The GOP will not revert to "normal" after Trump.

[guillaumeb]

What the Trump led GOP is represents what is normal for the GOP, and has been so since 1968.

Racism is the foundation of the post-1968 GOP.

Representing the wealthy to the detriment of all others has been the post-1920 GOP.

Misogyny is the GOP.

Lying about what their policies are intended to do is the GOP.

Electoral cheating and voter suppression is the GOP, and has been since 1968.

There is no normal GOP that will come out again after Trump leaves.

And thinking otherwise is, in my view, delusional.

And this is not to say that all conservative voters are racist, misogynistic, greedy liars, but being one is certainly no obstacle to electoral success in the GOP.

[50 Shades Of Blue]

1. K & R

[Ohiogal]

2. One thing that just shocks me is the misogyny.

Outlawing abortion ..... forced birth ..... allowing rapists to have child custody ..... prohibiting sales of abortion pills and choking off coverage of birth control by insurance..... dismissing parental leave from work as "too burdensome for business" ...... dismissing the gender pay gap.... I could go on and on. I am just shocked that the GOP supports these ideas as good governance.

[guillaumeb]

3. And it is open misogyny.

And open racism, and open Islamophobia.

[Midnight Writer]

44. And is bought into by many women. i personally know women that think a woman leader is ridiculous.

It speaks to an authoritarian personality.

Imagine the cognitive chaos of a Log Cabin Republican.

[Cosmocat]

34. And like countless other groups of people that they put the wood to

that there are so many women full on board with it.

How on earth any POC, gays, teachers, government employees ... The list would never end ... support/vote R is beyond any belief.

[PufPuf23]

48. That plays into the wants of the GOP's evangelical base

that is so easily manipulated and trained to be stupid and amoral.

[pecosbob]

4. The GOP wandered off the track of normal in 1979. They never found their way back...

only wandered further and further from reason and decency.

[guillaumeb]

5. I would argue for 1968.

Nixon ran on racism, and some say he committed treason in dealing with N. Vietnam as a private citizen.

[pecosbob]

6. and he stalled the peace talks to help his reelection campaign.

[volstork]

20. As guillaumeb said:

"he committed treason in dealing with N. Vietnam as a private citizen."

[trev]

27. Just as Reagan later made deals with the Ayatollah

to hinder Carter.

[JHB]

26. I'd say it was a process that amped up over a couple of decades...

...so you can find multiple "where it started" points.

E.g., 1952 Republican convention, where conservatives backed Taft and dreamed of reversing the New Deal, only to have northeastern moderates outmaneuver them and succeed in making Ike the nominee and didn't contest the basic New Deal governmental structure. That was a nice start for their regarding moderates as quislings.

1960 election: Geez, they never shut up about how Richard Daley "stole the election for Kennedy," even though if Illinois had gone Republican Kennedy still would have won. To this day they wave it around as a bloody shirt.

1964: Moderate Republicans vote for Johnson instead of Goldwater, reinforcing conservatives' hatred of Rockefeller Republicans.

etc.

[sop]

60. The Southern Strategy, used with great success during Nixon's 1968 campaign,

Last edited Tue Jun 11, 2019, 07:47 PM - Edit history (2)

is considered by many to be the foundation for the modern-day Republican party. The "Southern Strategy" is often attributed to Nixon's political strategist, Kevin Phillips, but Phillips didn't coin the phrase, he only popularized it. Phillips, Nixon's campaign adviser in 1968, and Lee Atwater, Reagan's campaign adviser in 1980, discussed how Republicans could "win the vote of racists without sounding racist themselves."

In an interview with The New York Times, Phillips gave his analysis on black voting: (From The NYT, 1970) "From now on, the Republicans are never going to get more than 10 to 20 percent of the Negro vote and they don't need any more than that... but Republicans would be shortsighted if they weakened enforcement of the Voting Rights Act. The more Negroes who register as Democrats in the South, the sooner the Negrophobe whites will quit the Democrats and become Republicans. That's where the votes are. Without that prodding from the blacks, the whites will backslide into their old comfortable arrangement with the local Democrats."

