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Related: Editorials & Other Articles, Issue Forums, Alliance Forums, Region Forums"If this isn't the end for the Republican Party, it'll be a shame."
<snip>
If this isn't the end for the Republican Party, it'll be a shame. They dominated American political life for 50 years and were never anything but monsters. They bred in their voters the incredible attitude that Republicans were the only people within our borders who raised children, loved their country, died in battle or paid taxes. They even sullied the word "American" by insisting they were the only real ones. They preferred Lubbock to Paris, and their idea of an intellectual was Newt Gingrich. Their leaders, from Ralph Reed to Bill Frist to Tom DeLay to Rick Santorum to Romney and Ryan, were an interminable assembly line of shrieking, witch-hunting celibates, all with the same haircut the kind of people who thought Iran-Contra was nothing, but would grind the affairs of state to a halt over a blow job or Terri Schiavo's feeding tube.
A century ago, the small-town American was Gary Cooper: tough, silent, upright and confident. The modern Republican Party changed that person into a haranguing neurotic who couldn't make it through a dinner without quizzing you about your politics. They destroyed the American character. No hell is hot enough for them. And when Trump came along, they rolled over like the weaklings they've always been, bowing more or less instantly to his parodic show of strength.
<snip>
http://www.rollingstone.com/politics/news/r-i-p-gop-how-trump-is-killing-the-republican-party-20160518#ixzz49K4lSUlc
malaise
(268,641 posts)about the longest serving ReTHUG Speaker would have been nice
corkhead
(6,119 posts)Trust Buster
(7,299 posts)I have plenty of issues with Republicans myself but, such a vile and intolerant OP makes you sound like the people you were describing in the OP itself.
cali
(114,904 posts)Your perspective is a better fit for a site where people hold your, er, views.
Taibbi's piece is brilliant because it's so spot on.
Trust Buster
(7,299 posts)the Republicans described in the rant. Republicans hold office because more Americans voted for them than Democrats. But those Americans don't seem to matter in the minds of some sanctimonious hypocrites.
cali
(114,904 posts)piece that nails what the republican party has devolved into.
zentrum
(9,865 posts)Thanks for posting.
cali
(114,904 posts)AwakeAtLast
(14,120 posts)I found it to be brilliant!
Hydra
(14,459 posts)There never was any real connection between the George Wills, Andrew Sullivans and David Brookses and the gun-toting, Jesus-loving ex-middle-class voters they claimed to embrace. All those intellectuals ever did for Middle America was cook up a sales pitch designed to get them to vote for politicians who would instantly betray them to business interests eager to ship their jobs off to China and India. The most successful trick was linking the corporate mantra of profit without responsibility to the concept of individual liberty.
Feel free to pitch on how the Grand Ol' Perverts did not gleefully sell out their base and basically burn whatever we once considered rule of law to the ground. The party should have been dead and buried in 2008, but our party leaders wanted to keep them around for contrast.
Dont call me Shirley
(10,998 posts)concept of individual liberty."
Just this line alone could be it's own OP. You nailed it exactly, Hydra!
lpbk2713
(42,736 posts)Al Gore won the popular vote in the Y2K sElection {Link to Article} by over a half million votes. And GW Bush was awarded the presidencey despite numerous claims of voting irregularities. He made it his quest ever since that time to stack the deck against Dems and against American workers.
lark
(23,059 posts)most of which deserve no respect at all. 1 - They listen to lies repeated over and over in the msm and don't take the time to think for themselves. 2 - they don't pay any attention at all to what's really happening and just go along with their pastor. 3 - they are racist, homophobic,bigots, 4 - they are rich and greedy or worship the rich. Most of them live in areas that haven't recovered as much because of the bad rw economic ideas(see Kansas) that will never work and don't have good healthcare coverage either, again because of stupidity, so voting Repug is shooting themselves in the foot. We are doing them a favor, though they don't realize it, by voting Dem that will help their everyday lives. You are romanticizing the unhinged and deliberate ignorance that has promoted Drumpf to the top.
