The Republican Agenda 2021 and Forward

[lizkat]

The problem with religious fantasies first off, is just how much you can count on the source material? Or has it been a manipulative scam and power grab from the start?
Then there is when the ”believers”:

• pick, choose, and preach just the part of the fantasy they actually believe or are vested in… while ignoring the rest,
• twist the meaning of said fantasy to suit their desires.
• worse, make up their own shit on the fly to support their selfishness and maybe fool you some more.

Well look, we could go into this more in your thread here on competent theists... but I'll just note that it's human nature to want to belong... and human to want to lead... so if it's not about a religion then it's about some secular alternative.

Even the USSR, during the launch of its oppressive heyday in satellite countries, understood that and attempted to make membership in the Communist Party a clear alternative to the "crutch" of religion. A friend of mine had a relative in the Polish diplomatic service who was called in and told "Give up your rosary and take the red card".​

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Much more recently, the RC church has got its panties in a knot over pushback from clerics and parishioners alike about the LA archbishop's criticism of social justice movements as usurpation of the place of Christianity in society. Among scholarly circles there are suggestions that the RC church is revisiting another time when secularism was viewed as a threat and everywhere the Vatican saw conspiracies against faith. But the current Pope and that archbishop don't seem to be on quite the same page, which is fine by me. Meanwhile there's a lot of railing going on by some RC leaders about "wokeness" and "intersectionality" etc.​

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Catholic critics of ‘woke’ ideology risk repeating the church’s Modernist crisis of over 100 years ago

The temptation is to fight the ghosts of Modernism by denigrating those working for social justice and “elites” as anti-religious co-conspirators. But this would be a disservice to the truth and to the church.

www.americamagazine.org

Safety in numbers. Not wanting to be part of a herd. The eternal conflict. It's what makes being a teenager so hard, and some of that never goes away.

 

[Chew Toy McCoy]

Judging from a few glances in at some evangelical publications, seems to me they're about trying to hold their presumed faith-based constituency together by talking in massive generalities about politics... sometimes running what amounts to guest opinion rather than putting their own editorial necks on the line (as one magazine did last year in making some mild rebukes of Trump and for that had fetched sharp condemnation from readers).

One such magazine currently runs a headline 'How to Disagree Nicely but Not Lose Your Convictions', which tops a piece adapted from a book called Winsome Conviction: Disagreeing without Dividing the Church. The mere fact that such a book exists suggests that the so-called "evangelical vote" has some fissures.

You know to me all this walking on eggshells around Trump-related concerns --from the GOP and from the high profile pro-Trump evangelical clerics, and now even from some conservative pundits-- is just an extension of the naked emperor syndrome. Only now it's even more absurd because the guy doesn't even have a throne to sit on, never mind the robes and crown that he imagined he wore while he occupied the White House.

And yet the Republican Party honchos kowtow to the possibility that Trump just forgot to get dressed this morning, (as usual?) and surely by nightfall he'll be in resplendent form once again thanks to being propped up by Fox, by his dwindling social media base and by incompetent mainstream outlets.

Too bad at least the press don't rise up as one and refuse to print Trump's name short of indictments or significant changes in health.

Maybe that would nudge the RNC's fear-meter away from the red zone, and they'd find the spine to propose some candidates capable of growing the Republican Party's potential electorate. Sure, it would be a step back to their plans after their loss in the 2012 elections, but they were actually making some headway then in outreach to Hispanics and women, both as potential voters and candidates for office. Trump interrupted all that and in the short term he looked good. A tiger to ride to victory. Dismounting is proving all hell to achieve, even though so much of Trump's presidency was meant as theater, even if also propaganda in aid of a fascist state.