Lee Atwater gave a recorded interview in 1981 where he spoke about the Southern Strategy: (from The Nation, 2012) "You start out in 1954 by saying, 'N****r, n****r, n****r.' By 1968 you can’t say 'n****r,' that hurts you, backfires. So you say stuff like, uh, forced busing, states’ rights, and all that stuff, and you’re getting so abstract. Now, you’re talking about cutting taxes, and all these things you’re talking about are totally economic things and a byproduct of them is, blacks get hurt worse than whites. 'We want to cut this,' is much more abstract than even the busing thing, uh, and a hell of a lot more abstract than 'N****r, n****r.'"

https://www.thenation.com/article/exclusive-lee-atwaters-infamous-1981-interview-southern-strategy/

(edited to add text)

[zonkers]

7. This this this. I follow your posts from the Biden thread

I wasn’t even going to visit do you but watching Biden speech he is not what we need. Too soft, nostalgic and too civil.

[guillaumeb]

8. Biden believes in the compromise that is essential in a democracy.

The leaders of the GOP do not believe in democracy.

[zonkers]

11. If I was Joe, I would've come on so hard...

Right out of the box. I would’ve said Trump was Illegitimate, serted by the Russia with the help of GOP accomplices. They’re all complicit even just by their silence. I would’ve called Trump a nasty word and I would’ve said we’re taking our country back. I would’ve named the entire Democratic field, highlighted each one’s expertise and I would’ve spoken highly of them, wishing them all luck. Joe’s play book is so safe and obvious.

[guillaumeb]

14. But that would be playing by Trump's rules.

Better in my view to tell people what you want to accomplish, and be specific on policy.

[Ligyron]

24. Biden could do it too

He ran circles around Ryan in that VP debate. Laughed and ridiculed him pretty good which is what impresses a certain sector of the population. Alpha male chops.

Many want to be told by candidate that he/she absolutely knows what to do to fix this country, Funny thing is: they don't have to be all that specific either. Now Liz Warren has answers and policy positions on everything so maybe she should write the D platform.

[Mr.Bill]

32. What I want to hear from a candidate

is what their plan is if the republicans are still in control of the Senate.

[emmaverybo]

52. It's a winning book. Call it what you will. He's attacking Trump hard and that is what the folks

whose votes we need can agree on.
No reason to praise rival candidates; they certainly have not been praising him.

[Act_of_Reparation]

12. He believes in compromising with people who refuse to compromise?

Doesn't sound promising, bruh.

[guillaumeb]

15. He believes in the goodness of people.

And I do as well. But people in general are not the same as the current leaders of the GOP.

[Act_of_Reparation]

17. Sounds like I got into the wrong line of work.

[pangaia]

23. If he "believes in" the goodness of republicans, he better wake up.

FAST !!!

[FakeNoose]

13. Biden appeals to the independents and the disaffected GOPers

He will pick up a lot of votes from the "middle of the road" Americans that other Dem candidates might not get. I agree that he is not a progressive firebrand, and he's not a raging liberal like Bernie Sanders, but he is going to win votes that Bernie probably would never get. Keep your eyes on the prize. We must beat Chump first, in order to make anything else happen later on.

[guillaumeb]

16. Yes, he might appeal to some of them.

But some of them also voted for Trump.

[HopeAgain]

29. You can't give the people who are destroying this country a pass

what kind of coattails will THAT carry?

[FakeNoose]

62. I don't give them a pass and I don't think Joe Biden does either

If a Democrat doesn't get into the White House next year, what does any of this amount to?

[HopeAgain]

75. That's the thing

I'm not confident Biden is the right person to go against Trump. He has early name recognition, but with gaffs like this he won't unite the left. Some think the key is to flip Trump voters, I believe that is not who we need to pick up. The "base" will vote Dem, the young and the left need to be brought to the polls.