Trust Buster
(7,299 posts)lark
(23,059 posts)It's just the facts. When people vote for someone (Brownback, Scott, Walker) that will implement policies that hurt them, that's stupid.
Fumesucker
(45,851 posts)The higher the income the more likely any given demographic is to vote Republican.
It's really middle class whites who vote en masse against their own economic interests, not so much poor ones.
http://themonkeycage.org/blog/2012/03/23/voting-patterns-of-americas-whites-from-the-masses-to-the-elites/
What does this say about Americas elites? If you define elites as high-income non-Hispanic whites, the elites vote strongly Republican. If you define elites as college-educated high-income whites, they vote moderately Republican.
There is no plausible way based on these data in which elites can be considered a Democratic voting bloc. To create a group of strongly Democratic-leaning elite whites using these graphs, you would need to consider only postgraduates (no simple college grads included, even if they have achieved social and financial success), and you have to go down to the below-$75,000 level of family income, which hardly seems like the American elites to me.
The patterns are consistent for all three of the past presidential elections. (The differences in the higher-income low-education category should not be taken seriously, as the estimates are based on small samples, as can be seen from the large standard errors for those subgroups.)
ronnie624
(5,764 posts)http://www.people-press.org/2015/04/07/a-deep-dive-into-party-affiliation/
alterfurz
(2,469 posts)...unless they have too much education and vote Democratic, which proves there can be too much of a good thing." -- Karl Rove
skepticscott
(13,029 posts)People who think Barack Obama was born in Kenya are stupid. People who think that evolution and global warming are false are stupid. People who think you can set the economy aflame by endless tax cuts are stupid. People who think public school teachers are lazy and overpaid are stupid. People who think that voter fraud is rampant are stupid. People who think that public bathrooms are haunted by transgendered predators are stupid. People who think that George W. Bush kept us safe during his presidency are stupid.
I could go on. And on. And on.
lpbk2713
(42,736 posts)are laughingly stupid.
Scuba
(53,475 posts)Scott Walker: U.S.-Canada wall a 'legitimate' idea
cali
(114,904 posts)the average IQ is 98
Lucky Luciano
(11,248 posts)Different Drummer
(7,597 posts)lark
(23,059 posts)Cal33
(7,018 posts)spew 24/7 to keep their masses misinformed and obedient to what the Republican leaders
fool them into believing, behaving and doing? This is one of the worst aspects of the
Republican Leadership. What they are doing is destroying our nation. They are sacrificing
our whole nation -- for what? For the Corporatists' personal profit.
Trust Buster
(7,299 posts)Cal33
(7,018 posts)Fantastic Anarchist
(7,309 posts)They won because of gerry-meandering. Huge difference.
world wide wally
(21,734 posts)Democrats, in fact, got more votes in 2012 and 2014. The ONLY reason Republicans got more seats in the House was because of gerrymandering. (Another charming quality)
Hydra
(14,459 posts)And bringing their money. So says the Dem establishment speakers.
Trust Buster
(7,299 posts)"monsters" who "destroyed the character of America" and "hell is hot enough for them". That's over the top vitriol by any reasonable standards and represents everything the author of the OP is accusing the Republicans of being. If Democrats want change, then they need to cast more votes for Democrats than are cast for Republicans. Hate and intolerance is not a vote.
cali
(114,904 posts)Xenophobic and misogynistic, and hurtling into full blown fascism?
ThoughtCriminal
(14,046 posts)And not be surprised that this one is offended by calling republicans out.
skepticscott
(13,029 posts)But he's just as bad?
Ferd Berfel
(3,687 posts)and it's destroying the Party.
If you listen to Hartmann you will have heard his say over and over again that you need to get involved. That you need to join your local Democratic party to get inside to change the party because that's what the Tea Baggers did on the right to the republicans.
