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Related: Editorials & Other Articles, Issue Forums, Alliance Forums, Region Forums“They’re bonkers. Bizarre. They’re like a Star Wars bar room”
http://www.salon.com/2015/11/07/robert_reich_was_i_becoming_excessively_crotchety_and_partisan_or_are_these_people_really_as_weird_as_they_seem_partner/?utm_source=facebook&utm_medium=socialflowSaturday, Nov 7, 2015 10:00 AM EST
Theyre bonkers. Bizarre. Theyre like a Star Wars bar room: A former Republican congressman bemoans his sorry candidates
"Carson? Trump? They're out of their f*cking minds," an ex-rep tells Robert Reich. "The rest aren't much better"
This originally appeared on Robert Reich's blog.
The other night I phoned a former Republican member of Congress with whom Id worked in the 1990s on various pieces of legislation. I consider him a friend. I wanted his take on the Republican candidates because I felt I needed a reality check. Was I becoming excessively crotchety and partisan, or are these people really as weird as they seem? We got right into it:
Him: You want my unvarnished opinion?
Me: Please. Thats why I called.
Him: Theyre all nuts.
Me: Seriously. What do you really think of them?
Him: I just told you. Theyre bonkers. Bizarre. Theyre like a Star Wars bar room.
Me: How did it happen? How did your party manage to come up with this collection?
Him: We didnt. They came up with themselves. Theres no party any more. Its chaos. Anybody can just decide they want to be the Republican nominee, and make a run for it. Carson? Trump? Theyre in the lead and theyre both out of their f*cking minds.
Me: Thats not reassuring.
Him: Its a disaster. Im telling you, if either of them is elected, this country is going to hell. The rest of them arent much better. I mean, Carly Fiorina? Really? Rubio? Please. Ted Cruz? Oh my god. And the people we thought had it sewn up, who are halfway sane Bush and Christie theyre sounding almost as batty as the rest.
Me: Whos to blame for this mess?
Him: Roger Ailes, David and Charles Koch, Rupert Murdoch, Rush Limbaugh. I could go on. Theyve poisoned the American mind and destroyed the Republican Party.
Me: Nice talking with you.
Him: Sleep well.
longship
(40,416 posts)It was posted a couple times earlier however, some may have missed it. So, happy to support it again. It is that good. And it is not Robert Reich to make something like this up. (He's not Andy Borowitz, I don't think.)
And yup! This is that good!
R&
Wounded Bear
(58,670 posts)Hortensis
(58,785 posts)I could go on. Theyve poisoned the American mind and destroyed the Republican Party."
The rest is fun, but THIS is important. Fox is poisoning and destroying America, not just the GOP.
underpants
(182,829 posts)One false move. One stray off the topic of the day and you are finished. Trump is an exception but let's remember he was the closest thing to reality for the notable Birchers and he built up his support being a regular Monday morning caller in to Fox & Friends
MADem
(135,425 posts)KittyWampus
(55,894 posts)from which we could move forward and progress however slowly.
It's disturbing that all we can do now is try and keep our country from swirling down the toilet until the public finally just gets sick of the chaos.
MADem
(135,425 posts)that's what it was, a machine-gunning of the political process. All his fault.)!
but Gingrich was just the first highly visible public face of what the Repigs had already become. The massive purges of the responsible adults and non-jebus wheezers began in the 1970s. It took a good 15 years to run all the sane people out of the party but it was done with a thoroughness Stalin would have admired.
My home state of Minnesota used to have many decent people in the Republican party, people with whom one could civilly disagree and debate, and who were evidence-based thinkers - individuals like former governor Arne Carlson, former US Senator Dave Durenberger and many others. They were all run out of the party on a rail by the religulously insane who were eventually joined by the Ayn Rand disciples. It's a wasteland now. Carlson endorsed Kerry in '04 and Obama in '08. Very publicly.
MADem
(135,425 posts)underpants
(182,829 posts)SunSeeker
(51,572 posts)Fast Walker 52
(7,723 posts)when will they ever fucking admit how fucking crazy the GOP has become?
Rex
(65,616 posts)Sadly money wins out over the good of the nation.
yardwork
(61,650 posts)hifiguy
(33,688 posts)Rex
(65,616 posts)Capn Sunshine
(14,378 posts)A least once a Week I see that meme , which was designed in the 60's as a voter suppression tactic, spread by some holier than thou person thinking they are original.
