Assyria]

12. The propagation of hate speech, unleashed by the billions of dollars on an unsuspecting public...

it’s had the desired effect.

Remember when mass media would refuse to air any political ad even coming close to the kind of vicious and vile hatred now seen as routine and normal?

America has fallen backwards into fascism by refusing to combat hate speech…not that simple, but widely broadcast hate speech is essential to the toxic formula.

Anyone seen much much more any of that lately on the tv and radio?

[yellowdogintexas]

30. oh yeah!

the ads against Beto and our candidate for County Judge are horrendous.

[yellowdogintexas]

31. oh yeah!

the ads against Beto and our candidate for County Judge are horrendous.

[plimsoll]

20. They've been on this trajectory for decades.

Nixon could promote it and make it sound statesmanlike.
Reagan could promote it and make it sound benign.
Bush 1 and 2 for as much as I disliked their policies may have been from an Eisenhower mold, but lacked the skills or will to stop the spread.
Gingrich took the mask off the promotion of that hatred.
Since then every major politician in the GOP has echoed the eliminationist rhetoric of their "base" without usually saying it out loud.
Donald Trump changed that and gave permission to express the GOP bases darkest desires.

We often overuse the Nazi comparison, and I think it's true in this case as well. I don't think the Nazi's wanted the world to be fully apprised of their atrocities. There's a significant portion of todays GOP that want the atrocities publicized and put on full display. Men like Bannon talk openly about boyonetting liberals. The GOP base seems to want an orgiastic blood bath that they can watch and savor. It's more like a Roman spectacle.

[Joinfortmill]

25. These folks are intellectually and morally bankrupt. And there are so many of them...Scary as hell.

[Ligyron]

59. That's the thing and they're not going to somehow change their nature or go away either.

Millions and millions of them.

I really hate to say this ... but I'm glad I'm old.

[Joinfortmill]

65. I've had the same thought.

[Emile]

6. I have noticed they're zealous patriotic supporters for tax evading billionaires!

[oldsoftie]

9. Now theyre openly supporting the #2 enemy of the US.

#1 being china. Which NONE of us are doing enough to stop funding them.

[yardwork]

11. Really? I haven't thought that since the 80s.

[LymphocyteLover]

13. I realized they weren't during the Clinton presidency

I had doubts during the Reagan years but wasn't sure until I was older

[calimary]

37. I never liked Reagan. Always felt suspicious of the salesmanship.

My dad was a salesman. I saw how compelling he could be. Saw that in Reagan, but with Reagan it had a suspicious smell.

Reagan struck me as a candy salesman. But the candy he sold, while tasting sweet, had poison in it. But the taste was so good that he could sell a lot of it. And people wanted as much of it as they could get.

Ronald Reagan was the beginning of the end.

[LymphocyteLover]

39. Totally agree. Reagan always seemed fake to me. Hated how popular he was.

[calimary]

45. That was galling for me. To see how many people were

voluntarily taken in by the fucking salesmanship.

And he was a master at it. Seasoned by acting and effective script delivery on TV, with a friendly l demeanor and that “aw-shucks” harmless-looking schtick, and that “adorable” little crooked smile and those handy-dandy talking points to sweeten the deal. He used to sell what the commercial sponsors offered, and he had a gift for it, and then sold the poison of Republicanism. Brought a whole new meaning to “Death Valley Days”.

I was never fooled by you, Ronnie, and I’m quite proud of that. You were the closest thing to Satan incarnate that I ever saw or heard, and devilishly well-packaged as a smooth-talking nice-looking harmless-old-uncle supply-side “angel”.

[LymphocyteLover]

47. Exactly. Well said.

[LisaM]

53. Reagan gave me the creeps.

I couldn't bear his oily, unctuous, incredibly phony voice. It baffled me - still does - that anyone could stand him.

[NewHendoLib]

15. They are hypocritical, no-nothing chicken shit grifter lemmings

[czarjak]

16. They love letting the winners deciding whom the losers are...

Free and fair elections aren't part of that plan.

[Walleye]

17. It seems to me they used to hate Russian aggression and authoritarianism

And their biggest insult for us now is Marxist

[calimary]

46. And I'm sure they love throwing that label around.

I bet many of their “marks” are swallowing it whole without even bothering to know or understand it. Nowadays, all these know-nothings need to know is how much our side hates it. And if our side hates it, that’s what they want more of.

[jaxexpat]

18. It's not a particularly pleasant experience when the scales fall from one's eyes.

Just ask Saul (nee Paul), drove him to the extreme of insanity, faith. It explains much of our current malaise (no, let me be pellucidly clear, not that Malaise).

[peppertree]

21. Having grown up in Mi'ssippi, I've long known that they RESENT democracy

Reich-wingers (especially southern ones) only love a certain image of America - and see democracy as their biggest obstacle to making that come to pass.

[relayerbob]

22. I gave up on that idea somewhere

Around Newt Gingrich.

[Joinfortmill]

23. They were...until they weren't.

[COL Mustard]

26. The current Republican definition of "patriotism"...

Is very different from what I learned. I love our country in spite of all our faults, and I support the Constitution. I've sworn an oath to it which I still adhere to. I love our differences and accept the rule of law, and the outcome of elections. Republicans seem to me 180 degrees out of phase with those beliefs.

[electron_blue]

29. How? I don't get it.

When I see posts like this I don't understand how you could be so late to this conclusion. I just don't.