It would be revitalizing to see a GOP with a plan that engaged again with the realities of American democracy while it's still largely functional. I say largely because the press doesn't print good news, it goes for clicks and we relish providing them for tales of impending or actual disasters. But see, despite all the angst in the USA right now, we still do elect at least our nominal governance. The RNC must realize that despite having packed the federal bench and stacked the high court as well, our judicial system still does put at least a few limits on how much "wink and nod" will be granted to a deluded former prez and his deluded but tiny if very loud band of followers. So what could be better for the GOP than attracting new voters, when this country still does actually have elections?

There's still time for more responsible Republicans --so many have remained silent out of fear-- to call a halt to Trump worship and observe as one that the wannabe emperor appears to be stark naked and needs to be covered up with a blanket and escorted farther offstage. Since Trump cancelled his earlier scheduled 1/6/22 press conference, I will find right-leaning commentary on his January 15th rally in Arizona interesting, assuming that that rally takes place. To me it will indicate a little more about the rate of disintegration of the Trump wing of the party. Make no mistake, the RNC and nominal GOP leadership are on edge now. More than ever they don't know what to do with this guy, or what he'll do... and the clocks on the campaign trails are ticking.

I take comfort in knowing some people didn’t vote for Trump a second time because they were tired of the chaos and are probably pretty annoyed he’s continuing to cause chaos and that’s all he’s offering. No solutions. Only more chaos.

 

[lizkat]

Don’t count on it, the trajectory is on a little pieces scattered about outcome.

I disagree... I think we don't know the trajectory. It's like when a rocket launch's contrail is obscured by clouds.

 

[Chew Toy McCoy]

The former are the conmen, the latter are victim/suckers.

I admit I’ve been pretty ignorant of crumbling small town America. I’ve got my own problems, but I am also lucky enough to live in an area where there are plenty of economic opportunities and pretty much has always been, aside from some recession speedbumps. I don’t know what my mentality would be if the government only seems to come around when they want my vote, but between those times the only alternatives to marinading in misery are drugs, alcohol, and God.

 

[User.168]

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[User.168]

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[Chew Toy McCoy]

Yup, and, from reading the news, I see that this is happening in earnest in all of the swing states. If the GOP wins, I reckon they will do everything they can to ensure that they never lose again and they know that they cannot win without cheating.

Like I said before, over a year ago in PRSI, you can be sure that there are people who watched very carefully just what Trump and his administration managed to get away with and how they did it. Some were taking notes. The scariest thing for me is an intelligent Trump-like figure to emerge in the near future. The GOP now know that simply lying about everything and blaming the libs, the democrats and the brown people for everything that isn't right works and keeps a solid percentage of the US population appeased.

Populism and telling people what they want to hear is easy. Actual hard truths and real solutions requiring change are the difficult to implement things that many people don't want to hear about. But, all of this goes in circles and eventually people will get tired of the failures, the excuses and the tyranny. The question is how much permanent damage the GOP can achieve before the cycle ends.

Meanwhile, the Dems appear weak and unable to achieve anything of substance. If they are achieving anything, then it certainly isn't being publicised. It's like a perfect storm of race tensions, populism, white fear and a worldwide pandemic and I am afraid to see the aftermath. I cannot imagine scenes of armed militia with semi-automatic rifles gathering around government buildings during an election in other 1st world democracies, or political opponents threatened and assaulted on highways with vehicles. This seems to be the new norm in the US and people don't seem to be all that alarmed by it.

Meanwhile, the 6/01 investigation and all of the other investigations into Trump and his family that we were promised are moving at a glacial pace with no real results. All that the GOP need to do now is run out the clock to win the game, imo.

What pisses me off is part of the reason for the glacial pace is because they don’t want to piss off “half the country”. First off, neither party has half the country as loyalists. Second off, less than half of Republican voters are diehard Trump supporters. A good percentage of those are like the Republican cowards in Congress who are just too scared to state that they don’t support Trump. Those people won’t be loading up their ARs when Trump finally gets whats coming to him.

 

[JayMysteri0]

The agenda for Jan 6th, look at the slide in pic #2

https://www.twitter.com/i/web/status/1479143226019827712/

Completely ignore what happened one year ago, yet continue carrying on with the thing that precipitated the events of a year ago today that you've gathered for.