It should be obvious that this is exactly what the disenfranchised republicans have done to the Democratic Party. Beginning with the DLC sale of the Party to Koch Bros (and others) in '85 by the Clinton's (and others) - a few months before Hillary was appointed to the board of Wall Mart.
Our tent has been too damn big. A life long republican can switch and say "well I'm a democrat now', the party says great and moves on. But no one questions: Did this republican all of a sudden renounce their previous life long held belief that a woman does not have the right to choose, had an Epiphany, and magically is just fine with choice now? That republican has supported privatizing Social Security and ending Medicare all their life (or career), but they're magically now a democrat... who STILL is working towards killing both, and did they renounce the neo-liberal ideology of Cheney, Bush, Rove, or did they brin that along with them also...and so on and so on....
This is how the Democratic Party of the Working Class and Middle Class has become a caricature of it's former self and morphed into the democrat party or Neo-Dems
The neo-Dems are simply the republican party prior to its going insane and full blown (and open) racist.
Bill swung heavily to the right 'forcing' Newt even farther to the right - just to keep up. The Republican party finally had to go off the deep end just to keep up with Bill. Remember (in the90's when it was amusing that Clinton was beating the Republicans to the (RW) punch? We'd say he was out republicaning the republicans - and laugh about it.
Clinton and the neo-Dems have simply taken up station on the former republican turf.
I've been having the exact same arguments here, with Clinton Supporters that I have in my private life with my Republican friends and acquaintances. The same damned arguments - with people claiming to be democrats.
It's a step through the "looking glass".
JDPriestly
(57,936 posts)Republicans who have sought its shelter from the ever more extremely right-wing Republican Party than they have been to Bernie and his concern and compassion for working people. Working people used to be the stalwarts of the Democratic Party. That was pre-Clinton. Now, the working people who are white have gravitated to the Republican Party. The Republican Party flatters them, gives them nothing real, nothing more than a little ego boost, but hey, what is the establishment Democratic Party offering to counter that? Bernie offers a lot. The establishment Democratic Party is making the mistake of its life if it rejects or belittles Bernie. He is the hope of the Democratic Party.
Very telling that the Party is abusing him so much.
Ferd Berfel
(3,687 posts)was eye opening. re: his new book: Listen Liberal
Hartmann, still kum ba yah bullshit, Checking out the pod cast if you can
Frank really laid it out. The current Dem party under Clinton control has made a concerted effort to abandon the Working class in favor of the 'professionals' including Wall Street vampires. You see it here daily in the Clinton Supporters arrogance.
This party is over.
CurtEastPoint
(18,612 posts)Trust Buster
(7,299 posts)PatSeg
(47,235 posts)and insightful writer. I didn't read anything in that article that was unhinged aside from the republican party itself.
Trust Buster
(7,299 posts)You read nothing in that article that was unhinged ? Really ?
cali
(114,904 posts)Hillary sure does have a lot of Conservadems supporting her.
Trust Buster
(7,299 posts)"monsters" who "destroyed the character of America" and that "hell is not hot enough for them". That's doing exactly what the OP accuses the Republicans of doing.
PatSeg
(47,235 posts)republican leaders, not the average citizens.
I have family members who are republicans as well. I was raised in a republican household. My family members are not "monsters", but the people who mislead them are and deserve to be called out for their years of deceit and greed.
cali
(114,904 posts)And Taibbi isn't talking about your relatives.
Katashi_itto
(10,175 posts)Tabbi might make an exception
Trust Buster
(7,299 posts)the message they receive from the average Republican. This author just wants to sell copy by throwing red meat at the base just like Right wing journalists do. If he really wanted to be productive, he would point out the Democrats' dismal voter turnout record because that is the only productive behavior that will change the situation. Calling people monsters is only meant to sell copy.
cali
(114,904 posts)Trust Buster
(7,299 posts)cali
(114,904 posts)Trust Buster
(7,299 posts)I'm from the practice what you preach school.
cali
(114,904 posts)AntiBank
(1,339 posts)Wow, have you got a lot to learn.