[still_one]

55. He will pick up a lot of votes from Democrats, at least according to the latest polls at this point

in time

I will be interested if any Democratic candidates date campaigns that they won’t try to work with everyone in Congress, Democrats, independents, republicans

So far I haven’t heard one Democratic candidate say that

[FakeNoose]

63. In the general election if Biden is our candidate

... he would win way more than some of the Democrats' votes. He'd better get them ALL, plus most of the independents and the disaffecteds too. We can't afford to overlook any votes.

[still_one]

64. I agree

[uponit7771]

38. +1, they do not believe in liberal democracies not one bit

[guillaumeb]

45. We agree. eom

[JudyM]

73. So well said! Stunningly, starkly true, guillaumeb.

[rufus dog]

9. This is the normal

They all got excited in 2008 with Palin. We missed how bad Repubs are and paid for it in 2016. They have no core beliefs other than hate for liberals. They will destroy all western democracies if we don’t understand them. Specially, the character flaw that allows them to be manipulated by corporate media

[guillaumeb]

10. Very well said.

One core belief of the GOP is that greed is good.

And my view is that the current GOP leadership does not really believe in a 2 Party system, or in democracy.

[volstork]

21. "One core belief of the GOP is that greed is good."

Yes. They scream "Jesus!" out of one side of their mouths and "Ayn Rand!" out of the other, never realizing the enormity of the cognitive dissonance required to espouse those two sets of beliefs.

[ginnyinWI]

33. yes.

Greed and money and power. Push others down and scratch your way to the top. Any means justifies that end!

Funny how Trump thought he was a Democrat once upon a time. I'd say he never seriously thought about it. It doesn't fit with his values, then or now.

Some rich people are warped early when they have everything easy all their lives and no values are taught. Not all, but many. Power corrupts.

[apnu]

19. Let's not forget W.

His core base was racists, bigots, and haters.

That core got excited by Palin because she's as dumb as W (and Trump) but also out and loud about her ignorant hating, just like Trump. W, at least, had some sense to hide it.

[Cosmocat]

37. W was similar to Reagen

in that he put a friendly, smiling face to it all ... They needed that to win until Palin. That opened Pandora's box. But, end of the day, it was inevitable, decades of whistling at racism, mysogony, conservative profiteers distancing the "base" from reality more and more, eventually it was going to be a Frankensteins monsters.

Trump is literal moron, but his one master skill is knowing how to stoke the lesser instincts of the human spirit. The R party was RIPE for him to take the whip from them and the base, and he is sick and depraved enough to know how to leverage that over them.

Until the country clearly recognizes conservatism, and repudiates it, even if we manage to get rid him out of the White House, we are fucked, cause the country just can't stop indulging their fever dreams.

[uponit7771]

39. It's their fear of the non-wight walkers

[apnu]

18. The GOP is finally showing its true colors

All this was there and has been there since the dawn of Conservative politics in America. Yes all the way back to the Founding of this Country. The only affect Trump has is allowing the bigots and misogyny fly without needing any cover. Gone are euphemisms and any semblance of politeness, dignity or shame when being an open hater.

Today is June 11th, the anniversary of George Wallace's "Stand at the Schoolhouse Door" in 1963. Wallace was a Conservative and open racist, and after the Civil Rights movement, racists went underground or at least tried to hide their hateful ways for decades. We've come full circle with Trump, he's now out and loud about his hating and all of the crotch sniffers who follow him are copying their shit smelling god.

But don't ever think Conservatives in America were ever anything other than racists, bigots, or misogynists. There is no normal for them to return to, they've always been this way they always will be.

[volstork]

22. Wish I could

"rec" this a million times.

Well-said.

[guillaumeb]

46. Well said.

Trump is Reagan without the mask of normalcy.

[TommyCelt]

78. This trump...

...simply brought the right back out of their closet.

[rurallib]

25. Trump didn't invent the current Republican Party

He simply fit right into it. When he goes there won't be any reverting back, this is what they were.

[Thomas Hurt]

28. Trump's populist "movement" isn't, it is just a rebranded version of the same far right

drivel and ideology that has been around for decades. Birchers, KKK, Patriot Movement, etc.

