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liberalmediaaddict

(766 posts)
Fri May 21, 2021, 05:04 PM May 2021

Republicans never see Democratic Presidents as legitimate

What they're doing by questioning President Biden’s legitimacy isn't new. Since 1968 they've believed they own the White House and any Democrat in the oval office is an imposter.

They'd rather buy into wild conspiracy theories than admit their Presidential nominees are usually wildly unpopular.
That Carter was only elected because Democrats conspired to destroy Nixon with the Watergate impeachment hearings.

That Clinton was illegitimate because of the Whitewater land deal and because he cheated on his wife.

That Obama was illegitimate because he was born in Kenya.

And now they think Biden is illegitimate because Republican lawmakers have concerns about "irregularities" in 2020.

When in fact the only thing irregular about the 2020 election was that it was held during a deadly pandemic. And elected officials had to expand mail in voting so people wouldn't have to vote in person and spread Covid to one another.

It's all a pattern. Some of their voters will never see a Democratic President as legitimate. And the Republican lawmakers who continue to refuse to tell them the truth that Biden won and Trump lost in a free and fair election should be ashamed of themselves.

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Republicans never see Democratic Presidents as legitimate (Original Post) liberalmediaaddict May 2021 OP
In 1992 Clinton got 43% of the popular vote hauckeye May 2021 #1
Bob Dole said that. kairos12 May 2021 #3
I never saw Trump as legitimate arlyellowdog May 2021 #2
Don't both sides always say that? WarGamer May 2021 #4
actually pretty much no one on our side questioned the elections or reelections of Nixon and Reagan dsc May 2021 #7
So... 33 years without a legitimate GOP POTUS. WarGamer May 2021 #8
Yes. Since 2000, at least. TraceNC May 2021 #9
I don't know about 1968, but Republicans Vogon_Glory May 2021 #5
Ever since FDR..... Mopar151 May 2021 #6
You can add in the near certain fact that a Rethug-controlled Senate will never again even allow a Celerity May 2021 #10

hauckeye

(635 posts)
1. In 1992 Clinton got 43% of the popular vote
Fri May 21, 2021, 05:12 PM
May 2021

I remember some Republican saying he really wasn’t a legitimate president because he didn’t get above 50

arlyellowdog

(866 posts)
2. I never saw Trump as legitimate
Fri May 21, 2021, 05:13 PM
May 2021

No one I know did. No one cared what we thought. Why should we care about what those people think. It’s not going to change them.

dsc

(52,163 posts)
7. actually pretty much no one on our side questioned the elections or reelections of Nixon and Reagan
Fri May 21, 2021, 06:21 PM
May 2021

or the election of the first Bush. We may not have liked the fact they won, but we admitted they won.

TraceNC

(254 posts)
9. Yes. Since 2000, at least.
Sat May 22, 2021, 07:15 AM
May 2021
Might have something to do with the rise of online message boards and social media where the loudest outrage and the most passionate cries of political persecution get the most attention.

Vogon_Glory

(9,118 posts)
5. I don't know about 1968, but Republicans
Fri May 21, 2021, 05:39 PM
May 2021

have acted like they’re entitled to the Presidency by divine right since the 1980 election. After 40 years that delusion has become an integral part of their mindset.

Celerity

(43,416 posts)
10. You can add in the near certain fact that a Rethug-controlled Senate will never again even allow a
Sat May 22, 2021, 08:09 AM
May 2021

vote or at least approve a Dem POTUS-nominated SCOTUS justice, and likely also block all or most all Federal judiciary lower court Dem nominees. The same for many other positions needing Senate confirmation.

If Sinema has her way, even the 2 mini-nuke exceptions will be repealed, so it will be back to the filibustering days for all applicable positions now exempted. In fact she wants a 60 vote threshold for ALL Senate actions. she needs to primaried in 2024. If is pointless to primary Manchin, as he is the only Dem who can win in NV in 2024 and beyond, but I think he goes down (if he even runs again) then in the general anyway, especially if he and Sinema do not cave, and we fail to pass the voter protection/rights bills. Failure to pass those seriously damages our chances in 2022 and 2024 (and beyond) up to and including the POTUS race in 2024.

Finally, and in line with the OP and the question of Dem POTUS legitimacy, I will not be shocked at all if the Rethugs do take the House in 2022 (and in numbers large enough to overcome some House members who may not play ball) that they then proceed to impeach Biden on ludicrously false grounds, even knowing it has no chance in the Senate.

The Rubicon has been passed, the iron dice tossed, and it is dark days ahead I fear, as the Rethug QMAGAt-controlled party will continue to further attack democracy's bedrock foundations. They are past the point of no return if they stay intact as a party, as they are now 100% wedded to an overarching stratagem of white nationalism-maintained rule, which requires evermore draconian voter suppression tactics, and an ever-increasing share of the white vote, to make up for demographic-based changes in the composition of the American electorate.

They have played the long game since the mid 1960's, and have damn near gamed the constitutionally-mandated system of federalism, from top to bottom, from local, up to county, up to state and finally, up to the tripartite federal levels. The have built it from both the bottom up, using the smallest units of the power, dominating local, county, and state elections in far too many places, whilst doing their Machiavellian best at the Federal government level to bore down from the top. It is a classical pincer movement, expressed in political power manifestations instead of a kinetic warfare theatre of battle.

We still have elements within our own party that think this multi-headed hydra can be engaged with, worked with, reasoned with, the experiment of democracy played within a self-imposed constricting prism that sees things as having 'good-faith' boundaries the other side will surely honour. That is the stuff of normalcy bias, and yes, perhaps even of madness, and likely, at the end of the day, will yield the destruction (to what level remains to be seen) of the democratic (small d) rule of law in the Union of the States. Once, if that both noble and necessary premiss fails and turns to dust in too many cracks and crevices, at too many structurally integral joints and intersections both large and small, the Union itself will be in danger of atomisation, at least as it is currently constituted.

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