Anything about governing?

Nope.

More about why you can't accept a loss that you mocked others for doing the same 4 years earlier?

Yup.

The agenda isn't about governing for the people, it's ID politics and your team has to be the winning team at ALL times no matter what.

 

[Huntn]

ZERO *One Republican showed up for the prayer vigil at the Capitol honoring 6 Jan. ABSENT without honor, the broken bad political party projecting this every chance they get to prove their fealty to the Head POS in Florida, and disprove their disinterest in Democracy.

*I stand corrected, Liz Cheney and her Dad, the Dick showed up at least inside, not sure if the Cheneys went to the vigil.

 

[SuperMatt]

Regarding the judge who ruled that Navy Seals don’t have to be vaccinated, I’m surprised, not aware of any Christian tenant against vaccines. Is this garbage in, garbage out?

I remember being told not asked when I was active duty. I’m not sure what would have happened in the 1980’s if I refused vaccination while in the USN, but do imagine it would have torpedoed the career of any one intent on making a career (with retirement benefits) in the US military.

That’s what is so absurd about this. What religion do they follow that allows them to take all vaccines EXCEPT the COVID vaccine?

They claim it’s because of abortion. What a load of crap. They took all the other vaccines, they presumably have taken all sorts of medicine and benefitted from medical research from a 1974 stem cell line.

We all know it’s about Trump-ism and right-wing virtue signaling. The judge knows it. These people don’t care about God or democracy or anything else.

Jan 6 was just the start.

Looks like Youngkin is going to win VA. And the message should be “republicans don’t need Trump to win”. Which could be good or bad, because Youngkin did not reject Trumpism, just tried to keep Trump at arm’s length. He’s now free to embrace him, so we will see how this plays out.

It also means suburbanites didn’t reject Trump’s policies, they rejected him.

Biden had an excellent first six months, the last four haven’t been too good. They’ve got to pick up the momentum, keep it and fight back harder against the GQP’s lies and racism. Youngkin won on CRT, which isn’t even a thing in VA. It would be like democrats running on banning Republicans teaching Critical Incest Theory. Not a thing. I say we try anyways.

Not to diminish Youngkin’s victory, but it’s normal for VA to flip-flop their governors. Hopefully we won’t have to hear any stupid voter fraud arguments. Now, democrats need to pressure Youngkin if his election was as secure as Trump’s. Keep pressing him on his support for the big lie.

*The race hasn’t even been called, and Trump is already claiming credit for tonight. For what, I don’t know; Youngkin outperformed him.

**A big f-you to Joe Manchin. He’s not a democrat-equivelant of a RINO (DINO?); he made some tough votes with dems during Trump’s term, which was not an easy thing to do if you’re from WV. But he and his buddy from AZ have prevented democrats from advancing the Biden agenda, which would have given democrats a HUGE boost this evening. The average American has a short memory; that stimulus and vaccination push was months ago; masks, gas prices and inflation are today. I guess it’s refreshing to know there are independents who will vote for Biden and Obama, but also Youngkin. Or Trump and Obama. They are either fiercely independent or stupid, but I honestly think they’re true independents and largely intelligent.

Thanks for listening to another rant…

Glenn Youngkin during the campaign: “I’m not like Trump!”

Glenn Youngkin as Governor: Nominates Trump’s EPA Chief as Virginia’s natural resources secretary.

MSN

www.msn.com

 

[SuperMatt]

Kevin McCarthy is promising to remove certain Democrats from committees if he becomes Speaker. He gave some lame excuses for wanting to remove Eric Swalwell and Adam Schiff. When it came to removing Ilhan Omar from the foreign affairs committee, he offered no reason at all. The Breitbart interviewer followed with a suggestion to remove her from all committees, which McCarthy didn’t disagree with.

