If today's GOP baffles you, consider what motivates its base

[LetMyPeopleVote]

The beliefs of White evangelical Christians, who make up the core of the GOP are really sad and scary. These asshole want to make America Great by getting rid of immigrants, keep women out of the workforce and have non-white being able to mistreat and discriminate against non-whites.

Link to tweet

https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/2022/11/01/white-evangelicals-survey-trump-republicans/

How can so many people buy into false election fraud claims, climate change denialism or panic over White people being “replaced”? How can they vote for manifestly unfit Republicans such as Georgia U.S. Senate nominee Herschel Walker or Pennsylvania gubernatorial nominee Doug Mastriano?

For answers, turn to the Public Religion Research Institute’s American Values Survey, which provides insight into the beliefs of White evangelical Christians, who make up the core of the GOP. It reveals a lot about what they think and why they vote the way they do.

A striking 71 percent of these voters think the country has gone downhill since the 1950s (when women were excluded from most professions, Black Americans faced barriers to voting, 50 million Americans still used outhouses and only about 5 percent of Americans were college-educated). Because White Protestant evangelicals make up such a large share of the GOP, that means 66 percent of Republicans want to go back to the time of “Leave It to Beaver.”.....

Half of White evangelical Protestants also think God intended America to be the promised land. Nearly two-thirds say immigrants are a threat, and 61 percent say “society has become too soft and feminine.” And they are the only discrete religious group polled to support overturning Roe v. Wade.......

The implications of the American Values Survey are profound. If millions of Americans think our country was best when White males were dominant and now think feminization plagues it, a great many would find comfort in the GOP’s toxic masculinity and in forced-birth laws that relegate women to the role of motherhood against their will. And if they dismiss the legacy of racism, many would favor policies that make it harder for minorities to vote and to access higher education (i.e., opposing affirmative action to rebalance college admissions in Whites’ favor).

These views also explain why so many Republicans seem perpetually angry and dissatisfied. What they want is unattainable. America is becoming less White, less male-dominated and less religious. Nothing politicians do or say will change this.....

What endangers American democracy and democratic values goes far beyond one demagogue, one election or one set of policies. When so many Americans are driven by fear, resentment and antipathy toward inclusion, pluralistic democracy is at risk. Until we grapple with that reality, millions will remain vulnerable to cynical right-wing media and ruthlessly ambitious Republicans.

When you see an asshole wearing a MAGA hat, understand that these assholes yearn for the days when it was okay to treat non-whits as second class or third-class citizens and to forbid women from leaving the home.

[Demovictory9]

1. "What they want is unattainable. America is becoming less White, less male-dominated and less..

What they want is unattainable. America is becoming less White, less male-dominated and less religious.


Exactly

[Jade Fox]

6. +1

[dalton99a]

2. Kick

https://archive.ph/nZEzG

[usonian]

3. When all factual material is paywalled, most people will see only lies and hate.

[dalton99a]

7. +1

[prodigitalson]

14. indeed nt

[usonian]

4. It's the fascist playbook. Use hate and racism to manipulate people.

And who is fueling the flames?
I do note a sharp turn from the original haters (Limbaugh et. al.) right about the time that the GOP started "liking" Russia.

More here:

“Democracy in Crisis: We’ve Been Headed Here for Decades.” Part 1of 8
https://m.dailykos.com/stories/2021/8/6/2044226/-America-2021-The-Good-the-Bad-the-Ugly
Read all 8 to get the "plan" in detail.
This is all a Russian plan. Started years ago.
https://pastebin.com/raw/evbnN5y7

The pieces of the puzzle all fit when you see the Russian influence (and a damn lot is money-laundered ... real estate?)

[Hermit-The-Prog]

5. These Talibornagins are tools used by Fascist Oligarch eXtremists.

The Axis of fascism is a strange conglomeration of NatCs, Nazis, oligarchs, Putineers, and Q. All the dregs of society come together to try to destroy democracy in hopes of creating a theocracy, oligarchy, libertarian dystopia, and fascist state. They can't succeed in creating their dream world, but they can succeed in destroying democracy and making a nightmare for the rest of us.

[LetMyPeopleVote]

8. The right's old strategy of coding racial triggers has been abandoned

Link to tweet

[SWBTATTReg]

9. I think that it all boils down to one thing (a rather simplistic explanation, I'm afraid to say),

that a lot of these people, who think the Country has gone downhill, think so only via their very narrow perspective.

These are the same people who have trouble using cell phones, who literally don't know what a computer is, who moans and complains about all of the new-fangled stuff coming out all of the time, and probably haven't read a newspaper in some time (what few are left or view the news online).