[DFW]

30. The days of Jacob Javits and Nelson Rockefeller are clearly long over

There was a book by Theodore H. White published after the election of 1960 that analyzed the whole election. It was called "The Making of the President, 1960." It was considered ground-breaking analysis.

As a contrast, a book appeared after the 1968 election called "The Selling of the President, 1968," written by a 26 year old Joe McGuinness. It was called a "classic of campaign reporting that first introduced many readers to the stage-managed world of political theater." It exposed how the Nixon campaign was run like a cigarette advertising campaign, getting the public to favorably view something that was inherently bad for them. The cover even was a pack of "Nixon cigarettes."

The Republican Party (whose inner circle already included a young Roger Ailes) that year adopted the cynical view that only trickery and lying gets one into the White House, and it is a philosophy they have never strayed from since.

[guillaumeb]

47. Agreed. The GOP uses advertising people to construct slogans,

And the slogans make for good bumper stickers.

And terrible policy.

[Magoo48]

31. Nope, they've shown themselves to be villains every one.

[dlk]

35. Trump is the GOP Normal

No one should kid themselves.

[stillcool]

36. they seem pretty normal to me..

I've never known them to be anything other than what I see and hear every damn day. They have to go to some GOP-School to practice taking in and spitting out talking points of the day

[zaj]

40. I expected Trump to move moderates out of the GOP...

Thus shrinking it.

Seems like he radicalized huge numbers, and attracted as many people as the number who left.

Not any smaller, but way more radical and disconnected from reality

More power, more dangerous.

[Martin Eden]

77. I thought Trump would bring down the GOP in 2016

I simply couldn't fathom that so many people couldn't see this lying demagogue for what he is -- or that they knew and liked what they saw.

The way the Republican Party has rallied around this ignorant malignant narcissist and defends him at every turn is appalling beyond words.

Evangelicals have lost any claim to the moral high ground -- if they ever had it to begin with.

[Wounded Bear]

41. Heinlein said: "Never depend on the other guy's better nature...

He may not have one.



Biden's comment that the Repubs will 'return' to some semblance of normality is a vain hope, IMNSHO.

[FiveGoodMen]

85. But he'll "reach across the aisle" if elected

[standingtall]

42. It would take a 1930's stlyle election wipeout

for republicans to change for the better just beating them will not be enough even beating them by a healthy margin wont be enough. Only an absolute wipe out will do. Sadly I don't see an election like that anytime soon.

[JustABozoOnThisBus]

43. The GOP never returned to "normal" after Speaker Gingrich.

His self-proclaimed "Contract with America" was a right wing dream.

[guillaumeb]

49. Do not forget Dennis Hastert.

The originator of the "Hastert rule".

[47of74]

86. You mean the Contract On America

[Caliman73]

50. Trump is the culmination of the GOP's trajectory.

You are completely correct guillaumeb. People never want to see who they might become if they continue on a certain path. Trump shows the GOP who they are and they do not want to admit it. Hell, some Democrats don't even want to admit it. Trump didn't just happen to the GOP. Trump is Nixon without the brains, Trump is Bush Jr. without the goofy little brother vibe. Trump is Dick Cheney without the competence. Trump is what the GOP became after almost 40 years of cheating and defending policies they know are not good for any American citizens except the wealthiest ones.

[guillaumeb]

51. An excellent reply.

My addition to it:

Trump is Reagan, without the thin veneer of normalcy.

And yes, since the Depression, the GOP has been the Party of Greed. Racism was added in 1968.

[aikoaiko]

53. That and their normal sucked anyway.

[guillaumeb]

54. The Party of greed?

True.

[aikoaiko]

57. Yeah, Since Ike I would probably say the party of selfishness.

[BeyondGeography]

56. Plus if they forget what they're about, there's a media machine, the Koch$ and a rabid base

that they have lost control of to remind them. Freelance and you get primaried. Nobody's going to fall on his sword for Biden or any Dem.

