The Republican Agenda 2021 and Forward

[Chew Toy McCoy]

Fox News attacks the Biden administration for implementing Fox’s own vaccine policy for its employees

www.mediamatters.org

 

[lizkat]

The lack of creativity remains

https://www.twitter.com/i/web/status/1418998006209290244/

Politico has a magazine piece up suggesting that despite all JD Vance's self promotion, apologies for flip-flops on Trump (yeah now he loves The Don, you betcha), and running around trying to look less like a former venture capitalist and more like a prospective US Senator from Ohio, a lot of people in his home state don't even know who he is.

Some who do recognize Vance's name aren't sure how much they care for a guy who wrote a book about "hillbillies" that became a best seller among "elites".... especially when Vance himself has been hanging out with Hollywood types and high dollar political donors.

(Cn u spl "sellout"?!? Inquiring hillbllly minds might wanna know).​

​

This whole gig of Vance coming from hillbilly background on up tto success --hrough venture capitalism to best seller novel lists and now to his his currently well bankrolled political endeavor-- is pretty rich in some minds. I mean it's hard to get much more elite than a United States Senator, and yet he's talking about being a man of the people, the same as his now idol The Don used to talk.

On the other hand, some Ohioans now say they think they should read Vance's book. So go figure, which is what pollsters will be doing...

The GOP primary field vying to get the nod for the seat of retiring Senator Rob Portman is pretty crowded. Sharp elbows for Trump in those primaries, but potentially less enthusiasm among independent voters for a pro-Trump candidate in the general election of 2022 , could open up a tantalizing opportunity for the Dems to pick up the seat. Time will tell. But Ohio did get redder in 2020 and it leans red for 2022 as well, so frontrunner Tim Ryan on the less crowded Dem side shouldn't hold his breath.

The Beltway Can’t Stop Talking About Him. The Voters He Needs Barely Know Him.

In conversations with Ohio voters, it seems J.D. Vance's national brand hasn’t broken through.

www.politico.com

Vance's reputation for flip-flopping on support for Trump is a big deal. First he wasn't gonna run because he disapproved of Trump, now he's running and competing with two front-runners to become known as the most Trumpy guy in Ohio. Lotsa luck... as a Salon piece from earlier in July pointed out, a lot of Ohio voters figure all these guys are just kissing Trump's behind, not so much his ring or their own views on the role of federal government anyway. And some of them haven't forgotten Trump's broken promises about jobs "coming back" to Ohio.

Ohio GOP Senate candidates are humiliating themselves for Trump

Longtime Ohio Republican politicos told Salon the best candidate in the race may be none of the above.

www.salon.com

And for a note from the in-crowd in Ohio politics, namely the current and very Republican Floor Majority Leader in Ohio's state legislature, an op-ed in the Cincinnati Enquirer warned voters off Vance in no uncertain terms.

Opinion: Don't buy what J.D. Vance is selling

How can we expect J.D. Vance to represent us as Ohioans when he has thumbed his nose at us in the past and parroted offensive liberal narratives?

www.cincinnati.com

From near the wrap of that piece:

Throughout 2016 and beyond, Vance compared Trump voters to drug addicts and described the average Trump voter as unmarried or in a failed marriage, having abandoned their faith in God, not highly educated, from fractured families, and easily lured by inspirational messages. How can we expect Vance to represent us as Ohioans when he has thumbed his nose at us in the past and parroted offensive liberal narratives?

Whew. So that's why Vance has sorta been doing an apology tour, after scrubbing his social media of his own former takes on Trump. I don't care how creative the Vance ads get --the ones paid for with $10 million from a Super PAC formed by his former boss and billionaire Peter Thiel-- that's a lotta backstory to bury in big money while apparently hoping to sound like a die-hard Trump fan and a man of the people.

 

[JayMysteri0]

https://www.twitter.com/i/web/status/1421184913659895808/

Here's the "good" part

https://www.twitter.com/i/web/status/1421184915933220870/

House republicans voted against better security, to insure something like 1/6 is less likely to happen.

Talk about voting against your own best interests.

 

[Chew Toy McCoy]

https://www.twitter.com/i/web/status/1421184913659895808/

Here's the "good" part

https://www.twitter.com/i/web/status/1421184915933220870/

House republicans voted against better security, to insure something like 1/6 is less likely to happen.

Talk about voting against your own best interests.

This is their logic (I'm not joking). What happened on 1/6 wasn't an insurrection. So they won't vote for anything to help prevent something from happening in the future that didn't actually happen.

 

[JayMysteri0]

This is their logic (I'm not joking). What happened on 1/6 wasn't an insurrection. So they won't vote for anything to help prevent something from happening in the future that didn't actually happen.

So their "logic" is, "don't fix what ain't broke"?

How many times did you see police run for their lives at a BLM protest?

That sounds about right.

Which is why I posted it here.

 

[Pumbaa]

So their "logic" is, "don't fix what ain't broke"?

