Devastating article on the Republican Party

[SleeplessinSoCal]

How Republicans Spent Decades Cozying Up to Putin’s Kremlin

The man who once worked to connect Tom DeLay and Jack Abramoff to Russia is now chief of staff to Marjorie Taylor Greene. Any questions?

["...You have two forces with deep political ties that are fighting American democracy in order to keep Putin in power and install a Putin-like system in America. And to that end, they have penetrated deep into our think tanks, our media, our journalism...."

https://newrepublic.com/article/165782/republicans-putin-history-relationship-manafort

Is it just for the money and a desire for "the strong man"? It might be. "Greed is good". Apparently. And conversely democracy isn't.

[gab13by13]

1. You can't have democracy and minority rule,

the 2 are not compatible.

[czarjak]

2. Yet, 2000 & 2016?

[librechik]

4. Yeah, that's 20 years after Gingrich and Reagan and Atwater fucked America for good

After that, Rs could only survive with total war against the D's. Ds became only enemies to be demonized. Got worse and worse.

They got a stranglehold after 9/11. Nice job, authoritarian cronies and liars from Hellywood. Hope you enjoy what comes next.

I won't.

[Peregrine Took]

12. Well said.

[calimary]

17. And factually accurate.

The rise of that schmuck Gingrich was the beginning of the end. Used to be cordiality between the two parties. Now one of them has devolved into Slash ‘n’ Burn.

[OMGWTF]

24. Nancy Pelosi would agree with you.

[certainot]

27. limbaugh and rw radio played a major part. need investigation of putin use of rw radio

[barbaraann]

3. It always seems to me to be more than just greed, lust for power, white supremacy, toxic masculinity

but I can't figure out exactly what it is that makes Republicans so evil. They've crossed over into inhuman, it seems. What kind of being screams about unborn children while making life hell or death for so many living children?

[SleeplessinSoCal]

5. I'm right there with you.

I think also the corrupt nature of their brand of conservatism is more apparent post 2020. We see how cheating prospers. We see any and all comers to their brand embrace fraud. And get away with it. Likely because the system has been corrupted.

Is it hatred of losing the majority racially? Or the mere fear of losing it.

[barbaraann]

7. Maybe extreme paranoia, like what Stalin had and Putin has, that destroys all vestiges of humanity?

n/t

[SleeplessinSoCal]

10. I have one brother who has been indoctrinated by his choice of news sources.

He said he voted for tfg in 2016 because of burdensome regulations on his business, which he inherited. He is a really good person. Not religious. Works hard and respects others who do as well. Then in early 2020 he was sharing info from Dr. Drew Pinsky about the media's over reaction to Covid-19. His wife is very vulnerable and he has been careful. But just last week he was complaining about the "vaccine mandate". And he scoffed at the idea that toxic masculinity is the theme of the movie "The Power of the Dog". By rights he should abhor toxic masculinity. He just doesn't want it in a western.

All these beliefs add up to being on Team Putin and I don't think he realizes it.

[barbaraann]

11. I'm sorry for your loss. I lost a brother to the Cult in 2016 as well.

nt

[I_UndergroundPanther]

9. Sociopathy is what makes them evil.

[HUAJIAO]

18. Right on. I was just about to say that.

[HUAJIAO]

19. Right on. I was just about to say that.

[Claire Oh Nette]

14. They don't view brown, Black, yellow, red, female, LGBTQ, non-Christians as people as equals.

The GOP are the descendants of the slaveholders. They sit in their churches and listen to uneducated preachers insist that Jesus was as racist as they are.

The "Originalists" would be happy to return to counting non white male property owners as three fifths of a person. The GOP is about *ruling* over the rest of us, not about governing.

Like religious zealots everywhere, If they can just keep the women in line, everything will be great. They want women at home with babies, yet worker wages are flat since the 70s, which is why women entered the workforce in droves. Families needed that second income. Now that women, and Black women in particular, are in positions of power, they're terrified of the golden rule. Guess they shouldn't have treated the Others like crap all these centuries.

The Unborn are easy to support because they cost zero dollars. They don't need day care, or family leave, or education, or medical care, because the unborn do.not.exist.

[barbaraann]

16. Pretty depressing if it's all just part of the nature of some humans,

not reptiles or aliens.