Scuba
(53,475 posts)ChisolmTrailDem
(9,463 posts)...all day, every day.
Good for you.
awoke_in_2003
(34,582 posts)they bust it every time.
cali
(114,904 posts)JDPriestly
(57,936 posts)better word for it.
PatSeg
(47,235 posts)As I said, it is the republican party that is "unhinged", not Taibbi's portrayal of the party.
Mbrow
(1,090 posts)40 years. If you think that the policies that have destroyed a generation of poor and black families, turned our people against each other isn't pure evil, well you are entitled to your option. Have a nice day
LiberalArkie
(15,703 posts)GREED is good with Ronnie.
CurtEastPoint
(18,612 posts)heaven05
(18,124 posts)take a right at the next corner and just keep going, you'll find it.....
gollygee
(22,336 posts)mountain grammy
(26,595 posts)Trust Buster
(7,299 posts)He's just throwing out red meat to sell copy.
JDPriestly
(57,936 posts)hell is not hot enough for the horrible people who have changed the party of Eisenhower into the hateful nest of tyrants, fascists, self-seeking egomaniacs and haters that it is.
I left the US and there were few homeless people on the streets. I returned in 1985 after about 17 years dominated with the short hiatus of Jimmy Carter's presidency by Republican presidents to having to step over the homeless as I walked to my bus in the early hours of the morning in Los Angeles.
The homeless problem in America is the fruit of the Republican tree. It is shameful in a country as wealthy as ours that there is so little compassion, so little love that we have so many homeless.
That is what Republicans did to America.
Katashi_itto
(10,175 posts)Feeling the Bern
(3,839 posts)patsimp
(915 posts)and gutting our supreme court.
I'm always amazed at how quickly people attack our own but then talk about tolerance when confronted by republican attacks.
yardwork
(61,533 posts)The OP is a quote from an article.
Also, if you are this bothered by criticism of the Republican Party you probably won't be happy here.
TransitJohn
(6,932 posts)that I can totally believe you are posting this with a straight face. It's so sad what's become of this site. Apolgetics for Republicans. Jesus fucking Christ.
ChisolmTrailDem
(9,463 posts)LiberalArkie
(15,703 posts)Bernie Sanders will serve as the next POTUS in the White House. Hillary will serve time as an inmate in the Big House. It will be a Sanders/Trump contest in November, and will be "The Stand" in real time: Will the voter go to Boulder or Las Vegas.... and you know what happened there
baran
(92 posts)Best comment on Rolling Stone
http://www.democraticunderground.com/?com=view_post&forum=1002&pid=7848075
REASON FOR ALERT
This post is disruptive, hurtful, rude, insensitive, over-the-top, or otherwise inappropriate.
ALERTER'S COMMENTS
Probably hopeless, but do we really have to hear that a prominent Democrat will go to the Big House? Honestly, I'm about to give up on this place.
You served on a randomly-selected Jury of DU members which reviewed this post. The review was completed at Sun May 22, 2016, 09:42 AM, and the Jury voted 3-4 to LEAVE IT.
Juror #1 voted to HIDE IT
Explanation: No explanation given
Juror #2 voted to LEAVE IT ALONE
Explanation: No explanation given
Juror #3 voted to HIDE IT
Explanation: This is totally over the top. Suggesting and hoping that our Democrats will and should go to prison is out of bounds. The Hillary haters need to quit being so hateful.
Juror #4 voted to LEAVE IT ALONE
Explanation: Hillary is not the nominee yet, and Dems get slammed here all the time if they are too conservative.