How many times did you see police run for their lives at a BLM protest?

That sounds about right.

Which is why I posted it here.

Oh, they’re not running for their lives. They’re leading the charge!

 

[Chew Toy McCoy]

The next successful firebrand Republican candidate will run on the slogan "I'm a lying piece of shit". They'll end every rally with "But what do I know? I'm a lying piece of shit." They will be praised for their refreshing honesty and how they reflect the average voter. Their slogan shirt will be really popular in rural America.

 

[Alli]

So their "logic" is, "don't fix what ain't broke"?

Unless you’re talking about voting, and then you better put all kinds of measures in place so that nobody can cheat in a future election.

 

[JayMysteri0]

Unless you’re talking about voting, and then you better put all kinds of measures in place so that nobody can cheat in a future election.

That logic would be in keeping, since 'the right' people aren't voting enough to win. That needs to be fixed.

 

[JayMysteri0]

No, it isn't fake.

Yes, it's stupid. It's a 45 relation.

Yes, let's imagine if you had to show a card to vote, and watch brain's explode. Thank goodness something like that hasn't actually happe-

Bonus jokes
https://www.twitter.com/i/web/status/1421604744858984450/

 

[Alli]

Yes, it's stupid. It's a 45 relation.

The child is an idiot.

 

[Chew Toy McCoy]

No, it isn't fake.

Yes, it's stupid. It's a 45 relation.

Yes, let's imagine if you had to show a card to vote, and watch brain's explode. Thank goodness something like that hasn't actually happe-

Bonus jokes
https://www.twitter.com/i/web/status/1421604744858984450/

I'm still trying to figure out if the slights the left was hurling at the right pre Trump were on par with what the right is doing nowBeing on the left it is kind of a blind spot, but I know they felt that way even before Hillary lit the deplorables fuse. I feel it was largely the left wondering why people on the right seem to vote against their own best interests mixed with insults at the religious right and corporate shill politicians (of which there are many Democrats who also fit that bill), but I don't it was anywhere near the "literally everybody on the left is a communist" that the right is promoting now. But again, could be a blind spot, and I'm maybe being biased.

 

[Chew Toy McCoy]

Heard a comedian say people who believed Hitler (and Trump) are like guys who go to a strip club and when they stripper hits on them they think "I know they are probably bullshitting me, but maybe...!"

 

[JayMysteri0]

Poll exposes unease among Republicans

One faction’s continuing focus on former President Donald Trump as a leader could be driving a wedge deeper for those who say their party is “pretty much a disaster.”

www.yorkdispatch.com

Support for Trump: Other Republicans disagree. The poll shows that Trump remains a commanding figure in the party. While most former presidents tend to cede the spotlight after leaving office, Trump has continued to assert his power, holding rallies, making endorsements and teasing a 2024 comeback run.

While 60% of the public overall has an unfavorable view of Trump, 76% of Republicans view him favorably. And most would like to see him maintain at least some degree of influence over the GOP going forward.

Nearly half of Republicans, 47%, say that Trump should exert “a lot” of influence over the future of the party, and another 34% say he should have “a little” influence. Just 18% say Trump should have none at all.

“I think he did a lot of good for the party,” said George Hunter, 61, who lives in Washington state outside Seattle and runs an online store. Hunter was among the minority of Republicans who said he felt optimistic about the party’s future given what he sees as Democrats’ failures on crime, foreign policy and the economy and his expectation that Republicans will sweep contests next November.

“After the next election, I think things will be better. I think the Democrats will lose their majorities. That way Biden will get less done than he wants,” he said.

Priorities: As for the 2020 election, the poll shows that 62% of Republicans say it’s “extremely” or “very” important that investigations into the election continue, even though no substantiated evidence has emerged to support Trump’s claims of mass election fraud, which have been dismissed by numerous judges, including some he appointed, state election officials and his own attorney general.

Just 38%, in contrast, say it’s “extremely” or “very” important to continue investigations into the events of Jan. 6, when a group of Trump’s supporters violently stormed the Capitol building, trying to halt the transition of power.

Like Democrats, few Republicans, only 10%, say democracy is working “extremely” or “very” well in the country today. But Republicans are more negative than Democrats; 63% of Republicans say democracy is not working well.

Just 17% say they think the nation is headed in the right direction.

Wide partisan divide on whether voting is a fundamental right or a privilege with responsibilities

57% of Americans view voting as “a fundamental right for every adult U.S. citizen and should not be restricted in any way.”

www.pewresearch.org

As political battles continue around the nation over voting access and restrictions, a new Pew Research Center survey finds that a majority of Americans (57%) say voting is “a fundamental right for every adult U.S. citizen and should not be restricted in any way.”

Fewer (42%) express the view that “voting is a privilege that comes with responsibilities and can be limited if adult U.S. citizens don’t meet some requirements.”