They don't constantly educate themselves as to the new trends going on, the new technologies etc. that are available, on a daily basis. They blame everybody else for their troubles and ills, and take credit for everything positive, even when their actions didn't contribute one bit to anything positive. They bemoan and make fun of people who do try and better themselves via more education and experiences in life.

They, in short, suck the blood out of everything around them and they are downright depressing to be around these kinds of people.
You can't 'educate' them as they have no interest in learning anything.

They are stuck in a time warp, and will remain so, mired in their own self-pity, and playing the 'victim' card all of the time. It's funny that tRUMP plays the same card every time when he speaks out. He's always been a 'victim', which is ironic, considering that he supposedly has 'billions of dollars to his name'.

Pathetic.

[Amishman]

10. It's two different visions for the country, ones that are not compatible with each other

One is a Christian, European rooted hard capitalist monoculture, with a nationalistic focus and outlook.

The other is a multicultural and secular nation, capitalist but with strong social support programs, with a global outlook.

You can point to one policy area or one hot issue, but ultimately it is about a fork in the road.

It is because of those two differing visions, and the futures I see at the end of each road, that I'm still here and still voting blue. I might not agree with our party in a few areas, but our road is the one I'd rather travel.

[prodigitalson]

15. irony regarding the European roots

much of what MAGA hates: reason, equal rights, secularism, toleration, promotion of science, a free exchange of ideas, etc were bedrocks of the European Enlightenment. But somehow they are the defenders of Western Culture.

[moondust]

11. Greed.

IMO the self-serving greed party of Rockefellers, Carnegies, and Vanderbilts needed a lot of suckers to have any chance of winning elections. Working stiffs were unlikely to vote for their predatory bosses who were in it for themselves. Billy Graham and others were happy to help deliver big blocs of voters. Some would say the party of greed that would co-opt anybody for more political power and wealth has devolved into the MAGA gang of amoral/immoral neo-confederates, neo-Nazis, anarchists, sadists, haters of (Reagan's) "big gubment," and...lots and lots of suckers.

[LetMyPeopleVote]

12. GOP's Michels admits the truth, eyes permanent partisan control

The GOP does not believe in fair elections and want to change the rules so that the will of the voters do not matter.

Link to tweet

https://www.msnbc.com/rachel-maddow-show/maddowblog/gops-michels-admits-truth-eyes-permanent-partisan-control-rcna55193?cid=sm_npd_ms_tw_ma

In the months that followed, Michels gained support, largely in spite of himself. For example, the Republican took radical positions on elections, saying he wouldn't commit to certifying 2024 results, and in response to reporting that he and his wife donated $250,000 to anti-LGBTQ and anti-abortion groups, Michels used rhetoric that sounded to many like a possible call for political violence.

The GOP candidate might very well win anyway — FiveThirtyEight’s forecast gives Michels a 48% chance of defeating incumbent Democratic Gov. Tony Evers — and he’s apparently making ambitious plans for his prospective administration. The Washington Post reported yesterday:

Hinting at his plans to overhaul how elections are run, the Republican running for governor of Wisconsin this week said his party would permanently control the state if he wins. “Republicans will never lose another election in Wisconsin after I’m elected governor,” construction executive Tim Michels told supporters Monday at a campaign stop.

The candidate’s candor did not seem accidental. It was not a slip of the tongue. As a video clip from the event shows, Michels appeared quite sincere — and his supporters at the campaign stop applauded in response to the comments.

Link to tweet

....To be sure, this is already a critical concern in the Badger State. Republican legislators have gerrymandered Wisconsin’s district map to such an outlandish degree that the state is barely recognizable as a democracy: The GOP has rigged the system so that Republicans keep power in Madison, even when Democrats win more votes. As Mother Jones’ Ari Berman explained in a report last week:

If the redistricting maps drawn in secret by Republican staffers and passed by the GOP-controlled legislature in 2011 were unfair, the new maps adopted by Republicans in 2021, over Evers’ objections, are even more one-sided. As a result, the number of GOP-leaning seats in the state assembly has increased from 61 to 63 out of 99 and from 21 to 23 out of 33 seats in the state senate. Democrats would have to win the statewide vote by 12 points just to get to 50 seats in the assembly, according to calculations by Marquette University Law School research fellow John Johnson, while Republicans could garner a majority with just 44 percent of votes.

To hear Michels tell it, this isn’t good enough, apparently because it’s still possible for Wisconsin voters to elect some Democrats to some offices.

[Samrob]

13. Why show this shit here? nt