Charles Pierce: We are on the very brink of handing the country over to the lost and the mad.

[kpete]

Over the weekend, watching the reaction to the assault on Paul Pelosi, I just gave up. We are on the very brink of handing the country over to the lost and the mad.
The GOP have finally abandoned the last shreds of common decency, the rule of law and other American ideals.

By Charles P. PiercePUBLISHED: OCT 31, 2022

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It was this weekend that I finally gave up. I have watched the steady descent of American conservatism—and its primary public vehicle, the Republican Party—into the terminal depths of the prion disease it acquired when Ronald Reagan and Richard Viguerie and Jerry Falwell first fed it the monkey-brains back in the late 1970s when I was just starting out in this racket.

..........

They are beyond anyone’s reach. They are beyond logic and reason. They left democratic norms and customs far behind decades ago. They are beyond political compromise. They are beyond checks and balances, and they have drifted off into the void of a space far beyond the Constitution.

I appreciate what Max Boot (nobody’s notion of a "libtard&quot wrote in the Washington Post:

It’s true that, by calling out GOP extremism, Democrats do risk exacerbating the polarization of politics. But they can’t simply ignore this dangerous trend. And it’s not Democrats who are pushing our country to the brink: A New York Times study found that MAGA members of Congress who refused to accept the results of the 2020 election used polarizing language at nearly triple the rate of Democrats[...]So please don’t accept the GOP framing of the assault on Paul Pelosi as evidence of a problem plaguing “both sides of the aisle.” Political violence in America is being driven primarily by the far right, not the far left, and the far right is much closer to the mainstream of the Republican Party than the far left is to the Democratic Party.

But people have been saying this literally for decades. They all were essentially hollering down a well. They did not have large, influential media companies behind them. Their political allies were at best timid and at worst absent.

https://www.esquire.com/news-politics/politics/a41819935/republican-extremism/?src=socialflowTW

[Ocelot II]

1. "But I don't want to go among mad people," Alice remarked.

"Oh, you can’t help that," said the Cat: "we’re all mad here. I’m mad. You’re mad."
"How do you know I’m mad?" said Alice.
"You must be," said the Cat, "or you wouldn’t have come here.”

[Bo Zarts]

5. "Catch-22"

Yossarian was found sane, because he didn't want to fly any more combat missions. Only an insane person would "want" to fly more missions.

So he was required to fly more missions.

[emulatorloo]

2. Not giving up yet like Pierce says he is, but this is an article well worth reading.

The Max Boot piece he cites is good too. Saw a DU thread on it earlier today.

[crickets]

6. Agreed on both counts.

Opinion | Don’t blame ‘both sides.’ The right is driving political violence.
By Max Boot

https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/2022/10/30/paul-pelosi-attack-republican-bothsidesism-false-equivalence/
No paywall: https://archive.ph/Gql5a

[underpants]

3. Great piece as usual.

The bots were out in force this weekend on Twitter. No amount of factual backup could deter them.

[republianmushroom]

4. You are so correct.

[Gaugamela]

7. Max Boot uses the phrase "the far left". I wish someone would define what

that means in the US now. Is AOC on the “far left”? Most of her positions are supported by a majority of Americans. The left advocates for more democracy, the right believes in privilege and the right to use violence to defend it. Would you ever expect AOC or anyone in the Progressive Caucus to advocate for violence? Maybe there is a far left out there advocating violence, but don’t see it.

[Evolve Dammit]

11. It's a myth. Of all the protests I attended over 40 years, NONE ZERO NADA ZILCH were ever violent.

[calimary]

22. Same here! A few handfuls of peanuts were stripped naked

And popped into humans’ mouths and there was the occasion mom being sidelined because baby needed a diaper change, or dog needed to pull its owner toward a patch of grass to take care of - um - “business”.

I was never in any groups that were violent. In two different states, through several Republican regimes. Never saw any such thing.

[Evolve Dammit]

24. the radical, violent left is a total fabrication (and projection) by the right. Like the peanuts!

[wryter2000]

13. At least, he says the "far left" isn't at the center of the Democratic party

You hear the RWNJ's in Congress contend that their Dem colleagues are "far left," and no one questions them on it.

[Paladin]

8. Sadly true. Every fucking bit of it. (nt)

[dalton99a]

9. Kick

[Xoan]

10. Pierce is a LOSER.

Ignore him.

[wryter2000]

14. He's an amazing writer

I've never heard him espouse anything most of us would disagree with.

[Celerity]

15. No.

[The Magistrate]

18. Did You Forget A Sarcasm Note, Dear?

[Martin Eden]

12. When Max Boot warns about dangerous extremism in the GOP

You KNOW the Republican Party is Lost and Mad.

[Orrex]

16. It's horrifying that the Dodd decision didn't permanently end the GOP's electoral chances

But then again, it's also no surprise at all. Even Republikkkan women hate women.

[Sucha NastyWoman]

17. Ooooh Charles!

You say that so well.

I love that man’s brain.

[yaesu]

19. I've given up on our justice system. We have plenty of laws protecting us but enforcement

is another story. Too many evil criminals getting away with their dirty, destructive deeds.

[ffr]

20. Basically the difference between their insane voters and thoughtful democratic voters

Right there!

[Hermit-The-Prog]

21. Max Boot on being a "never-trumper" ...

"There are enough of us for a dinner party, but not enough for a political party."
-- Max Boot, Never-Trumper

The radicalized Republican party didn't "drift[] off into the void", they have self-selected for extremism ever since the days of Rotten Ronnie, Falwell, and especially the Newt. Any Republican who still favors democracy is now considered a RINO (Republican in name only).

Someone on DU posted the following, recently, about the both sides shit:

[dwayneb]

23. He's just sorting this out?

I saw this coming 40 years ago.

[calimary]

25. Some people are just slow.

Others have to be dragged kicking and screaming into reality and forced to face it the hard way.

[Patton French]

26. Glad this finally dawned on him. NT