Juror #5 voted to LEAVE IT ALONE
Explanation: No explanation given
Juror #6 voted to LEAVE IT ALONE
Explanation: No explanation given
Juror #7 voted to HIDE IT
Explanation: No explanation given
silvershadow
(10,336 posts)wryter2000
(46,023 posts)Utter disgust. Since when is this a site for RW talking points that have no basis in fact?
SharonClark
(10,014 posts)Fantastic piece, Matt. Only thing you missed is that Trump is exactly what he offers to replace: just another global elite with nothing but empty promises. Same for Bernie, actually, who promises a revolution he can't deliver or control even if he could spark it.
And, not just Iran-Contra being nothing. 9/11 was also nothing to them, but the other 9/11 (Benghazi) was everything!!
IronLionZion
(45,380 posts)because much of it happened in the last century when Abraham Lincoln was a very different type of Republican than the modern party.
They listed Reagan's tax cuts as an accomplishment and retaliation in Afghanistan (2001). That's pretty sad.
Enthusiast
(50,983 posts)bulloney
(4,113 posts)They'll never admit that the Democrats stand for what they believe more times than the Republicans. It's like they're rooting for their favorite football team or something - Just win baby! The end justifies the means.
Hydra
(14,459 posts)But it's possible they simply can't, being so tied to the brand.
awoke_in_2003
(34,582 posts)We keep hoping for the death of the GOP, but it isn't happening. When it is lying on the ground with a stake through its head, then I will believe it.
jwirr
(39,215 posts)DLC/Third Way. If Trump wins he will kill the GOP that has arisen with the T-baggers. I then think that the conservative DLC/Third Way conservatives and the remaining Rs will be the new R party.
That leaves the question of rather there will be a Democratic Party left at all. Especially as much of the left side of our party seems to be leaving for greener grounds.
PatSeg
(47,235 posts)by right-wing media that they'll stubbornly double down for their "team", rather than let evil liberals take over their world. Your analogy about "favorite football team" seems to fit.
That is exactly how it plays out, like a jard core homer college or pro sports fan and their favorite team's rival.
NOTHING the rival can do is valid or recognized.
billhicks76
(5,082 posts)But Clinton or Obama always allows their name to be rehabilitated. I wonder why.
randome
(34,845 posts)I think in politics the best course of action is to let your enemy reach the conclusion that they're done for all on their own. We're nearly there, I think.
[hr][font color="blue"][center]Stop looking for heroes. BE one.[/center][/font][hr]
thereismore
(13,326 posts)mountain grammy
(26,595 posts)Read more: http://www.rollingstone.com/politics/news/r-i-p-gop-how-trump-is-killing-the-republican-party-20160518#ixzz49OL64ES3
Follow us: @rollingstone on Twitter | RollingStone on Facebook
alfredo
(60,071 posts)The GOP wanted to kill the Democratic party and it appears they have destroyed themselves. They always overreach.
yeoman6987
(14,449 posts)In a country with 330 million people around 180 million voters, we won't have a one party. At best the GOP will become smaller and regional. Right now our country is split 50-50 but I see the country going 40-60 democratic. But the GOP won't literally die and go away. It just won't in a two system we have.
alfredo
(60,071 posts)Michael Steele tried to get them to mend their ways, but they just doubled down on the hate.
Cosmocat
(14,558 posts)That is what the founders wanted, don't you know?
spooky3
(34,401 posts)mdbl
(4,973 posts)after Bush and Cheney were allowed to defile the white house, all bets have been off in my mind. This country is capable of allowing any lunatic in.
Cosmocat
(14,558 posts)it is always validating to hear or read the things that you personally see so viscerally.
That said, yeah, the death of the republican party is a fantasy I long have given up on.
They sell hatred, division and fear, a product that has been gold since the inception of human kind.
AND, this country is far too "fat." We live just far too conveniently, and we are like crack whores desperate to gobble up the product they pitch.
Leith
(7,807 posts)That man can turn a phrase like no other.
thereismore
(13,326 posts)Shandris
(3,447 posts)Reads about as humorously as the funny pages. This guy has never been in an actual small town outside of the one built of strawmen in his imagination, has he?