Welcome to the 2022 Republican Party. Race/religion/gender as a sole reason for committee removal? Disgusting.

 

[Huntn]

Kevin McCarthy is promising to remove certain Democrats from committees if he becomes Speaker. He gave some lame excuses for wanting to remove Eric Swalwell and Adam Schiff. When it came to removing Ilhan Omar from the foreign affairs committee, he offered no reason at all. The Breitbart interviewer followed with a suggestion to remove her from all committees, which McCarthy didn’t disagree with.

Welcome to the 2022 Republican Party. Race/religion/gender as a sole reason for committee removal? Disgusting.

Today's GOP= Fuck Democracy and FUCK YOU. Some of us want these POSs in charge? We'll get what we've asked for.

 

[Chew Toy McCoy]

Does this sound familiar?

"Fascism is unsustainable as a form of government. It's inherently irrational and destructive. It's an extreme form of populism based on emotions – feelings of grievance, more specifically. That's an inherently unstable foundation to attempt to run a society.

Economies need stability. Political regimes need economic stability to stay viable long-term. But fascists don't care about the long term. They care about feeding grievance addictions. They build policy around that."

 

[SuperMatt]

Lauren Boebert: Lest people think I’m only anti-Muslim, I also say offensive things to Jews!

Rep. Lauren Boebert Asked A Group Of Jewish Capitol Visitors If They Were Doing "Reconnaissance"

The Colorado Republican left the visitors “confused” after a short encounter.

www.buzzfeednews.com

Rep. Lauren Boebert left a group of Jewish visitors to the Capitol bewildered Thursday morning when she asked them if they were doing "reconnaissance" after seeing them at an elevator at the Capitol.

Members of the group, which was meeting with Rep. Tom Suozzi, were wearing yarmulkes, and the person coordinating the group is Orthodox, with a traditional beard.

One witness said the group, along with other members of Congress, was waiting for an elevator. When the doors opened, Boebert stepped out of the elevator and looked the group of visitors “from head to toe,” the witness said. Boebert then asked if they were there to conduct “reconnaissance.”

 

[JayMysteri0]

https://www.twitter.com/i/web/status/1484736061964173313/

 

[JayMysteri0]

Hypocrisy. One of the few things the 'r' party has managed to do repeatedly & successfully.



Because if you're counting on them getting necessary shit done, forget it. They'd only vote against it, but want credit for any good done that they tried to block.

 

[Huntn]

https://www.twitter.com/i/web/status/1484736061964173313/

It’s just too bad at least some of this stuff does not have a real impact on the GOP. Maybe it is?

 

[Huntn]

Hypocrisy. One of the few things the 'r' party has managed to do repeatedly & successfully.



Because if you're counting on them getting necessary shit done, forget it. They'd only vote against it, but want credit for any good done that they tried to block.

And there are the Kool-Aid toasts from her crowd.

 

[JayMysteri0]

Just a reminder of how this man & his administration / teams sweat the details

https://www.twitter.com/i/web/status/1484310336064868352/



Bonus laughs: "Honorable"?

Kellyanne and Claudia Conway’s very complicated, very public relationship, explained

Kellyanne Conway’s 16-year-old daughter has provided an ugly look into their family life, and the latest accusations are especially troubling.

www.vox.com

 

[Huntn]

Just a reminder of how this man & his administration / teams sweat the details

https://www.twitter.com/i/web/status/1484310336064868352/



Bonus laughs: "Honorable"?

The sooner DJT is out of the picture, the better for the Nation, but I’ll lament until sanity prevails, there will still be a bunch of POSDJT imitators infecting the GOP, and the way it’s going infecting Congress.

It might be a good debate as to how well the POS label transfers to citizens who either are too stupid or selfish, or sinister to applaud the dismantling of our democracy because they think some personal advantage will transfer to them. And Lord Help them, if they think their Christian God approves of their Sins. /S A couple of well placed lightening bolts might be incoming, if I believed in that stuff.