The sad truth is republican AstroTurfers are behind all of those.
freshwest
(53,661 posts)One small local newspaper here in Wis/Ill is claiming that the ONLY reason the gop gerrymandered districts, is to prevent the dems. from doing it first!! They claim that the dems. did not stop the gerrymandering, because they thought they would win the election, then do it themselves. There are people who actually believe this, plus the constantly repeated chant "Both sides do it" Well, when was the last time the dems backed a seriously flawed liar or grifter for the highest office in the land? Trump and Carson are two of a kind, phony.
maindawg
(1,151 posts)Ronald Reagan along with the supreme court have created the environment where as creeps and fascists can flourish. We used to have safeguards to protect us from mass media brainwashing tools. When radio was young, there was a very popular personality with his own 50,000 watts broadcasting out of Mexico. He advertised that he could fix male dysfunction by installing goats testicles in you. He made allot of money too.He is why we have the AMA and the FCC.
But Reagan destroyed the fair political rules. He stacked the FCC with corporate sycophants. The law used to be that ALL MEDIA had to be locally owned and had to serve the local population. Reagan got rid of that and now 6 corporations own all media. All of it.There isn't even any local because the corps make sure to put them out of business. They will not allow a man to own a radio station.
So don't blame the fascists for being fascists. Blame Ronald Reagan.
yardwork
(61,650 posts)I don't think any of it was his idea.
Enthusiast
(50,983 posts)yardwork
(61,650 posts)Art_from_Ark
(27,247 posts)So his weasel days go back a while.
Enthusiast
(50,983 posts)Sure was lot of funny stuff going on back then. Had to keep that war going, keep the world safe from Communism.
raouldukelives
(5,178 posts)And the combined purchasing power of billions of investor dollars working towards a common goal. The depression of enlightenment and democracy and the rise of ignorance and fascism.
Like the Hydra, if it wasn't Reagan, it would be another well coiffed, vacuous Ted Baxter of a politician. Propped up and supported by Wall St and foisted on the people as anything but the harbinger of unbridled greed they are.
We exist, thanks to them and as you astutely point out, in the most reality they will allow.
Enthusiast
(50,983 posts)skepticscott
(13,029 posts)has its strongest roots in the Reagan era. Things have followed a perfectly logical path since then, and anyone who claims this is not the Republican party they used to support is a lying sack of shit. Ever since Reagan, the GOP has been hard-core anti-abortion, anti-gay, anti-union, anti-woman, anti-black, anti-poor, anti-welfare, anti-immigrant, anti-public employee, anti-tax, anti-minimum wage, anti-science, anti-intellectual, plutocratic, theocratic, warmongering, gun-humping, corporate whores. Anyone who has voted for or supported the Republican party in any way over the last 35 years is complicit in all of that.
Lunabell
(6,089 posts)All of them.
WinkyDink
(51,311 posts)I went through the conversation again, and it wasn't hard to imagine Boehner's voice.
Plus describing them as patrons of a bar, THAT would be Boehner's frame of reference.
bvf
(6,604 posts)Hekate
(90,714 posts)What his unnamed source said is all true and I take no joy in it. We've said it for years.
GeorgeGist
(25,321 posts)that she's won't be voting for President.
skepticscott
(13,029 posts)Did she not vote for McCain/Palin? Or GWB/Cheney...twice? None of today's candidates are pushing anything that isn't just the same or the logical continuation of what those candidates stood for. Republicans like her are getting exactly what they wanted and what they deserve from their party.
freshwest
(53,661 posts)Hydra
(14,459 posts)But like he said: "Sleep well..."
What do we do when the crazies have all the money(power) and our party is trying to keep up with them moving right?
Warren DeMontague
(80,708 posts)Guy Whitey Corngood
(26,501 posts)Kalidurga
(14,177 posts)Not a moment of sanity among them. Rubio only stands out because he can be coherent for a moment or two. But, I doubt he is any saner, just younger with the energy to tone it down for a bit.
struggle4progress
(118,295 posts)It not only means that Congress remain dysfunctional while the ideologues maintain control through gerrymandering but also that defections from the R to the D party effectively push the D party to the right
lpbk2713
(42,759 posts)And I'm sure that is why Boner threw in the towel.
derby378
(30,252 posts)Not only that, but we must ensure everyone else votes in such volume as to not leave the election to chance - or a few rigged voting machines, if you get my drift.
smirkymonkey
(63,221 posts)backscatter712
(26,355 posts)Beartracks
(12,816 posts)Major Nikon
(36,827 posts)For at least the last 100 years or so they have always been about making the rich richer and the poor poorer. The difference now is that demographics are working against them so in order to remain a viable party they have to increasingly appeal to batshit crazy single issue voters like the fundies, the gun nuts, and the bigots, most of which are one and the same due to inbreeding. Whenever you have to convince people to vote against their own best interests, the crazies are going to have to come out of the woodwork.