[guillaumeb]

66. And the Kochs fund much of the right wing media machine.

As well as many so called institutes. There are 41 such institutes in the 50 state. Here in Illinois, it is the Illinois Policy Institute.

[KY_EnviroGuy]

58. In terms of evolution, many GOPers are a known subset of humanity....

typically indicated by psychopathy to varying degrees, with the worst of them often becoming political and corporate leaders.

As an amateur study of human behavior and personality, I suspect they have DNA from periods when human existence was brutal and cruel with survival hanging by a thread. Cannibalism, tribal wars, murder and rape were likely as common as our having morning coffee.

I also suspect this helps to explain their love of authoritarian and hierarchical organization of society and making gods of their leaders as the largest, strongest and most brutal males were dominant. They also threw in assorted gods into that mix.

The genetic factors so beloved to us such as love, kindness, and empathy likely came from better times and mostly from the females who reared the children, prepared food and safe shelter and nursed wounds of the males.

Viewed through that lens, it's no surprise people like our typical GOPers and the UK's Tories have always been among us and always will be until we evolve out of it. Thank goodness they're in the minority.

KY rant done......

[guillaumeb]

67. Many are authoritarians.

And require a strong leader.

[KY_EnviroGuy]

71. Weak as pond water under the surface, I've found.

Most Republican's authoritarian structure is pretty volatile these days with so many of their politicians and preachers going to jail.

KY........

[BigDemVoter]

59. Stick a fork in em. . . . They're DONE.

[Proud Liberal Dem]

61. I know that Biden is catching a lot of guff for his remarks and seeming delusional

but you have to look at it as trying to possibly bring in some disaffected Republican voters. I don't see how anybody gets elected in this country by demonizing a percentage of voters in the country, some of whom may be educable. Yeah, some are totally lost Trumpers/Magats and most Republican politicians may be totally irredeemable trash but, as much as we might want to, we just don't want to be the party that divides and polarizes the country.

This by no means an endorsement of Biden (who I don't support for POTUS) but I think that he understands this. And I would be very surprised if we end up running a candidate for POTUS in the GE who wouldn't at least pay some lip service to national unity and bipartisanship, even though they might know that most Republicans would sooner spit in their eyes rather than work together.

[guillaumeb]

68. GOP voters are a minority.

Racists are a minority.

Biden recalls a time of bi-partisanship, but to do so he must ignore or dismiss the over 400 filibusters that McConnell orchestrated.

[Trumpocalypse]

65. Mitch McConnell is a bigger problem

than Trump. If the GOP retains control of the Senate, he'll be up to the same old tricks.

[guillaumeb]

69. Agreed.

McConnell wants power, and money.

[JudyM]

74. And increasingly emboldened, just like the growing GOP bench on the Supreme Court.

The Court has been devastatingly compromised since nothing was done in response to Bush V Gore or any of Scalia’s conflicts of interest.

Just as with Citizens United and voter suppression, the power has been wrested from the people.

[uponit7771]

76. ..👍🏼

[Progressive Jones]

70. The Tea Bagger infestation took all this up a notch, then came Trump. nt

[Martin Eden]

72. I hoped the GOP would come to its senses after the disaster of GW Bush

Instead, they dived a lot deeper into batguano crazyland.

[Ferrets are Cool]

79. They haven't been "normal" since Raygun...

they will continue to slide into the slime. It's what they do.

[Glaisne]

80. Absolutely

spot on!

[Fla Dem]

81. The GOP has been on a downward spiral since Newt Gringich was Speake fron '95-'99

While politics have always been partisan, he raised it to new heights. It's been getting worse ever since.

[Nitram]

82. I agree, this is the new normal for the GOP. Not that they've changed so much, but that

they are totally out in the open now about their racism, misogyny, greed, dishonesty, etc.

[colsohlibgal]

83. Not Anytime Soon

If we get past this dangerously bizarre period it is at least possible they could go the way of the Whigs.....please let it be so.

[TryLogic]

84. GOOD for pointing this out. Absolutely true.