We have to destroy the Republican Party in order to save it
Opinion by Max Boot
We had to destroy the village in order to save it. That famous, if probably apocryphal, quote from the Vietnam War describes how I feel about the Republican Party. We have to destroy the party in order to save it.
As a lifelong Republican until Nov. 9, 2016 and as a foreign policy adviser to three Republican presidential candidates it gives me no joy to write those words. Its true that the party had long-standing problems conspiracy-mongering, racism, hostility toward science that Donald Trump was able to exploit. But he has also exacerbated all of those maladies, just as he made the coronavirus outbreak much worse than it needed to be.
I have watched with incredulity the GOPs descent into collective madness. Many Republicans I know began by holding their noses and voting for Trump because of judges and taxes and their hatred of Hillary Clinton. Now the whole Republican Party seems to inhabit the Fox News Cinematic Universe, an alternative reality where President Barack Obama spied on Trump and Joe Biden is a socialist who will let anarchists and arsonists run riot.
The party has even become infected by the lunatic QAnon cult, whose followers believe Trumps opponents are blood-drinking, Satan-worshipping pedophiles. In one recent poll, half of Trump supporters said top Democrats are involved in child sex trafficking. Georgias Senate primary offers a disturbing snapshot of the state of the party: Rep. Douglas A. Collins promotes his endorsement from two convicted felons (former Trump advisers Michael Flynn and George Papadopoulos) while Sen. Kelly Loeffler touts her support from Marjorie Taylor Greene, a soon-to-be House member who questioned whether the Pentagon was really attacked on 9/11.
https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/2020/10/28/we-have-destroy-republican-party-order-save-it/
I'm OK with just destroying the Republican Party.
stopbush
(24,396 posts)lastlib
(23,213 posts)Destroy it. Scatter its ashes at sea. Salt the ground where it stood--heavy on the alkaline.
It'll be okay to build a new moderate party to replace it, but keep a leash on it and test frequently for old diseases--scorch and salt when necessary.
As I told a Republikan acquaintance on Facebook: you can choose to stand under the umbrella of tRump, or you can step out from under it. Your choice--your consequences.
stopbush
(24,396 posts)is that the founding members would for the large part be the same tRump-fellating sycophants who brought the R Party to ruin.
lastlib
(23,213 posts)Conservatism should be buried with Reagan. I advocated a MODERATE center-right party, eschewing the racist, bigoted, misogynistic, Islamophobic, Christofascist, nationalist elements of the current conservative movement.
stopbush
(24,396 posts)with a more-leftist party as political counterweight?
klook
(12,154 posts)The world can do without the Republican Party. Some future center-right party? Ok. But we need all these crooks and cheaters out of power ASAP.
Paladin
(28,252 posts)Laelth
(32,017 posts)-Laelth
IADEMO2004
(5,554 posts)Nothing they are fed that they won't believe.
lagomorph777
(30,613 posts)The rest is up to them. They can decide to become decent people, or they can disappear entirely.
Alpeduez21
(1,751 posts)May as well save the Nazi party. Losing the Khmer Rouge was a tragedy as well.
Trump is merely a symptom of the disease that is Republican. There has not been one benefit in my 55 years of repuke policy helping me. EVERYTHING they want is detrimental to forward progress. If conservatives had their way the American revolution would not have been fought. Slavery would not have been abolished. Women could not vote or even have a fucking credit card. Jim Crow laws would be in far greater effect than they are today. LGBTs would be locked up and unable to hold jobs or serve in the military. Christianity and the bible would be the law of the land. Civil rights violations are the result of conservative rule. The republican party is the haven of conservatives. Fuck republicans and those that support them. I will not intentionally harm repukes. I will not vote for them not to have health care, decent jobs or a living wage. They can benefit from roads and schools paid for by taxes. They can have the benefits of science in improving and saving their lives.
Baked Potato
(7,733 posts)Democrats progress.