[Lonestarblue]

15. It's also many years of propaganda by Republican leaders and Fox creating victimization.

The propaganda is quite similar to that used by Putin in Russia to convince Russians that the West against them and is trying to destroy their country and he is protecting Russia with his wars. The US propaganda has been that minorities take advantage of white people and the government has given then unfair privileges, for example, considering race in college admissions that should rightfully go to all white people first.

One of the biggest hoaxes of all that conservatives believe is absolutely true is that they are losing their religious freedom. In a survey a few years ago, white evangelicals said they were the most persecuted group in the country. I’ve never been able to understand this attitude because new evangelical churches seem to spring up like yard weeds, and no part of government prevents anyone from worshipping whatever deity they choose. I suspect some of that relates to the loss of being able to force Christian prayer in public schools, plus the “insult” to their religion of LGBTQ acceptance and their gaining civil rights, and of course the right to abortion. So evangelicals feel persecuted because they are not allowed to force everyone else to follow their beliefs, and they often describe this as losing the US’s traditional way of life.

The other big fear that the propaganda machine has fed assiduously is the eventual loss of a white majority. This fear drives a lot of Republican hatred, for minorities certainly but also for white Democrats because we pass laws to try to equalize the playing field for minorities and we are the ones who are helping to take away white power and privilege. The fear of black people especially and their possible power has been ingrained in white Republicans.

The Republicans who still buy Trump’s Big Lie have been reported to believe that liberals are the ones destroying the country and that they must do everything possible to stop us, including stealing elections and doing whatever it takes to keep all government in Republican hands to protect their narrow way of life.

[barbaraann]

21. I wonder how that compares to the propaganda that helped instigate the Rwanda genocide.

Seriously, I spend some of my time thinking about where I should hide if they start coming for us. I lived in Germany for several years and know exactly what can happen when hatred of the other takes over.

[certainot]

28. a lot of it is 30 years of team limbaugh rationalizing the racism and stupid and lying about

everything humane, liberal, just, environmental, intelligent, fair. limbaugh showed the way for the assholes on 1500 radio stations as they repeated the talking points from republican and russian think tanks

it became evil and treasonous for republicans to cooperate or do anything for good

putin was beter than dems - living the ayn radian deregulation wet dream

[barbaraann]

31. Excellent points.

I think Ayn Rand became a monster because of the suffering inflicted on her family by the Bolsheviks, but it seems like Limbaugh was just in it for the money and what that money could buy.

[Achilleaze]

6. anti-American Republicans need to be shipped to Siberia

give what they want...it sure as hell aint honest, democracy, or the usa.

[JoanofArgh]

8. Not just in this country, in England as well (Brexit).

[Wounded Bear]

20. It's been a world wide movement for a couple of decades now...

Berlusconi, Bolsonaro, BJohnson, trump, Moti.

[certainot]

29. kremlin's been getting revenge for Voice of America - feeding rw radio all over the world and

it needs to be investigated.

for eg, bolsanaro credits the "brazilian limbaugh' with his success - a guy who broadcasts from virginia!

limbaugh boasted of its use in india, and there's a a lot of rw spanish talk radio here and probably mexico +

[jalan48]

13. K & R

[Danascot]

22. The GOP doesn't believe Dems have a legitimate right to govern

Asking them if the election was stolen is the wrong question. It's that Dems shouldn't be allowed to hold office, make laws, etc for America in the first place, whether they win elections or not.

I had an aha moment reading this article. For me, it explains a lot that I hadn't grasped before.

The Real – and Far Scarier – Reason Republicans Think Biden is Illegitimate

What is most alarming is the underlying ideology that leads so many on the right to consider Democratic victories invalid – even if they concede there was nothing technically wrong with how the election was conducted. It has become a core tenet of the Republican worldview to consider the Democratic party as not simply a political opponent, but an enemy pursuing an “un-American” project of turning what is supposed to be a white Christian patriarchal nation into a land of godless multiracial pluralism. Conversely, Republicans see themselves as the sole proponents of “real” America, defending the country from the forces of radical leftism, liberalism and wokeism.

https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2022/mar/21/republicans-biden-trump-election-democracy

[certainot]

30. that's the result of dems ignoring/not challenging rw radio for 30 years

[spanone]

23. ...K&R...

[NEOBuckeye]

25. Fuck these people

Putin can go to hell, and they can join him there.

[Ilsa]

26. Ed Buckham is the traitor who worked for DeLay

and now MTG. It was buried in the article.