Democrats and Democratic-leaning independents overwhelmingly say voting is a fundamental right that should not be restricted in any way – 78% hold this view, while fewer than a quarter (21%) say it is a privilege. Two-thirds of Republicans and Republican leaners say voting is a privilege that can be limited if requirements are not met, compared with about half as many (32%) who say it is a fundamental right.

 

[SuperMatt]

Voting is a privilege? What are the conditions? Sounds a bit like a WHITE privilege to me.

 

[JayMysteri0]

Voting is a privilege? What are the conditions? Sounds a bit like a WHITE privilege to me.

It's not so much a White privilege. It's a privilege that SOME republicans would prefer to allow for SOME voters dependent on whether or not they vote republican. Their skin color is irrelevant.

It just so happens that for SOME reason more PoC tend to NOT vote republican. As long as that is their stance, that is an issue for SOME.

 

[SuperMatt]

It's not so much a White privilege. It's a privilege that SOME republicans would prefer to allow for SOME voters dependent on whether or not they vote republican. Their skin color is irrelevant.

It just so happens that for SOME reason more PoC tend to NOT vote republican. As long as that is their stance, that is an issue for SOME.

More about voting - and about Joe Manchin.

Democracy Probably F*cked, Thanks to Supreme Leader Joe Manchin

It's your Sunday show rundown!

www.wonkette.com

 

[lizkat]

I'm still trying to figure out if the slights the left was hurling at the right pre Trump were on par with what the right is doing nowBeing on the left it is kind of a blind spot, but I know they felt that way even before Hillary lit the deplorables fuse. I feel it was largely the left wondering why people on the right seem to vote against their own best interests mixed with insults at the religious right and corporate shill politicians (of which there are many Democrats who also fit that bill), but I don't it was anywhere near the "literally everybody on the left is a communist" that the right is promoting now. But again, could be a blind spot, and I'm maybe being biased.

It was even by Clinton's own admission that her "basket of deplorables" remark helped cost her the election. But it's interesting to focus for a minute on the part of her remark that got left out of the meme. Her remark in its entirety per a Time mag transcript is below. The bolding is mine

“You know, to just be grossly generalistic, you could put half of Trump’s supporters into what I call the basket of deplorables. Right?” Clinton said. “The racist, sexist, homophobic, xenophobic, Islamaphobic—you name it. And unfortunately there are people like that. And he has lifted them up.”

She said the other half of Trump’s supporters “feel that the government has let them down” and are “desperate for change.”

“Those are people we have to understand and empathize with as well,” she said.

As for what's going on with the Republicans now, part of their vitriol about commies is about trying to peel away Hispanic voters by appealing to the anti-communist sentiment of former Cubans (and other immigrants from leftist governments where revolutions "of the people" went bad in the hands of leaders turned into dictators).

The Republican Party seems pretty wary of outspoken progressives like AOC, whom they've hammered on from day one. She's just one congressperson (and one of only four Democratic Socialists of America seated in Congress, as Democrats) yet from the day she was sworn in, if you listen to Republican bullhorns, you'd think she had swept into Congress with an army waiting out on the lawn for her signal to rise up and take charge of the entire federal government.

Meanwhile her own party leader looks at Ocasio-Cortez askance half the time over concerns that she and her fellow DSA members might have the power to split the Democratic Party one of these days. That might even be true if the party doesn't abandon its failed policy of moving right by degrees in order to sweep up a few crumbs off a GOP-run table controlled by the Senate's filibuster no matter who sits in the White House. The DSA organization's median age now is 33, so it's not like democratic socialism is a thing that will disappear with the generation of Bernie Sanders, and so the Democrats do seem to realize that, even if change is still slow inside the DNC and in state committees.

But to certain Republicans, AOC may seem like a real threat just by being who she is as an American: a person of deep religious faith, a person of color, appropriately educated for her government service with a double-major degree cum laude in international relations and economics, , a woman who has worked "downscale" as a bartender (ahem, as had the illustrious former Republican Speaker of the House John Boehner), and someone who is eloquent about social justice issues and big ticket legislative items, a young woman who is responsive and assertive on social media, where she has a following on Twitter exceeding 12 million accounts.

The real nightmare for the GOP is that there are already many. many more people --voters and potential candideates for office-- with the talents, education, faith, work ethic and social media savvy of AOC floating around the country. And only some of them are Republicans.

Hence the godblasted ramp-up of voter suppression laws. That's the Republicans' trump card for at least 2022, or so they hope. Everything else is eye candy, shiny objects, chaff in the wind, all meant to confuse any well-constructed Democratic Party missiles. But should those things fail then the GOP figures the bottom lines are 1) dampen the vote count and 2) empower the state to call an election "if necessary".

 

[JayMysteri0]

Wow.

https://www.twitter.com/i/web/status/1423277944349339649/

 

[JayMysteri0]

For the group that hates masks, but historically have been wearing them in the U.S. for decades

https://www.twitter.com/i/web/status/1423994764823781400/

Disclaimer before anyone complains:
https://www.twitter.com/i/web/status/1424054927207198725/