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A Deeply Fractured US

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Trump isn't the ideological leader of the GOP. Trump wears the GOP like a skin suit. Best not to forget that a lot of Republicans thought of him as a Democrat prior to and during his 2016 primary run.
Problem is that since 2016, the MAGA crowd (and through them, the country/world) have made Trump and GOP one and the same. He could have been Democrat before, but he's definitely GOP now.

No kidding. How much crystal clear can it get at this point?
Yup.


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The MAGA crowd isn't the GOP either. McConnell isn't MAGA. McCarthy isn't MAGA. DeSantis isn't MAGA. The list can easily go on; there are well-known personalities in the Republican party who are MAGA, but they are decreasingly influential and that influence suffered sharp downward spikes after the 2020 and 2022 elections. That a particular non-MAGA politician might avoid antagonizing genuinely pro-MAGA voters and politicians is simply prudent politics, but it doesn't make the politician MAGA.

The people who insist that Trump and the GOP are one and the same tend to be people outside the party, who are either entirely opposed to the party (eg. Democrats) or opposed to anyone other than them who controls the party (eg. the NeverTrump neo-cons, for whom it is not enough to simply displace Trump if other Republicans stand in the way of neo-con resurgence). The generalization is hogwash, but they must believe it to be effective politics.
 
I wonder how Barry Goldwater would stack up against the modern MAGA crowd?

In many ways, Goldwater was more dangerous IMHO:



Barry Goldwater, GOP Hero, Dies


By Bart Barnes
Washington Post Staff Writer
Saturday, May 30, 1998; Page A01

Barry M. Goldwater, 89, a five-term U.S. senator from Arizona and a champion of conservatism whose 1964 presidential candidacy launched a revolution within the Republican Party, died yesterday at home in Paradise Valley, a suburb of Phoenix.

He suffered a stroke in 1996 that damaged the part of the brain that controls memory and personality. Last September, family members said he was in the early stages of Alzheimer's disease.

Mr. Goldwater, who retired from the Senate in 1986 as one of his party's most respected elder statesmen, suffered a resounding defeat when he ran for president. But his efforts helped prepare the way for the election of another conservative Republican, Ronald Reagan, as president in 1980.
Mr. Goldwater carried only six states and 36 percent of the popular vote in 1964. After the election, most analysts and commentators concluded that the Republican Party was hopelessly divided, and that Mr. Goldwater and his conservative philosophy were all but politically dead.

In fact, he had wrested control of the GOP from the Eastern liberal wing that had dominated it for years. By 1980, he was acknowledged as the founder of a conservative movement that had become a vital element in mainstream Republican thinking and a major ingredient in Reagan's political ascendancy. It was a 1964 speech delivered on behalf of Mr. Goldwater that brought Reagan to national prominence and helped launch his political career.

During his 1964 presidential campaign, Mr. Goldwater was attacked by Democrats and opponents within his own party as a demagogue and a leader of right-wing extremists and racists who was likely to lead the United States into nuclear war, eliminate civil rights progress and destroy such social welfare programs as Social Security.

But that perception mellowed with time. Mr. Goldwater returned to the Senate in 1969 and went on to serve three more terms. Long before his retirement, he had come to be regarded as the Grand Old Man of the Republican Party and one of the nation's most respected exponents of conservatism, which he sometimes defined as holding on to that which was tested and true and opposing change simply for the sake of change.

His friends said he was often misunderstood, but his reputation for personal integrity was unblemished. At the height of the Watergate crisis, when the Republicans in Congress needed someone to tell President Richard M. Nixon he should resign, they chose Mr. Goldwater. But instead of telling the president what to do, Mr. Goldwater simply informed him in the Oval Office on Aug. 7, 1974, that the Republicans in Congress were unwilling and unable to stop his impeachment and conviction should he remain in office. Nixon announced his resignation the next day.

 
Apparently found guilty of 17 different charges. The 17th letter of the alphabet? Q.


the simpsons brain freeze GIF
 
Well, looks like the Democrats will win the final remaining senate seat in Georgia. This will give them a 51-49 Senate majority. Vice President Harris will not be required as a tie breaking vote, and the Democrats will be able to control things like committee appointments and agendas, and will have a majority for matters like senate confirmation votes on presidential appointees (especially judges).

This will be the first time in many, many years that the party of the president will keep all of their existing senate seats in the midterms. That’s impressive for the Democrats no matter how you lean politically.
 
Well, looks like the Democrats will win the final remaining senate seat in Georgia. This will give them a 51-49 Senate majority. Vice President Harris will not be required as a tie breaking vote, and the Democrats will be able to control things like committee appointments and agendas, and will have a majority for matters like senate confirmation votes on presidential appointees (especially judges).

This will be the first time in many, many years that the party of the president will keep all of their existing senate seats in the midterms. That’s impressive for the Democrats no matter how you lean politically.
More importantly for the Democrats, Democratic Senator Manchin's holding the Democrats hostage to some of his demands will no longer work. Even if he votes the Republican ticket, they can still get the majority with the VP's vote.

This was the Republicans' mid-terms to lose - and they pretty much did.

🍻
 
I guess that a second takeaway from the Georgia senate race is that, despite everything, 1,714,871 Georgians still voted for Walker. One has to hope that they voted a straight party ticket and not for the man.

😖
 
I guess that a second takeaway from the Georgia senate race is that, despite everything, 1,714,871 Georgians still voted for Walker. One has to hope that they voted a straight party ticket and not for the man.

😖
Seriously. If ever there was a candidate who based solely on their faculties should not be a senator, it was Walker.

It blows my mind that, if you assume that Republicans supporters tend to be more religious (specifically Christian) than Democratic ones, that they would prefer Walker and all his vices to Warnock, who is an actual Baptist pastor...

...is what I would have said had we not lived through 4-years of sent-by-jesus Trump.
 
Seriously. If ever there was a candidate who based solely on their faculties should not be a senator, it was Walker.
People don’t vote on qualification. Only what they like to hear and see and what side they are on. We have that issue here in Canada as well.
It blows my mind that, if you assume that Republicans supporters tend to be more religious (specifically Christian) than Democratic ones, that they would prefer Walker and all his vices to Warnock, who is an actual Baptist pastor...
Just proves that religious convictions are not as important as the side you vote for despite whatever those people with purported convictions will state. But also don’t discount Walker’s star power as a former pro football player (football being a religion in and of itself in the USA). This isn’t unique to the US though.
...is what I would have said had we not lived through 4-years of sent-by-jesus Trump.
Strange times…
 

You know just common things one puts into a storage area…

I’m increasingly thinking he’s gonna go through some things. I don’t even know if there’s anyone else left for the feds to flip.
 
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