It won't be long before extremists in the GOP make Trump look tame

[dalton99a]

https://www.cnn.com/2022/05/13/opinions/gop-extremists-kathy-barnette-trump-zelizer/index.html

It won't be long before extremists in the GOP make Trump look tame
By Julian Zelizer

...

[Kathy] Barnette has won the support of major conservative organizations such as the Club for Growth, an anti-tax group that sees in the Black conservative Republican a bright star for the party. When Barnette lost the race to represent Pennsylvania's 4th district by 19 percentage points in 2020, she refused to concede, and still hasn't. She used that loss to stoke baseless claims of voter fraud, gaining enough steam to attract figures on the right like MyPillow CEO Mike Lindell.

In other words, at least in Pennsylvania, a new generation of radical Republicans has emerged to take on the former president and his allies. While Barnette could very well lose to Oz or McCormick, her unexpected rise shows the direction the Republican Party is moving in.

The story is certainly a twist, but it is not surprising. This is a phenomenon that has shaped the conservative movement since the 1970s. With each generation, a new brand of right-wing firebrand has emerged to define the moment, only to find themselves cast aside by up-and-comers who embrace an even more extreme form of smash-mouth partisanship and right-wing ideological worldview. This has been the story of a party that keeps moving further right, with centrists generally failing to rein in the GOP (with notable exceptions like George H.W. Bush).

The Republican Party reset to center after right-wing Sen. Barry Goldwater's devastating landslide defeat to President Lyndon Johnson in 1964. But ever since Ronald Reagan's historic presidential victory against President Jimmy Carter in 1980, the GOP has been on a steady rightward trajectory. Starting with his inauguration in 1981, Reagan mainstreamed right-wing conservative ideas in a way that few others had been able to achieve.

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[Alpeduez21]

1. In that vein

I miss Newt Gingrich. He was crazy but not this freaking crazy.

And many still argue that repukes will come to their senses and stop voting crazies into positions of power and influence.

[Irish_Dem]

2. It looks like instead they are electing crazier people.

Each new batch is worse than the last.

[Skittles]

4. OK that is going too far

Newt was/is a HUGE piece of SHIT

[keithbvadu2]

3. Louie Gohmert used to be a top level nutso but now he is second tier.

Louie Gohmert used to be a top level nutso but now he is second tier.