Assuming he. Can't be bothered to open an article that starts out so vacuously.
merrily
(45,251 posts)A century ago, the KKK was still lynching people in small towns--andthe ones in the white robes very likely were not Republicans, either, though those being hung may well have been--if they could have voted. Not to mention WWI and the flu epidemic, etc. Women still couldn't vote, etc.
As far as the Republican Party being dead, the Republican Party reamed Democrats in 2010 and 2014 on the local, state and federal levels. If it's dead, it's doing a hell of an imitation of being not only alive, but alive and well.
I also don't understand the claim that the Republican Party dominated politics for the past 50 years.
backscatter712
(26,355 posts)Remember that everyone was proclaiming the death of the GOP when Nixon was forced to resign in the wake of Watergate. And the GOP got thrashed in the next election.
Then a few short years later came Reagan...
The GOP has a way of rebuilding and bouncing back after their self-induced disasters.
Cosmocat
(14,558 posts)this board was awash in the death of the republicans ...
Then, they had the biggest mid terms congressional and state level washout we have seen in decades in 2010.
I never bought that the Rs were dead or anything, but christ sakes that was sobering.
They drove this country into the ground HARD during Bush II, and this country had no business giving them any power again for decades.
But, two years of them throwing a childlike hissy fit over BHO having the audacity to be POTUS and the country gave them ore power than they had my prior 40+ years.
The article is spot on what they are/have been.
But, this country will continue to indulge their childish stupidity at least through the rest of our lives.
mountain grammy
(26,595 posts)this may be the second time the GOP sucker punches us with a media star.. I don't want to underestimate the appeal of "make America great again." Same thing the other movie star said, and he was pure puppet. This one's pure evil.
JEB
(4,748 posts)Kablooie
(18,605 posts)They always tried to whitewash their worst traits but now Trump is giving them the freedom to spew all their hatred and bigotry out in the open. There's a large population of Americans that revel in being horrible to people who aren't their immediate neighbors and I think that Trump is going to attract more Americans to the Republican party rather than kill it.
C Moon
(12,208 posts)This is the one that has always got me pissed.
The GOP can care the fuck less about America.
Lying asshats!
JDPriestly
(57,936 posts)deficient of the whole bunch.
I met a young libertarian on a college campus while I was registering voters.
He said that he hates government. Thinks government isn't needed.
You know how you think of what you should have said only after the conversation has ended and you've gone home and had time to let your subconscious work it out?
Well, I realized that I should have asked him whether he thought slavery was OK. I expect he would have said no. Then I should have asked him, well, if you don't have government, who is going to prevent it? In fact, unless you have government and regulation, the rich, strong, powerful and totally self-interested libertarian heroes would enslave everyone they could. The only thing that prevents that is government.
Government doesn't just prevent the obvious form of human slavery. It also prevents more subtle forms of human slavery -- like the extremes of environmental destruction, health hazards, sexual and child abuse, criminal neglect in the workplace, usury (not always in the US) and many other horrible practices that history shows us that the cruel will inflict on those they view as weak and needy if we don't have government.
I wish I had asked the question when I had the chance: how do you prevent slavery if you don't have government?
AntiBank
(1,339 posts)Composition of Congress, by Political Party, 19652017
they still are rotters and can sod off, great post
disillusioned73
(2,872 posts)because I see a rightward leaning apologist calling simple factual information "unhinged"... deal with it, this is still a liberal site (I THINK)
JustABozoOnThisBus
(23,315 posts)Repubs own both houses of congress, and many state houses and governors' mansions.
They don't have the White House. Not yet.
The Republican Party is doing fine. They'll survive having Trump as a candidate, and possibly as a president.
And, I hope they continue to do fine. If the Republican Party folds, think of the riffraff that will seek refuge as Democrats.