All hands on deck, folks!

[paleotn]

32. Some of us are old enough to remember....

when our disagreements with Republicans were on the finer points of policy, not the basic paradigm of representative democracy. Fiscally conservative / socially liberal Republicans were a thing once. LBJ turned to them to pass the Civil Right Act when half his own party (southern Dems) balked. Republicans have always had nuts, but then again so have we. Now the nuts complete run the show over there and they might as well call themselves fascists. Sad and infuriating to see how far down the rat hole a once overall decent and proud party has gone.

[electron_blue]

34. Yeah, I get it, a long time ago I can believe that. But for the last 20+ years.... no.

or even what about the last 4 years... - what were those people thinking who now say they thought republicans were being patriotic when they voted for Trump? Or were republican after the insurrection? Giving republican voters the benefit of the doubt for so long is part of the problem.

[paleotn]

38. For me it was Obama's first term. That's when I began to realize they were no longer

a normal political party, but had morphed into a collection of nuts and psychopaths. About that time, life long Republicans I'd known for years started drifting away from the GOP. Particularly after Trump led today's GOP to its logical conclusion. What's left is a fascist core surrounded by a propagandized base.

Unfortunately, much of our media still doesn't get that or doesn't care. That's a big part of the problem. They still view the GOP as legitimate and not what it really is...an anti-democratic insurgency bent on destroying the American experiment. Current Republicans are patriotic. The difference is, we love 2 completely different and diametrically opposed Americas. That's what the media and conventional opinion doesn't get. And they better figure it fast or the Republic is lost.

[Skittles]

52. I felt it when Reagan was prez

he made greed and idiocy fashionable, and started the loud dog whistling..... it really started with him

[SlimJimmy]

35. Well said.

As a moderate Democrat (fiscally conservative, but quite liberal on social policies) I had quite a bit in common with my Republican friends for many years. But, all of that has changed over the last decade or so. That's why I now call them repukes and rethugs. The party of Eisenhower is long gone.

[Atticus]

44. I have amended my inaccurately worded OP. OK? nt

[onecaliberal]

33. They're nothing but a traitorous, criminal, breathtakingly stupid pile of soulless garbage.

[hay rick]

36. They think they can support traitors without being traitors.

Fuck each and every one of them.

[IronLionZion]

40. They're zealous

but not patriotic and will tell you that America is a republic not a democracy. They believe in alternative facts, alternative vote counts, and live in an alternative reality.

[RANDYWILDMAN]

41. They always wanted the WHITE MALE driven country

that was what their patriotism was all about, when the realized it wasn't always gonna be that way, they went off the rails, never to return.

[JHB]

42. I haven't. If growing up with a Bill Buckley fan taught me anything...

...it's that their preferred form of government is a banana republic, as long as they're not the ones picking bananas.

[Missn-Hitch]

43. They were...but the country was moving away from conservatism.

A black man was a 2 term President, the 'the gays' are allowed to marry, the devil's weed is becoming legal, black folks are demanding they not be shot by police at traffic stops....

The horror! Their only option is lying, cheating and stealing. Authoritarianism.

BTW, has anything happened to that confederate governor and Brett Favre?

[The Jungle 1]

48. I stole that and did not give any credit

I bet you are fine with that.

[Atticus]

50. Absolutely. nt

[Atticus]

51. Absolutely. nt

[2naSalit]

49. I never...

Gave them that much credit after Nixon.

[Aussie105]

54. As a simple person living half a world away from America . . .

I have to ask.

Why are so many Americans determined to destroy the country?

Not like you have another country to go to if millions decide America is no longer a fit place they want to live in, or another planet to move to once they destroy this one.

[Genki Hikari]

55. We have a vast populace

Who have been groomed since birth to value delusion over reality, and not to listen to actual experts, but only to the people who think the same way they do.

They are further groomed to believe that they are never wrong, so if anyone disagrees with them or challenges their stupidity, they are never to back down. No, their groomers tell them, don't back down--you must cling ever more fiercely to your stupidity.

They are also groomed to see those disagreements and challenges not as people having different viewpoints, but as persecution of themselves. They wallow in their persecution complexes and eventually get groomed into thinking that being persecuted means that it's okay to destroy their "oppressors." Everything up to and including murder and mass murder is justifiable to "protect" themselves and their delusions.

And every bit of this comes from the grooming known as religion.

This is what happens to a country that has given religion too much of a free pass for too long.

[Meowmee]

61. There have always been lots if idiots and fascists here

Many other forces are working against democracy here. Add to the mix a culture taken over by social media and reality crap- people who are very uneducated by their own choice and narcissistic beyond belief. Goodness forbid you might have to vote for somebody who isn’t good enough for you, who you don’t like. I’ve done that many times because I always choose to vote against fascism no matter what.

[elias7]

57. Dems are not only empathic, but act out of empathy. Republicans act out of selfishness

[dchill]

62. I long thought they were Americans.

I didn't realize Merkins were something else entirely.

[GoodRaisin]

63. Morons.

[Roisin Ni Fiachra]

64. The majority of Republicans zealously support hate and inequality.

It has been that way for all my adult life. Authoritarian fascism and demolition of democracy in favor of privately controlled government of, by, and for wealthy corporations has long been their goal

Hate sells to weak minds and cold hearts.

"Nothing in all the world is more dangerous than sincere ignorance and conscientious stupidity."
Rev. Martin Luther King Jr.